Batman: The Dark Knight
July 20th 2008 22:35
Category: Movies
Batman created by Bob Kane.
Director: Christopher Nolan.
Producers: Charles Roven, Emma Thomas & Christopher Nolan.
Story by: Christopher Nolan & David S Goyer.
Screenplay by: Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan.
Starring: Christian Bale (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Gary Oldman (Lt Gordon), Michael Caine (Alfred), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Heath Ledger (The Joker), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes) & Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent/Two Face).
Produced by: Warner Brothers Pictures in association with Legendary Pictures & Syncopy.
Released by: Warner Brothers Pictures.
Running Time: 145 minutes. Rating: M.
In the closing minutes of Batman Begins there is a scene where newly promoted Lieutenant Gordon says to Batman something along the lines of: “We’ve got something interesting, a guy who calls himself the Joker is threatening to poison Gotham’s reservoir” then the screen fades to black and the credits roll. Here in the Dark Knight we are treated to this the first confrontations between the Detective and the arch criminal the Joker, the man who would become the nemesis for Batman for many years both on silver screen and upon the printed page. This movie arrived at my local cinema at an appropriate time, I had received a free movie ticket on my birthday due to my membership in the cinema’s VIP movie club and thus there was something showing that I could use the ticket to see. So before you could say “Holy discomforting discombobulating Batman” I sauntered to the theatre and wandered in to take my seat amongst the crowd.
The drama begins with a gang of clown masked armed robbers busting into a bank, but as things swiftly unfold it is not just any old bank. It seems this is one of the financial institutions that is controlled entirely by the Mob in Gotham City, a bank that launders the ill gotten gains of the Falcone crime gang. Naturally the bank doesn’t just rely on purely conventional security, one of the officials is a mobster who comes with his own shotgun and as soon as he realises what is going on he puts it too good use. Things look a bit grim as the mobster takes out some of the robbers but he is soon swiftly put into place. In the end only one of the gang makes it out alive with the loot, and there is a lot of loot, this individual is the mastermind behind it all; the Joker.
Now down through the years their have been various incarnations of the Joker, he has been a camp Clown prince of Crime (Cesar Romero), a flamboyant ex mobster who suffered a disfiguring injury (Jack Nicholson) and now this particular manifestation as portrayed by the late Heath Ledger. Frankly my opinion is that of all the three screen portrayals of the Joker to date, Heath Ledgers efforts are spot on the money. He gives this character the gravitas the other two never had as well as a real sense of menace and sinister mystery. After all when all is said and done, the Joker is a villain in every sense of the word who has a pivotal impact upon Batman and Gotham City, he is not just some guy with facepaint and a sick sense of humour.
The other aspect about the Joker is that he is the dark reflection of Batman, where Batman wears a costume and has adopted the Bat motif to put fear into the hearts of criminals the Joker is as he is for a completely opposite effect; his agenda is the creation of fear, the creation of chaos. He is also fiendishly clever and is capable of marshalling the necessary resources at hand via whatever means to carry out his plan. In essence he is what Batman could be if the Detective ever crossed the line between morality and amorality. Interestingly we are never actually given an insight into the origins of the Joker, how he became what he is, certainly the character mentions a few snippets of information but the story changes at least twice so you don’t really known if he’s actually telling the truth or just attempting to shock his audience.
If there was a single word that could be used to sum up this movie it would be evolution, Gotham City still has problems with Russian mobsters, Italian crime syndicates, Afro American gangsters and various other crime groups yet all are attempting to stay beneath the radar for they are in terrible fear of the Batman and his ally Lieutenant Gordon. But just when it seems that there is hope and light reaching into the confines of Gotham City it seems that it is but the calm before the storm; enter the agent of that storm – the Joker. As Batman emerged from the shadows to combat the criminals and gangs that threatened to overrun Gotham then he in turn spawned the Joker, a criminal who was capable of fighting the Detective on his own terms. Certainly their were those amongst the criminal fraternity of Gotham who felt that the Joker was just a freak and one who was as much a thorn in their side as the Batman, stealing peoples money tends to put them in that particular frame of mind. What they don’t realise is that this so called ‘freak’ is the wave of the future; they’re effectively surplus to requirements.
