DARK KNIGHT REVIEW
I watched Batman begins two years ago, but didn’t think much of it to be honest. While it was an exciting movie, with great acting and special effects, I felt that Christopher Nolan’s debut feature film Memento was still his best effort yet.
Then I watched Dark Knight. This movie transcends its action movie genre. It had brilliant action sequences, good costuming, casting and dramatic structure. My only gripes were one, the casting of Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel – because the part where the Joker says, “My! Aren’t you beautiful”, doesn’t quite ring true, no offense to Maggie who is a good actress in her own right. The second issue I had was the length, it felt a bit drawn out in the last act, but maybe that had something to do with the fact that I watched it at nine.
Despite those two factors it was a great movie, a modern day fable. It’s the kind of movie we’ll watch in 50 years with our grandkids, and not care that the special effects are a bit outdated at that time. The Dark Knight was a journey into the darkest parts of men’s souls, men who still hold on to hope, men who have given up on it as well as men who never had it to begin with.
The Dark Knight is a story about hope and faith – the fragility of these two emotions, which literarily keep the whole world from spinning into chaos. Look at the Joker, who is driven insane by a lack of faith in the goodness of humanity. Harvey Dent, Gotham’s White Knight, is a beacon of hope in the movie, but life’s tragedies got the better of him, turning him into the vindictive Two-Face. His transformation is dramatic, psychologically and physically, yet in times of extreme despair many idealists in the real world turn on their very ideals that defined their existence.
Yet despite the fall from grace of Gotham’s White knight, even those condemned by society still cling on to their faith in humanity. The two ferries and two bombs sequence summed up the essence of the entire movie, Gotham’s residents have no choice but to hold on to our hope that good will always prevail, no matter what happens.
Batman realizing who he has to become in order to defeat the most evil of evil is amazing to watch. Many people have criticized Batman’s extremely hoarse voice, but it works for his character. Batman is not good nor is he evil, he is the outlaw who operates on the fringes of society in order to create order in the midst of chaos.
This movie has more than entertainment value; there are a lot of lessons to learn in this movie. Globally and nationally we are experiencing dark times with terrorism, inflation and general apathy. Just as the residents of Gotham had to learn, we must cling onto the hope for a better future after the darkest of nights, or we will go mad.
