David O'ConnellThe Dark, defining Knight
July 21st 2008 06:07
Has a film and its performances, having promised so much, delivered on such a monumental scale before?
Christopher Nolan’s powerhouse new film towers over every other opponent in its genre, even his own original, Batman Begins, to set a new benchmark for adaptations of comic book heroes. The landscape has changed now and everything else is going to pale into comparison against this powerful examination of the shifting lines of good and evil, so brilliant is it on so many levels.
Obviously the source material is strong but Nolan's dark re-imagining of the Batman story translates magnificently to the here and now, unlike the earlier incarnations of Burton and Schumacher with their stylized excesses which tended to overshadow any notion of developing themes and ideas relevant to the modern world. Nolan and his brother Jonathan have brought this new dark era for Gotham City to life with an inspired and detailed screenplay, with narrative and psychological depths unseen before in other films of this kind.
When he appears on screen, Heath Ledger is electric, you can’t take your eyes away from him; his characterization of the extravagant, attention-seeking Joker is one of the most captivating I’ve ever seen – it leaves an indelible mark that few other performances ever do. He’s stunning and deserves every accolade that’ll surely come his way.
Batman has enough complexities of his own to sustain the entire film but added to the Joker’s playful neuroses it’s a potent, intoxicating mix. They may be two sides of the same coin and all the gray areas seperating them are explored with genuine depth.
The rest of the cast is flawless too, with Christian Bale adding further layers to his portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Two-Face is a revelation; Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gary Oldman have strong presences on screen too even with slightly underwritten roles, and with heavyweight actors like Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman filling out the bit roles, your film is always going to be in fine shape.
Wally Pfister’s cinematography is wonderfully fluid, circling the main players without drawing attention to itself in many conversational scenes and catching fire in the transformative action scenes. His colours are muted a lot of the time as darkness seems to envelop everything in this film, including the minds of all its protagonists.
The superb score also works brilliantly, even better than in Batman Begins – as in that film, Nolan sought the collaboration of two of Hollywood’s A-List composers, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer in a unique union, and the distinct approaches of both mesh superbly to give the Dark Knight its perfect musical voice. The simple, elongated two-note motif for Batman himself is used to startling heroic effect in many key scenes, whilst the action music is given a more energetic, larger-scale symphonic treatment than the first film when Zimmer’s reflexive power drones were more dominant.
Was 150 minutes too long? Frankly it wasn’t long enough and there aren’t too many films you can say that about. The Dark Knight will be a reference point for filmmakers in the years ahead, and it’s going to be very hard to stand alongside it without feeling the embarrassment of inferiority.
The hype is real and justified.
For once.
The Dark Knight will become legend.
Christopher Nolan’s powerhouse new film towers over every other opponent in its genre, even his own original, Batman Begins, to set a new benchmark for adaptations of comic book heroes. The landscape has changed now and everything else is going to pale into comparison against this powerful examination of the shifting lines of good and evil, so brilliant is it on so many levels.
Obviously the source material is strong but Nolan's dark re-imagining of the Batman story translates magnificently to the here and now, unlike the earlier incarnations of Burton and Schumacher with their stylized excesses which tended to overshadow any notion of developing themes and ideas relevant to the modern world. Nolan and his brother Jonathan have brought this new dark era for Gotham City to life with an inspired and detailed screenplay, with narrative and psychological depths unseen before in other films of this kind.
When he appears on screen, Heath Ledger is electric, you can’t take your eyes away from him; his characterization of the extravagant, attention-seeking Joker is one of the most captivating I’ve ever seen – it leaves an indelible mark that few other performances ever do. He’s stunning and deserves every accolade that’ll surely come his way.
Batman has enough complexities of his own to sustain the entire film but added to the Joker’s playful neuroses it’s a potent, intoxicating mix. They may be two sides of the same coin and all the gray areas seperating them are explored with genuine depth.
The rest of the cast is flawless too, with Christian Bale adding further layers to his portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Two-Face is a revelation; Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gary Oldman have strong presences on screen too even with slightly underwritten roles, and with heavyweight actors like Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman filling out the bit roles, your film is always going to be in fine shape.
Heath Ledger, thankfully as we'll now always remember him, erasing the memory of that godawful, monumental snoozefest Brokeback Mountain
Wally Pfister’s cinematography is wonderfully fluid, circling the main players without drawing attention to itself in many conversational scenes and catching fire in the transformative action scenes. His colours are muted a lot of the time as darkness seems to envelop everything in this film, including the minds of all its protagonists.
The superb score also works brilliantly, even better than in Batman Begins – as in that film, Nolan sought the collaboration of two of Hollywood’s A-List composers, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer in a unique union, and the distinct approaches of both mesh superbly to give the Dark Knight its perfect musical voice. The simple, elongated two-note motif for Batman himself is used to startling heroic effect in many key scenes, whilst the action music is given a more energetic, larger-scale symphonic treatment than the first film when Zimmer’s reflexive power drones were more dominant.
Was 150 minutes too long? Frankly it wasn’t long enough and there aren’t too many films you can say that about. The Dark Knight will be a reference point for filmmakers in the years ahead, and it’s going to be very hard to stand alongside it without feeling the embarrassment of inferiority.
The hype is real and justified.
For once.
The Dark Knight will become legend.
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