OK after being busy and being on hiatus from my blog I decided to give my most epic blog to date. Assuming everyone has seen the Dark Knight I will go into great detail to give my take on arguably my favorite movie of all time. There will be all sorts of spoilers in this if you haven't seen it so if you should exit this post right now and view the assortment of my other posts........Go ahead I'll wait...........................................OK well here to begin where to begin, well anyone who had previously seen Batman Begins knew that Christopher Nolan was preparing to take this Batman series to heights it hs never been before. While Christopher Nolan, who is one of my favorite directors, has delivered great films this was by far his greatest work to date. While I enjoyed the Batman movies of the past this newer updated series gives the edge and grittyness that the comic book series gave in the 80's. This movie in general was loosely based off of the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke which is a little darker then what we are used to seeing from Batman movies. Each character was casted very well and all brought something to the table as their respective character. Which leads me to an official character breakdown...
Batman/Bruce Wayne/Christian Bale: After Batman Begins it was pretty apparent that Bale was easily the best all around Batman we have seen. While Michael Keaton was probably the best Bruce Wayne, Val Kilmer was the best Batman, and George Clooney was...well George Clooney, Christian Bale was such an all-around representation of every form of Batman. Capturing the good intentions of his crusader with the pain lingering due to the death of his parents so easily. He kept the playboy image of Bruce while so seemlessly keeping the integrity batman has.
Joker/Heath Ledger: If you have seen this you had to have hurt that Heath will never be able to view his role of a lifetime. It truly was a tour de force in the way jack Nicholson was in The Shining or Malcolm McDowell was in A Clockwork Orange. He truly embodied the twisted, deranged and at times brilliant mind of one of the greatest, well written villians in super hero history. Everything from the decaying makeup as the movie progresses or the quirkyness of his toungue and chewing motions was so detailed to what I would imagine a true on-screen Joker having. While the Jack Nicholson Joker in Tim Burton's 1st Batman was good for the goofy, silly, clownish Joker, Heaths brought so much more into the character which you always felt was 5 steps ahead of the rest of Gotham City. To say that this was an Oscar worth role is such an understatement. He really put together a flawless role that will NEVER be able to be replicated by anyone else. It is truly a shame that we lost one of the greatest acting talents in our generation.
Two Face/Harvey Dent/Aaron Eckhart: Probably one of the most suprising and intriguing roles in the film was actually done very well. I felt Tommy Jones Two Face in Batman Forever was too cartoonish and how they portrayed Harvey during this time around was perfect. Instead of just a dirty politician that I feel was so expected when the I Believe in Harvey Dent campaign hit online about 7 months ago we got a strong clean DA of the city. He really was the hope and the "White Knight" of Gotham City. Instead of just having him holding a secret villanous side they flipped it to turn his story into a tragic one that almost made you feel compassion for his situation. The writing with his character was Shakespearean to say the least. Aaron Eckhart suprisingly played a strong role in this and made it so beleiveable you can't imagine anyone playing this role again for a long time.
Jim Gordon/Gary Oldman: Continuing his role from the 1st film he once again was a strong presence. I liked how instead of being too hands off he was right in the middle of things as far as the action was concerned and was heavily involved in the investigation with Harvey Dent. To me Gordon was such an underrated character in this superstar cast.
Those were the four characters I felt drove the story and the rest of the characters were immaculately casted although I had a problem with Maggie Gylenhall as Rachel Dawes. To me Rachel isn't as confident as portrayed by Maggie and I felt Katie Holmes wasn't as good as an actor but fit that character alot better. Then of course we had probably the ultimate Alfred once again and Luscious Fox was played great by Morgan Freeman.
Yes while we know the acting was superb it was the writing that made this two and a half hour film what it is. The opening scene itself was one of the greatest opening scenes in recent memory and really set the scene for the rest of the film. Gotham seemed so real, it was truly a city of hopelessness whose last hope felt like the caped crusader. We had a hero full of integrity and a passion for inspiring his city and we were introduced to a villian full of pure evil. We ended up with what I feel a true Batman film should be which is a psycological drama/thriller. While Gordon kept what they could under control Joker was 10 steps ahead of everyone and his plan was to prove to everyone even the great leaders of this city were corrubtable. As Harvey was the hero of the city it took Rachel getting killed to be vulnerable to a point where Joker played him like a fiddle to complete the transformation. He had the city by the throat and he knew it. He didn't want the money obviously as we seen, it was just because he wanted to see, "the city burn", as Alfred said in an analogy. One ironic thing throughout the movie was Harvey's quotes that ended up telling the tale of himself later in the film.
"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villian"-Harvey Dent
Although he was referring to the projected fall of Batman we truely seen this become the story of Harvey himself. He was the hero and cracked under the fire that is Gotham City and slowly became Two Face. Also it was interesting how he was referred to as the "White Knight" early on and once Gordon called Batman the "Dark Knight" we were able to see the irony that Batman allowed to happen. Even though he had to abandon his idea of bringing hope and inspiration to the city he had to make sure Harvey was still the towns hero. Putting everything he wanted selflessly away for a city that still had hope (as we seen with the boat scene..word to Deebo) and would lose it if they found out what Harvey has become. At the end of the movie every character made some sort of decision against their morals that felt was for a greater good, just as Joker wanted, except Batman who was said to be uncorruptable. Well I will wrap even thought I know I probably forgot alot in it but we will end it for now. Any questions or things to bring up drop a comment and we can maybe expand this. Look for new posts and new songs coming soon.
