The Dark Knight

(WARNING: Spoiler-rific!)

Chris Nolan and the Batman cast and crew finally bring the brutality that’s been in the comics for many years to theatres. It’s an ambitious and noble effort filled with highly elevated themes and a complicated crime-drama plot out of the Michael Mann/Scorsese playbook. Nolan et al regard the source material more highly than any of the previous incarnations and it gives you a lump in your throat to see Batman portrayed with such dignity.

There’s a lot of hullabaloo about Heath Ledger, and yes he’s great, but it’s not the second coming. He gets a great script to work with, he gets the great, freaky-ass make-up, and he gets about 68 years of comic-book villain appearances to draw from. So the legend should get some of the credit for his eerie performance. The most nuanced and most difficult performance here is Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon. Joker’s a straight line. Gordon has to dance around his alliance with Batman, distrust yet humor everyone in the Gotham P.D., plead for the lives of his kids, and even get slugged by his duped wife. (Sensationally portrayed by Melinda McGraw!)

Where the movie faults, if you want to call it that, is when logic takes a back seat so the Joker can present large-scale metaphors, engorging us with theme, when small aperitifs will do. The Joker’s evil plans are successful at first, but eventually they’re thwarted not by Batman but by the good nature of the citizens of Gotham. He doesn’t seem phased though, and it feels too easy to say that the Joker doesn’t care if his plans don’t work out because, well, he’s crazy. I missed the moment when the Joker realizes, though he succeeded in destroying the hero Harvey Dent and converting him into a psychopathic murderer, the Gotham-ites will never know. Batman’s going to absorb the heat. This bit of news should really drive the Joker (ah-hem) batty but, alas, the chapter ends. We’ll just have to hear about it in The Dark Knight Returns. Ultimately, Nolan and Batman do a little profound expanding on the definition of hero. Not only does a hero save everyone’s ass, but they also take responsibility for the foibles of weaker men, if that’s what it takes to keep the peace.