[Editor's note: due to the extensive use of the word "fantastic", it should be noted that the word is not intended to be interpreted as a synonym to "amazing", but rather "extraordinary" and something non-realistic.]
About halfway through The Dark Knight, I realized what was going on and why it looked the way it does. This is perhaps the cleanest looking film I’ve ever seen. When games nowadays try to be graphically gritty to merit the buzzword (Mass Effects applies a “film grain” filter to make the experience more cinematic), The Dark Knight thrives in cleanliness. It is, however, realistic cleanliness. The film is gritty, but not in the visual sense. Nor is it completely realistic. It is a world very much grounded in Chicago as it is in Gotham City, and as such it becomes a fantastic, realistic world.
What I realized was that this film is a realistic depiction of a fantasy world. The grittiness comes through the plot. From the first minute to the last 152nd, Christopher Nolan fleshes out the events of so many plot lines that could merit films on their own, that it is not for nothing some might find the film exhausting. The Dark Knight resembles perhaps more Infernal Affairs (subsequently The Departed) and Heat than Batman Begins, and this is what I found troubling at first. What Nolan does with this film, however, plot wise, visually and musically, is introducing an incredible suspense throughout the first hour and 45 minutes that ascends The Dark Knight into being something short of a masterpiece, if not for all of its, sometimes, fatal flaws.
The Dark Knight’s two color palettes in symbiotic relation
The problem, however, isn’t that the film is long. It is what happens in the last 45 minutes or so that sends the plot into turmoil. Usual for films of this length is spending more time on developing themes and discussions about said themes. Here, the themes and moral dilemmas are so deeply crafted into the plot that it makes it almost eerie. Some questionable executions on key plot moments, unfortunately, no matter how well they fit in the grander scheme of things, make the latter quarter of the film feel rushed and, honestly, laughable. Why so serious, then?
Well, and this is the conundrum of the film, Heath Ledger’s Joker is as much a work of the screenplay, make-up artists and overall visual design of the villain, as it is Ledgers. Being cast to play the madman puts you in the spotlight and any good actor will make that character stand out no matter what. Unlike Will Snizek, I do not think Jack Nicholson’s version was more realistic. On the contrary, this film depicts fantastic realism in every sense of the way; least of all the star of the show, the Joker. So, being that 21st century poster boy for commercial punk that Ledger’s performance as the Joker has become, he actually excels at portraying a psychopathic maniac with all that fantastic realism the film is grounded in. He is simply perfect.
Part of this conundrum, also, is that the performances of the rest of the cast stand in the shadow of Ledger, no matter how great they may be. We all find the Harvey Dent we’ve wanted on the silver screen with Aaron Eckhart, who tries his hardest to bring sense to the latter half of the film as Nolan begin to solve too many plot elements at the same time. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne is in constant agony. His love for Rachel Dawes, moral dilemmas about who he really needs to be, puts Batman almost in a sense of teenage angst. Bale’s performance gets shamefully lost in the Harvey Dent’s and the Joker’s of Gotham.
Is the Joker the personification of a Gotham City turned so on its head that it is floating toward its own demise? This is one of the few questions one can ask oneself, because almost nothing is left to chance when you start deciphering the different dilemmas and themes Christopher Nolan sometimes fall a little too much in love with. Alfred and Lucious Fox exists more for the viewers sake than for Batman’s, because nothing gets to be interpreted individually with The Dark Knight. Nolan has a script and a point and doesn’t shy away from hammering those bullet points in the audience’s head over and over again.
However, no matter which way you try nitpicking the film’s flaws, you simply cannot get around the tone of The Dark Knight. It is simply eerie, beautiful and suspenseful. It is a film that challenges the concept of comic book movies, and grounds itself in clean realism that cannot help but resonate with western people of all backgrounds and subcultures. Wanting a fantastic, Burton-esque Batman will grant you disappointment. The Dark Knight is a crime drama with fantastic characters, not a fantasy tale with glorious CG.
I’d argue that The Dark Knight not only transcends the comic book movie formula, but transcends itself above the term and actually becomes something completely different. Comparisons to other films can and will be made in spades, but The Dark Knight still remains something entirely of its own.
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