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The Dark Knight
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman
Let's start with the basics.
To appreciate The Dark Knight beyond being just a really good action movie (which is a perfectly legitimate reason to love the movie), you have to realize the way Director Christopher Nolan portrays Batman in the The Dark Knight.
Since his first modern theatrical release in 1989, Batman is a character that's likable because he represents many of the things that we all feel hidden within us. He's dark, masked, mysterious and furious; but he's looking for ways to use those aspects of his personality to do the world a service, rather than the disservice Gotham City's villains cause using their own inner evils.
It's sort of the opposite of how a lot of us live our lives. Most people have those four character traits within them, but what tends to show up to the outside world is what Batman tries to keep a secret - the "good." Consequentially, what's ugly - the four character traits - is what we all hide. Batman, conversely, does not hide this side. Instead, he uses it to fight for those of us who do. The character shares qualities with us all, only things are turned inside out.
In past "Batman" adaptations, we've been introduced to several different versions of the "The Caped Crusader." In Tim Burton's two above-average efforts, Batman and Batman Returns, we meet a Batman that's entertaining, and worthy of our liking, but both films are ultimately more exploratory of the "Batman" character than the man underneath the cowl, Bruce Wayne. The next two films are not worthy of the current space occupying this paragraph.
Where Batman Begins, and even more so The Dark Knight, deter from the previous Batman films is the in-depth way Bruce Wayne - not just Batman - is explored. In Batman Begins, we learn of Bruce Wayne's origins, which ultimately explains to us how he came about living a secret life as a dark, masked, mysterious and furious vigilante.
Where The Dark Knight differs from Batman Begins, outside of having a new villain, is the way it goes about depicting the battle between a dark, inside out hero and the person - like you and I - within the bat suit who struggles to live a normal life.
The movie's theme is that of luck, tough decisions and the luck that often solves our tough decisions (for better or worse). Though Harvey Dent, Gotham's D.A., is determined to make the right tough decisions for the city, an alter-ego eventually forces him to realize that luck is the only thing to base a decision on.
In addition to Wayne's personal struggles and Dent's eventual rash decision on what justice is, Nolan throws a wild card into the fray - The Joker. Many people have dubbed Heath Ledger's portrayal as Gotham's most infamous villain "brilliant." Describing Ledger's performance using a single word is like attempting to make Ledger's Joker use a pencil properly...impossible.
Ledger's Joker, from the time he betrays his own men to the minute he forcefully pits Gotham's criminals against innocent civilians, is the always-smiling face of our biggest fears. He rips apart everything that makes us feel safe and, like a knife to the throat, threatens our lives with each of the remaining fragments. He blows up the safest places in town and escapes riding in a school bus. If the Devil has a plan, he's afraid of Ledger's Joker. This Joker's only plan is to have no plan, and to blow up everything and everyone along the way - with a scarred smile on his face.
Ultimately, four unstoppable forces - Batman, Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent and The Joker - all collide, leaving each character with little trace of the man that existed before. In the end, we're left with a White Knight, a Dark Knight and all the battles within ourselves that exist between.
10/10
See it, folks! Twice!