Friday, July 25, 2008

The Dark Knight

First, let me say, this is a GREAT movie. Everybody I know has already said this, but I'm going to say it again: Heath Ledger is absolutely brilliant!

But I did feel a bit upset at the director. It was almost as if Christopher Nolan was so taken in by Heath Ledger's Joker, that he gave the entire center-stage to him; Batman looked like an after-thought. This is a comic-book story about good against evil; but there was very little room for Batman to emerge as a hero. Joker came across as a bigger icon of evil than Batman did as an icon of good. That made me feel a bit cheated.

But what did work for me, was that for a comic-book story, "The Dark Knight" is an incredible 'thinking' movie. Spidey made a miserable effort in his last movie to do a thinking movie & failed. This movie, on the other hand, explores the whole 'US war on terror' situation -- the hero who must fight dirty; a villain who's psyche you can never hope to understand; the conviction that things will get darker until dawn breaks again; the 'social experiment' I thought mirrored the US dilemna on nuclear capaibilities in the Middle East. Very nicely done.

Finally, Heath Ledger. There's a close-up shot of his face in the interrogation room (his make-up is running & he has a creepy scarred smile)-- absolutely gave me the shivers!

5 comments:

Satyajit said...

No true that Batman was a afterthought / by-product. The script was so brilliantly done that WE thought so, cause there wasn't a clear demarcation of good v/s evil. His goodness, aura was overshadowed by a villain who messes with his mind.
And btw....Heath Ledger is a god.....

Radha said...

Satya,
I agree with what you say -- that the Joker keeps putting the Batman in awkward moral positions thru out the movie; and Batman does his best to cope with whatever situation is dished out to him. But he didn't come across as a powerful character (I don't mean to say a moral character, but a powerful character).

Also, Christian Bale is an otherwise powerful actor, but was under-utilised in a way; because Christopher Nolan seemed totally in awe of Heath Ledger (who I agree is god).

The most monumental icon of evil before Joker, for me, was Gabbar Singh in Sholay. But Sholay worked because Jai & Viru had strong characters too. Batman, somehow, didn't.

Parth said...

Batman was the sidekick :-)

Radha said...

Parth,
You thought so too? :)

Jayne said...

I shall await delivery of a copy, courtesy of the LCL (Little Chinese Lady) & then let you know what I think :-)