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Dan Owen reviewsBatman: The Dark KnightWelcome to a World Without RulesDistributed by Warner Bros.
As premiered on
danowen.blogspot.com
Batman Begins: 
Batman Begins Blu-Ray:
Batman: Gotham Knight:
Batman Legacy:
- Cert:
- Running time: 152 minutes
- Year: 2008
- Released: 24th July 2008
- Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS, Sonics-DDP
Director:
- Christopher Nolan
Producers:
- Christopher Nolan, Charles Rowen and Emma Thomas
Screenplay:
- Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan
(based on a story by David Goyer)
Music:
- James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer
Cast:
- Bruce Wayne/Batman: Christian Bale
The Joker: Heath Ledger
Alfred: Michael Caine
Harvey Dent/Two-Face: Aaron Eckhart
Rachel Dawes: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Lucius Fox: Morgan Freeman
Lt. Jim Gordon: Gary Oldman
Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb: Colin McFarlane
Mayor Anthony Garcia: Nestor Carbonell
Det. Stephens: Keith Szarabajka
Mike Engel: Anthony Michael Hall
Colman Reese: Joshua Harto
Salvatore “Sal” Maroni: Eric Roberts
Lau: Chin Han
Gambol: Michael Jai White
The Chechen: Ritchie Coster
Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow: Cillian Murphy
Gotham National Bank Manager: William Fichtner
After a re-imaginingthat successfully scrubbed the bad taste of Batman & Robin (’98) from theworld’s collective mouths, Christopher Nolan returns with his eagerly-awaited sequelto Batman Begins (’05).
The Dark Knight finds Batman (Christian Bale) deciding tofind a crime-fighting heir in “white knight” District Attorney Harvey Dent(Aaron Eckhart) — a lantern-jawed public figure cleaning up Gotham’sstreets, legitimately. Thrown into an already volatile situation is human hand-grenadeThe Joker (Heath Ledger), a psychotic bank robber hired by the city’s underworld to kill the Batman…
Undeniably brilliant for long stretches, The Dark Knight is still avictim of hyperbole to some degree. The storyline doesn’t quite have thetexture, nuance and intrigue ofBegins,but three particularly excellent performances (Ledger, Eckhart and Gary Oldman)and production improvements are enough compensation to make Knight the equalof Begins.
Above all, just giving its hero a worthy adversary ensures Knight is enthralling –in much the same way Superman II is more riveting than the technically superiorSuperman: The Movie. The hero’s only as good as the villain…
Heath Ledger’s performance is the one grabbing the headlines, nudged along bythe actor’s untimely death a few months after he finished filming. Ledger’stake on The Joker is one for the ages; an amoral terrorist, face caked inclown make-up disintegrating in sweat, with reddened mouth scars and stringygreen hair.
A world away from Jack Nicholson’s “evil uncle” in Batman (’89),Ledger’s a hunched sneer of tongue-flicking, giggling lunacy. What makes himfrightening is his sheer force of screwball personality; coupled with the facthis modus operandi is something Batman’s never encountered before, and canbarely comprehend — a man who, to paraphrase butler Alfred (Michael Caine),“just wants to see the world burn”…
Aaron Eckhart perhaps gives the most refined performance as Harvey Dent, agood man and face of hope for Gotham who gradually becomes corrupted by TheJoker’s machinations, to become Two-Face. It’s the only origin story in thefilm (The Joker wisely arriving fully-formed and smothered in mystery), andhis downfall is essentially the theme of Dark Knight. Eckhart’s no strangerto playing corrupt men (see: Thank You For Smoking), so he’s in acomfort zone that allows him to bring that experience to bare.While the finer points of Dent’s fall get a bit hazy, the general sweep of hiscorruption works very well.
I expected Christian Bale to get lost in the mix, overshadowed by Batman’smost colourful nemesis — but, while naturally less prominent than he was inBegins, Nolan refuses to fall into the trap of the earlier films: allowingBatman to play second fiddle to the villains. Sure, The Joker’s antics andDent’s spiritual demise burn brightest in the memory, but Bale’s still givenplenty of room to make an impression.
Again, Bale looks more comfortable as Bruce Wayne — playing him as a spoiltrich kid, arriving at fund-raisers in a helicopter with three babes hanging onhis arm. Bruce Wayne’s a bit of a big-headed prick in public. Indeed, thereseems to be three persona’s at play in Nolan’s world: Batman the granite-voicedvigilante, Wayne the indulgent playboy, and Bruce the humanitarian philanthropist.
Surprisingly, Gary Oldman gives a notable performance as Lieutenant Jim Gordon.It’s not that I don’t rate Oldman as an actor; it’s just that Gordon was a bitsuperfluous in Begins and didn’t strike me as being important enough to focuson in Knight. But his story actually ran parallel to Batman’s investigation,and takes some unexpected twists and turns in the latter stages. For acharacter that barely got a look-in during the earlier films, Gordon’s successis indicative of Nolan’s real-world perspective on Batman and its close connectionsto film noir detective stories.
The supporting cast carried over from Begins continue their fine work: Caineis dry-witted and anchors the film’s humanity, Morgan Freeman‘s amiable LuciusFox has a few neat scenes, and Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing Katie Holmesas Rachel Dawes) is fine, if unremarkable. There are a lot of new faces withrelatively minor roles to play, but I was most surprised to see Eric Robertsgiving a decent performance as mob boss Salvatore “Sal” Maroni. And the geekin me grinned at the presence of Nestor Carbonell (Lost) as Gotham’sMayor and William Fichtner (Prison Break) as a gun-toting bank manager.
Christopher Nolan is just as confident orchestrating Dark Knight as he was inBegins, perhaps more so now his crew realize the magic possible from thiscomic-book interpretation. The action’s slicker, the fight choreography smoother,and the refinements to Batman’s suit and aesthetic of Gotham City (abandoning themurky, ghetto-like squalor of Begins) are easier on the eye.
There aren’t too many set-pieces to satiate audiences after pure blockbusterescapism, but that’s clearly not the driving force behind Dark Knight. This isa film with ideas, characterisation and themes at the forefront of the script.It offers food for thought, but not much nourishment in the way of action.That’s not to say there isn’t spectacle (a raid in Hong Kong, a car chase, agame of chicken with the “Batpod”, the demolishment of a hospital, etc.), justthat these are brief outbursts in the midst of a crime-based character study.
Overall, The Dark Knight is definitely a top-quality product that picksup the ball and runs with it. By the end, I didn’t feel as invigorated by Knightas I was by Begins (its freshness has understandably faded in the 3-year waitbetween movies), and I think the flow of Begins’ script was more sustained andlayered. That said, the villains are far more enjoyable in Knight and Ledger’sperformance raises the bar a notch higher.
In fact, it’s almost depressing torealize The Joker’s time has come and gone — because, while I’m sure otherBat-villains will be rejuvenated in sequels, The Clown Prince Of Crime will bea very tough act to follow…
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.