The Dark Knight: Movie Review (2008)

Directed by Christopher Nolan, written by Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, 152 minutes, rated PG-13.

So here it is: The best superhero movie ever. Some will want to chew on that for a while and question, as I have, whether it's true in the wake of all that has come before it. But I'm convinced it is true, so on with the review.

Christopher Nolan's “The Dark Knight” deftly accomplishes all one could hope for, and then it surpasses it, and then it continues to surprise until you realize you're watching something special--a movie that's the very best of its kind.

The film isn't just a triumph--it's that rare pop-culture oddity: A genre masterpiece. If that sounds like a stretch, consider that every once in a great while, all of the necessary elements come together and fall into place for greatness to conspire onscreen. While it's rarely true for sequels of lauded films to achieve a new plateau, that's nevertheless the case here, just as it was in “The Godfather II.”

Those seeking insight into how Nolan pulled off his coup only need to look back to his outstanding 2005 film, “Batman Begins,” to know that he had all the skill and intelligence necessary to deepen an already complex vision of a world come undone. Working with a script he co-wrote with his brother, Jonathan Nolan, the director came to this project with the right story, which he told with bravado via the vehicle of the right cast.

Back in the bat suit is Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, the troubled billionaire with a secret life known to only a few--his childhood friend and former flame (whom he still loves), Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, smoothly taking over for Katie Holmes); his protective butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine, again excellent in what could have been a throwaway performance); and the technological mastermind behind Batman's suit and his many gadgets, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman).

As the movie unfolds, Wayne must come to rely on every one of them when his new adversary reveals himself. He's the Joker, a man for whom chaos and evil are more satisfying than such trivialities as wealth and power, and he's played by Heath Ledger with such skill and seductive force that all of those Oscar rumors likely will prove true--and not out of pity for the man's untimely death. If Ledger does receive a nomination, it will be because he earned it. His performance is slippery, unhinged and transfixing, with echoes of a young Brando in how loose he is onscreen, how easily he disappears into his role, and how for him, evil seems to have the taste of something sweet.

Since much of the film's pleasure comes from the gradual way Nolan reveals the plot to us, only a glimpse will be offered here: Batman isn't exactly beloved by the residents of Gotham City. He's viewed as an avenging menace, a man whose fame has prompted others to don ill-fitting bat suits in an effort to save the day, which they don't. In fact, with crime running rampant, they're making a mess of an already bad situation. Worse, they've made a mockery of all the good Batman has done.

But when the idealistic new district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) arrives on the scene to fight crime--he'll assist the soon-to-be Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) in taking down the mob--Wayne begins to believe in the idea that he might be able to retire from fighting crime and win back Rachel, who in the meantime has fallen for Dent.

Unfortunately, the Joker isn't about to make things so easy for him. Look beyond his cracked clown makeup, his red scar of a mouth and that crazed whinny of a laugh of his, and you'll find the corrupt heart of a terrorist. As with so many terrorists, it's the Joker's intention to spread that corruption as far and as wide as he can by influencing those who matter.

While he does so in Gotham in ways that won't be revealed here, it is safe to say that “The Dark Knight” consumes itself with the idea of how corrupt some are willing to become in an effort to fight corruption itself. It's that undercurrent of irony that runs through the movie, lifting it, and it emerges as one of Nolan's major themes: Once you go to that dark side of yourself, once you give into it and embrace it and realize that you're capable of it, regardless of how good your intentions, what's to become of you when you're faced with the reality of what you have become in the process? Who are you then?

Throughout “The Dark Knight,” the destruction the Joker unleashes is twisted and real, with the consequences of his evil not conveniently brushed away when, say, a major character's life is threatened, but dealt with in ways that are meant to incite shock in the face of madness. This is one of the chief reasons the film is a great superhero movie--it isn't a cartoon willing to overlook the world in which we live now. Instead, it accepts it for what it is, and it follows through with the deadly repercussions.

Armed with some of the summer's more outrageous action scenes--not to mention a top-notch technical team that includes fantastic work by cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, and an uneasy score created by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard--“The Dark Knight” is Christopher Nolan's best film, it is one of year's best films, and it's the best superhero movie, period.

Grade: A