The Not-Dark-Enough Knight
With all the Oscar hype over this movie, I figured I ought to watch it. My take on it is not as a Batman-fanatic - I haven't read the comic books, found the reruns of the 60's TV series campy and silly, and haven't seen all of the recent movie iterations. In general, I believe that the move to take Batman deeper and darker is a good one. For all of the psychological and emotional (perhaps spiritual?) angst of the Batman character (to say nothing of his nemesis'), you probably can't go *too* deep. While that's good conceptually, it's bad for a movie like this, which *can* go too deep, and at times has to connive desperately to avoid doing so.
The plot was nothing particularly original. The emphasis on darkness and shadows made it difficult to watch (at least on my TV), and much of the impact of the action was blunted by not being able to actually see what is happening. The same thing is true of the voice work in the movie. I don't think my ears (or eyes) are *that* bad yet, but there were several times I had to rewind (digitally) to try and catch what was being said.
Philosophically the movie demonstrates the theological and philosophical conundrums of modernism and post-modernism. We can't bring ourselves to admit that we're as bad as we really are, and so we end up having to doctor ourselves up to make us look better than we really are. Do you want to know how desperate people look and act? You could watch this movie's attempt to portray such a thing, or you could turn on the news, or think back to New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. Or watch Apocalypse Now (or better yet, read "Heart of Darkness"). In desperate times, people act desperate. Not everyone - but that's hardly because people are innately good, rather, we just seem to have different breaking points of desperation. So the best we can do is fudge the truth in order to keep people from reaching the inexorable conclusion of an evolutionary/natural selection explanation for life. We have to pretend that there are other answers while we categorically denounce them. We have to keep our game face on, but the key players know that the game is over.
So are the forces of reckless selfishness and anarchy held at bay by the overwhelming goodness of people in general? Sorry - that's a sales pitch I don't buy. Case in point - see how everyone loves the Joker in this movie, and Batman is more or less an accessory? Hmmmm.
Is Heath Ledger good in this film? Sure. But is he really given the room to prove that he's Oscar worthy? Not a chance. I would have liked to see the Joker as a more central role in this film. Although I do think that the little touch about having him give different accounts of his life history to different people is a really good touch. We don't know the truth about the Joker. Likely, he doesn't know it himself. How *did* he get those scars? And frankly, trying to sell me (or Harvey Dent) that the Joker is a reactionary, non-planning sort of anarchic free spirit is a complete crock, given all the elaborate planning he demonstrates throughout the entire film.
Performances as a whole are pretty much what you'd expect. Alfred is proper and English. Aaron Eckhart turned in what I felt was a surprisingly capable performance. Batman is terse and acerbic in both of his alter egos. Rachel is pretty and clueless. Heck, pretty much everyone in this movie is pretty clueless, with the possible exception of the Joker. Which is fortunate, since the film contradicts it's messages repeatedly throughout
The plot was nothing particularly original. The emphasis on darkness and shadows made it difficult to watch (at least on my TV), and much of the impact of the action was blunted by not being able to actually see what is happening. The same thing is true of the voice work in the movie. I don't think my ears (or eyes) are *that* bad yet, but there were several times I had to rewind (digitally) to try and catch what was being said.
Philosophically the movie demonstrates the theological and philosophical conundrums of modernism and post-modernism. We can't bring ourselves to admit that we're as bad as we really are, and so we end up having to doctor ourselves up to make us look better than we really are. Do you want to know how desperate people look and act? You could watch this movie's attempt to portray such a thing, or you could turn on the news, or think back to New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. Or watch Apocalypse Now (or better yet, read "Heart of Darkness"). In desperate times, people act desperate. Not everyone - but that's hardly because people are innately good, rather, we just seem to have different breaking points of desperation. So the best we can do is fudge the truth in order to keep people from reaching the inexorable conclusion of an evolutionary/natural selection explanation for life. We have to pretend that there are other answers while we categorically denounce them. We have to keep our game face on, but the key players know that the game is over.
So are the forces of reckless selfishness and anarchy held at bay by the overwhelming goodness of people in general? Sorry - that's a sales pitch I don't buy. Case in point - see how everyone loves the Joker in this movie, and Batman is more or less an accessory? Hmmmm.
Is Heath Ledger good in this film? Sure. But is he really given the room to prove that he's Oscar worthy? Not a chance. I would have liked to see the Joker as a more central role in this film. Although I do think that the little touch about having him give different accounts of his life history to different people is a really good touch. We don't know the truth about the Joker. Likely, he doesn't know it himself. How *did* he get those scars? And frankly, trying to sell me (or Harvey Dent) that the Joker is a reactionary, non-planning sort of anarchic free spirit is a complete crock, given all the elaborate planning he demonstrates throughout the entire film.
Performances as a whole are pretty much what you'd expect. Alfred is proper and English. Aaron Eckhart turned in what I felt was a surprisingly capable performance. Batman is terse and acerbic in both of his alter egos. Rachel is pretty and clueless. Heck, pretty much everyone in this movie is pretty clueless, with the possible exception of the Joker. Which is fortunate, since the film contradicts it's messages repeatedly throughout
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