So even as he lays his plans to eliminate the Batman the Joker is also cementing his control on the criminal underworld of Gotham City. In this regard he doesn’t have to work too hard here, as Batman, Lieutenant Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent are certainly doing their bit to put the various crime bosses and their henchmen behind bars for good, all of which works to the Jokers agenda. Batman Begins was a well crafted work of cinematography bringing to light one of DC Comics most iconic characters, and Batman: The Dark Knight has continued the high standard set by Batman Begins. This is a tightly scripted and acted drama with a cast that just gives depth and gravitas (I also received a dictionary for my birthday…) to the Batman milieu that other productions failed to achieve. When the screen faded to black and the credits began to roll in the cinema I knew that I had enjoyed a masterpiece movie experience.
Director: Christopher Nolan.
Producers: Charles Roven, Emma Thomas & Christopher Nolan.
Story by: Christopher Nolan & David S Goyer.
Screenplay by: Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan.
Starring: Christian Bale (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Gary Oldman (Lt Gordon), Michael Caine (Alfred), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Heath Ledger (The Joker), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes) & Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent/Two Face).
Produced by: Warner Brothers Pictures in association with Legendary Pictures & Syncopy.
Released by: Warner Brothers Pictures.
In the closing minutes of Batman Begins there is a scene where newly promoted Lieutenant Gordon says to Batman something along the lines of: “We’ve got something interesting, a guy who calls himself the Joker is threatening to poison Gotham’s reservoir” then the screen fades to black and the credits roll. Here in the Dark Knight we are treated to this the first confrontations between the Detective and the arch criminal the Joker, the man who would become the nemesis for Batman for many years both on silver screen and upon the printed page. This movie arrived at my local cinema at an appropriate time, I had received a free movie ticket on my birthday due to my membership in the cinema’s VIP movie club and thus there was something showing that I could use the ticket to see. So before you could say “Holy discomforting discombobulating Batman” I sauntered to the theatre and wandered in to take my seat amongst the crowd.
The drama begins with a gang of clown masked armed robbers busting into a bank, but as things swiftly unfold it is not just any old bank. It seems this is one of the financial institutions that is controlled entirely by the Mob in Gotham City, a bank that launders the ill gotten gains of the Falcone crime gang. Naturally the bank doesn’t just rely on purely conventional security, one of the officials is a mobster who comes with his own shotgun and as soon as he realises what is going on he puts it too good use. Things look a bit grim as the mobster takes out some of the robbers but he is soon swiftly put into place. In the end only one of the gang makes it out alive with the loot, and there is a lot of loot, this individual is the mastermind behind it all; the Joker.
The other aspect about the Joker is that he is the dark reflection of Batman, where Batman wears a costume and has adopted the Bat motif to put fear into the hearts of criminals the Joker is as he is for a completely opposite effect; his agenda is the creation of fear, the creation of chaos. He is also fiendishly clever and is capable of marshalling the necessary resources at hand via whatever means to carry out his plan. In essence he is what Batman could be if the Detective ever crossed the line between morality and amorality. Interestingly we are never actually given an insight into the origins of the Joker, how he became what he is, certainly the character mentions a few snippets of information but the story changes at least twice so you don’t really known if he’s actually telling the truth or just attempting to shock his audience.
If there was a single word that could be used to sum up this movie it would be evolution, Gotham City still has problems with Russian mobsters, Italian crime syndicates, Afro American gangsters and various other crime groups yet all are attempting to stay beneath the radar for they are in terrible fear of the Batman and his ally Lieutenant Gordon. But just when it seems that there is hope and light reaching into the confines of Gotham City it seems that it is but the calm before the storm; enter the agent of that storm – the Joker. As Batman emerged from the shadows to combat the criminals and gangs that threatened to overrun Gotham then he in turn spawned the Joker, a criminal who was capable of fighting the Detective on his own terms. Certainly their were those amongst the criminal fraternity of Gotham who felt that the Joker was just a freak and one who was as much a thorn in their side as the Batman, stealing peoples money tends to put them in that particular frame of mind. What they don’t realise is that this so called ‘freak’ is the wave of the future; they’re effectively surplus to requirements.
So even as he lays his plans to eliminate the Batman the Joker is also cementing his control on the criminal underworld of Gotham City. In this regard he doesn’t have to work too hard here, as Batman, Lieutenant Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent are certainly doing their bit to put the various crime bosses and their henchmen behind bars for good, all of which works to the Jokers agenda. Batman Begins was a well crafted work of cinematography bringing to light one of DC Comics most iconic characters, and Batman: The Dark Knight has continued the high standard set by Batman Begins. This is a tightly scripted and acted drama with a cast that just gives depth and gravitas (I also received a dictionary for my birthday…) to the Batman milieu that other productions failed to achieve. When the screen faded to black and the credits began to roll in the cinema I knew that I had enjoyed a masterpiece movie experience.
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