The Dark Knight
About a week and a half ago, I finally saw The Dark Knight. I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it. So I’ll dump a few thoughts here.
Sure, it was fun to watch Christian Bale kicking butt in a batsuit again. But the film’s darker, more morbid outlook, while rather appropriate and well-captured, is difficult to take.
First, I’ll throw out one disagreement with some of the critics and reviews I read: I think the film’s violence level is comfortably within PG-13 bounds. Yes, there’s a lot of crash-bang-boom, death, etc., but it retains a lot of the stylized, impersonal feel that was present in Batman Begins. It is not gory, brutal, or overtly personal, any of which probably would send it in to R territory.
With that out of the way, the characters and tone of the film are the major stand-out points. Batman’s character doesn’t get developed as much in this film as in the previous one, but that isn’t necessarily a problem. We do, however, see him having to deal more with the consequences of the life he’s chosen.
Heath Ledger’s Joker is quite remarkable. He is dark, psychotic, and possesses pure and unadulterated malice, untainted by even so much as a hint of positive self-interest. In a sense, we can see in him something of a devil character — underestimated, yet behind so much wrong and usually working things out a few steps ahead of those in pursuit while remaining quite aloof.
The overall picture painted by The Dark Knight is rather, well, dark. At the end, we are left searching for answers, for true good, for hope, and little is presented. Those who remain guardians of justice are reduced to lies, and corruption and evil remain. It’s a rather bleak outlook, but it does stand as an accurate portrayal of the inevitable end of purely human effort.
In the end, it was a depressing yet well-made film. It renders the logical conclusion of attempts at creating good without necessary ingredient of the redemptive work of Christ — failure and futility. The attempt to leave some slender threads of hope, but we’ll see how those pan out.
Comment from Jon McLachlan on September 22, 2008 at 2:50 PM CDT
Dark Knight is perhaps one of the greatest films ever made, because the antagonist uses ugliness to illustrate obvious, yet unspoken, truths about society and people. But... "It renders the logical conclusion of attempts at creating good without necessary ingredient of the redemptive work of Christ — failure and futility." - What? Why bring this up? The amount of ignorance and [uncorroborated and hidden] assumptions behind a statement like this makes it entirely clear that you were not thinking for yourself there - and I mean that in most respectful, thought provoking, and well intentioned manner, from one [imperfect] human to another. :) If you want to discuss it, I'd be happy to do that with you in person...