The Dark Knight - SalfordOnline Film Review
Cast: Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Heath Ledger (The Joker), Gary Oldman (Lieutenant Gordon), Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent/Two-Face), Maggie Gyllenhall (Rachel Dawes) Sir Michael Caine (Alfred)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Jonathan and Christopher Nolan
Runtime: 152 mins
If you’re quick, you can still catch The Dark Knight at the cinema, and screens are still full of fanboys getting their third or fourth look at this dark, scary film. So, epic masterpiece? Or two and a half hours of your life that you’ll never get back?
The answer, I think, very much depends on who you are. If you are 14, love comics, and thrill at the sight of a borderline psychotic bloke dressed in black kicking the crap out of hundreds of people, smashing down walls in his giant Bat-tank, you’ll probably think this is the best film ever made.
The story takes place a year after the events of the first film, with Gotham City facing its biggest ever threat in the form of The Joker, a madman in make-up who delights in the anarchy he creates, stealing money from the rich and powerful, outwitting the cops and terrifying the populace.
As Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne, Batman’s campaign to stamp out crime from the city has forced the criminals into desperate measures, relying on The Joker: “You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.”
At the same time, the Gotham public are up in arms about Batman’s brand of violent punishment; here director Christopher Nolan manages to eke out an interesting argument on the merits and problems of vigilante justice.
An intelligently written script helps, along with a thrusting, sometimes searing pace. Despite this, a lot of the audience were squirming in their seats as the film approached its 2-and-a-half hour runtime. Not one for the impatient.
Clean-cut new District Attorney Harvey Dent serves as a noble accomplice to Batman, but his eventual fate will scare the pants off the younger kids. I won’t give away what happens, but the dark tone of the film is fully borne out by the amazing special effects and make-up, turning this ostensible “white knight” into a horrifying nightmare.
It’s good to see Christian Bale getting worldwide exposure in a big film, as he’s one of the best method actors of his generation (dropping 4 stone to play an achingly thin paranoiac insomniac in The Machinist or bulking up to play a businessman-murderer in 80s satire American Psycho), and often does not get the credit he deserves.
He’s Welsh, by the way, if you didn’t know. Yes, Batman is Welsh. Check it on imdb.com if you don’t believe me.
There are still moments of pure comedy amongst the darkness, like when a young accountant finds out about the real identity of Batman and threatens to tell the world, Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox retorts
“Let me get this straight: You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck.”
The Dark Knight has been overhyped, yes, and it’s probably not going to stay in the Top 10 films of all time for very long, but it’s better than any other blockbuster released in the past couple of years by a country mile. Perfect for a wet Sunday viewing. Take the (older) kids.
Related Links
To see if Christian Bale is really Welsh click here
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