TNMC Recent Reviews

We saw Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” (Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Eric Roberts, and Anthony Michael Hall). Second film of the rebooted Batman franchise, and this was one really good movie. Although it felt more like THREE really good movies! Take a piss before you sit down, and don’t get the large soda!

Basically, it’s Batman vs. The Joker, with little bits of The Scarecrow and Two-Face along for the ride. The major theme of the film seems to be that good intentions are not only insufficient, but are pretty much counter-productive. Also, that you have to be willing to embrace the Dark Side if you want to actually do Good in the world. I guess I can buy that. Also, of course, lots of excellent chase scenes, explosions, and other assorted violence.

The Joker is nominally a bank robber, but he doesn’t seem to crave money. He prefers mayhem, lunacy, and chaos, and showing people that they are just as depraved as he is, when pushed.

Much is said about the performance of the late Heath Ledger, and I agree that he is quite awesome here. He did a great job of integrating the insane and the brilliant aspects of the character. And he completely immersed himself in the role: If I didn’t already know it was him under the makeup, I would never have guessed who it was. Also, I loved the psuedo-Chicago accent that he adopted; I actually know people who talk a lot like that!

Speaking of which, the real star of the movie was Chicago itself, where the movie was shot. Great views of Navy Pier, Lower Wacker, LaSalle Street, Clark Street, the El, and (I think) The Equitable Building as Wayne Enterprises!

The other performances were also uniformly excellent: Bale is suitably dark and brooding as the Batman, Caine and Freeman are easily elegant, and Eckhart is awesome as Harvey Dent, DA. One of my favorite actors in the world, Gary Oldman, plays the cop Jim Gordon, and he does an okay job with the role, but there isn’t much for him to do. I don’t know why they wasted his talent in such a bland role. It was a nice surprise to see Eric Roberts and Anthony Michael Hall pop up, too.

My only real quibble is that there seemed to be almost too much plot; they could easily have split this into two, or maybe even three separate movies! And it is long, but as Gene Siskel said: “No good movie is too long, and no bad movie is ever short enough.”