Last month marked the tenth anniversary of The Dark Knight, a superhero movie featuring the Batman that had become a seminal film in many ways. It’s influences can be felt far and wide throughout Hollywood and beyond, and its ‘darkness’ has been blamed for the dire, funereal tone of such latter superhero movies like Man of Steel and Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. I’ve come across many comments online where the poster wondered why people liked The Dark Knight because it was…you know, so ‘dark’ and ‘gloomy‘. Do the fans of TDK like depressing stories?
Speaking as a fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, I can honestly say that, no, I’m not a fan of depressing stories.
But then, I don’t consider The Dark Knight to be a depressing tale, anyway.
When director Christopher Nolan set out to reinvent the Batman with Batman Returns (which is a great film in its own right) back in 2005, he wanted to set the Caped Crusader’s exploits in a far more gritty, low-to-the-ground version of Gotham City. Up until this point, the last live-action Batman film was 1997’s Batman & Robin, an infamously campy spectacle starring George Clooney as the Dark Knight (complete with nipples on the Batsuit) that practically ended Batman’s cinematic run.
Compared to the Clooney Bat-travesty, Nolan’s take was far more welcome. But as it turned out Nolan’s take on the Batman tale wasn’t necessarily darker; rather it took the characters and situations more seriously as it sought to show what a “real world” Batman would look like, without the ‘winking at the audience’ goofiness and camp humor. Bruce Wayne’s crusade to bring justice to Gotham City would prove to be a lot tougher, what with organized crime practically running the city, including the police force.
But the best stories always have its main characters fighting seemingly insurmountable odds and beating them. And Batman Begins clearly shows the Dark Knight making a difference in his battle against crime, even if it’s just (bat) baby steps, at first.
The Dark Knight, released in 2008, upped the ante a great deal. By the beginning of this film Batman is an established presence in Gotham City, defeating the efforts of the Scarecrow early on while dealing with Batman posers who play dress up in their own Bat costumes to live out their feeble desires to make a difference just as the real Batman did. But with the arrival of the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, Batman’s battle against the dark forces of crime gets knocked back a few steps.
Heath Ledger, who was already dead by the time The Dark Knight opened in theaters, well deserved his posthumous Oscar win. His performance as the Joker was more like a force of nature, a seemingly slap-happy clown who’s far more intelligent, and deadly, than he lets on, and whose questioning of social norms manage to disturbingly crawl under your skin in how much uncomfortable truth they hold. More terrorist than criminal, this Joker famously just wanted to watch the world burn, and he came daringly close to doing just that. And it’s a testament to both Ledger and Nolan’s talents that you almost want to cheer for him to succeed.
It’s also a testament to Christian Bale’s formidable acting skills that he doesn’t let Ledger’s Joker walk away with the movie. In The Dark Knight, Bale’s Batman ably rises to the challenge presented by the Joker, doing whatever he needs to--including going to China to kidnap a mob accountant--to make sure the darkness does not take hold in his city once more.
The Dark Knight is compelling, gripping and an extremely satisfying film for Batman fans like myself, mainly because it takes the Batman mythos seriously and in doing so elevates it to another level. Just as the Joker’s constant questioning about society ring in our ears, there’s also the main argument, presented by Alfred (the sturdy Michael Caine), regarding just how far do you take a fight? When the other side presents a maniac like the Joker, should Batman continue to up the ante, especially in light of the tragic loses that he faces during this epic battle?
Maybe some people would still consider this to be a dark film. Yet I choose to focus on Bruce Wayne/Batman and Alfred and Commissioner Gordon (the always great Gary Oldman), who continue to fight the seemingly all-consuming darkness of the corruption and greed that threatens to consume them all. The darkness seems so overwhelming--until you light one candle, and then the supposed all-powerful darkness falls away from that single light. The Dark Knight shows that Batman is that single candle of hope that blazes in the night. And just a spark from his light is enough to rekindle hope in others.
In that sense, a single man fighting against impossible odds for justice doesn’t feel like a dark film at all, but a hopeful one. The people who thought The Dark Knight was depressing (including Warner Brothers studio executives) were wrong, it was a superbly-made masterpiece that’s filled with hope, its story encouraging people to keep fighting, to keep moving forward, to never lose sight of their convictions no matter how dire the times may seem. And that’s a message that we need to hear now more than ever. --SF
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