For a film that has garnered awesome reviews from fans and critics alike in the last two weeks, it seems a little redundant to add another blog post (and that too so late) saying “This is really great”. But even then, I would just consider this post as a personal Thank You note to Christopher Nolan for finally making Batman movie that finally does justice to the comic book hero not only in his moments of glory but also in moments where he is in obvious frailty, plainly human.
The Dark Knight is just not a great movie. It is a great movie that has possibly for the first time taken existing material from a visual medium and put it on theater screens without compromising on essentials and still making it seem like something new. This achievement is not something to mock at. We often remark that a movie can never be better than the book it is adapted from. Yet, while making a film out of a book, the director can set the visual structure as he wishes giving the plot another dimension that is totally missing. A comic book on the other hand defines not only the plot but also the visual style and often on a frame-by-frame basis. What does a director work on then? Why would he make a movie that at points seems like transcribing from one medium to another.
Christopher Nolan understood when he directed Batman Begins, that Batman stands for something much larger than just a drawing inside a book. If he gets out the essential conflict inside Batman and the contrast of his characters with that of his villains his job is done. Gotham city is dark and dingy in the comics because in a static medium it is one of the few ways the internal conflict of Batman can be shown to the readers. But in movie a lot more can be done. And it took someone like a Christopher Nolan to realize that and bring it to fruition in The Dark Knight.
Lastly, a word for Heath Ledger as the Joker. Initially I thought, how the hell can he aim to take over a character that had been immortalized by none other than Jack Nicholson. And for once, Mr. Nicholson has to step down and acknowledge Heath Ledger’s portratyal as the definitive Joker. He brings to life the vision of a person without rules, and while he says Batman completes him little does he realize that he completes Batman too.
The possible scratches on the shiny image of The Dark Knight are probably the rushed through fight scenes and the staccato robotic delivery of Batman’s lines by Christian Bale. But then, we should leave something to look forward in the next installment of this series.
