Will Pfeifer: Ledger’s terrifying Joker gives Batman sequel jolt of energy
Photo by WARNER BROS.
Heath Ledger played the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”">
Heath Ledger played the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”">
By WARNER BROS.
Heath Ledger played the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”
GateHouse News Service
Fri Dec 12, 2008, 02:40 PM CST
As a comic book fan, I’m (a) excited when a superhero movie gets made, (b) thrilled when it’s good and (c) ecstatic when it’s great.
I don’t have many occasions to feel option (c), but I did last summer when I saw a screening of “The Dark Knight,” now on DVD. Building on the solid foundation of 2005’s “Batman Begins,” this movie spreads its wings (sorry) and tells an even better story. With Batman’s origin out of the way, the fun can really begin.
Of course, the fun this time around revolves around the nightmarish antics of the Joker. Only a year younger than Batman (he debuted in comics in 1940), the Joker is his perfect adversary.
While Batman is all about restoring order, the Joker is all about creating chaos. Why? For no good reason, of course. That’s part of the chaos. The weakest element of “Batman Begins” was its rather bland villains. That is definitely not a problem here.
Critics raved about (the late) Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker, and for good reason. He’s the glue that holds this movie together, the single element that puts everything else in motion. It’s no coincidence that director Christopher Nolan opens the movie with a bank robbery orchestrated by the Joker, and as his psychotically brilliant plan unfolds (and the bodies of his associates pile up), we’re unnerved by how deranged the Joker appears to be (this isn’t Jack Nicholson’s Joker, to say nothing of Cesar Romero’s), but we can’t help but admire his twisted brilliance.
And that’s just for openers. Throughout the film, Ledger creates a character with some obviously disturbing depths, but he doesn’t reveal what’s lurking at the bottom. His ever-changing origin story is funny, but it’s creepy, too. Few things are scarier than an unknowable monster, and when the end credits roll, we know nothing more about the Joker than we did at the beginning.
But “The Dark Knight” is more than just the Joker. Christian Bale is back as Batman, along with Michael Caine (reliable butler Alfred), Morgan Freeman (loyal aide Lucius Fox) and Gary Oldman (conflicted cop Jim Gordon). They’re all excellent (though I wish Bale would drop the growl he uses as Batman), and they get fine support from newcomers Aaron Eckhart (district attorney Harvey Dent) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Bruce Wayne’s flame Rachel Dawes, replacing Katie Holmes).
Besides Bale (and, of course, Ledger), the real star here is Nolan, who brings the same bracing intelligence and knack for filmmaking that he delivered in “Memento” and “The Prestige,” two of the best movies of the past 10 years. “The Dark Knight” has a sumptuous visual style, with Gotham painted in bold black and blue, a city threatened by darkness even in the middle of the day.
But it’s the writing that stays with you, a rare superhero script that delivers more than mere movie thrills. “The Dark Knight” (which Nolan wrote with his brother, Jonathan) is actually about something.
The movie ends on a note that’s downbeat and thrilling: Batman has to make a sacrifice for the greater good, and no one can know about it. As the credits role, he’s a villain in the eyes of everyone in Gotham and the city’s greatest hero. I have no idea what’s coming in the next Batman movie, but I can’t wait to find out.
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