Signis

The Dark Knight

(JPEG) (US, 2008, d. Christopher Nolan)

Year by year, the stakes rise higher and higher for quality craft in plot and writing, in creating characters, in stunt work and effects and excellence in cinematography in the film versions of comic book heroes. In many ways, versions of Batman have led the way, from Bob Kane’s original comics, through the comedy television series in the 1960s to Tim Burton’s breakthrough into darker and deeper waters with Michael Keaton in Batman of 1989. Burton did it again with Batman Returns. When Joel Schumacher took over during the 1990s, he painted the stories with brighter colours with more caricature villains and tried out Val Kilmer and George Clooney as Batman. The audiences tended to dwindle. The end of Batman?

Christopher Nolan declared a resounding no with Batman Begins in 2005. He took the Batman story very seriously and created a narrative of how Bruce Wayne become the warrior that he is, his training in Asia and his return to Gotham City to combat evil. With Christian Bale as the hero, he created a Batman that was a tormented man, a loner who, as Batman, was his freer self but, as Bruce Wayne, wore the mask of the idle playboy. Critics and fans appreciated the totally serious treatment, its strong writing and performances by a distinguished cast. This was raising Batman from pop art to popular art.

Could Nolan repeat or even better his Batman Begins? It looks as though he has - and the initial box-office success combined with critical favour.

A recommendation. If it is possible to see the film on an Imax screen, this is best. Nolan filmed some of the action sequences with Imax lenses and they look spectacular as do the city vistas of Chicago and Hong Kong.

This Batman story is even more serious than Batman Begins. Nolan wrote the story with David S. Goyer (the Blade series) and has shared the writing credit as before with his brother Jonathan. Bruce Wayne is even now more tormented. In his fight to free Gotham City, he has become branded as a vigilante and the police have been urged to arrest Batman. Batman has a set of rules about the use of violence and sees himself as a saviour rather than a vigilante. His two advisers, his butler Alfred, played again by the effectively never-changing Michael Caine, and his Board chief, the inventor, Lucius Fox, played with his customary gravitas by Morgan Freeman, try to help him to see what he must do and where he must set limits.

As the film opens (with a bank robbery and the revelation that Mob interests and their Chinese connections are controlling the city), we find that police chief, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman becoming something of a screen elder statesman) has been collaborating with Batman to target the mob (led by Eric Roberts). However, the new DA, Harvey Dent (a quite charismatic Aaron Ekhart) is courageous in confronting the gangsters and is aided by Bruce Wayne’s former girlfriend, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gylenhaal). Hundreds of criminals are imprisoned. Will Bruce Wayne at last be able to give up his costume, cape and mask as he says he wants? Or, will he, as Rachel tells him, continue to need to be Batman?

No easy answers because a new criminal mind appears in Gotham, the Joker. He is not a sinister pantomime villain as Jack Nicholson portrayed him in 1989. Rather, he is a madly menacing psychopath and sociopath, played with an unsettling blend of realism and surrealism by the late Heath Ledger. He makes a tremendous impact in this unpredictable characterisation, mad of appearance with his caked whiteface, smeared red lips, green stringy hair and unkempt wardrobe, mad of voice in speech and cackle, mad of action with no scruple in killing individuals or whole groups. He is fascinated by Batman and enjoys their confrontations.

Not being in any way expert on Batman characters, I missed the significance of Harvey Dent’s name as he appears as the Gotham hero and so did not make the connection with Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever) until a dramatic climax.

As we left the theatre, a colleague asked me what was the moral of this Batman film. With his socialist stances, he was not in favour of a hugely wealthy hero who fought to maintain the American way of life. That is definitely not the case here. Batman is a hero confronting crime and evil. He uses his wealth to help fight crime. But, this time he is attacked as a vigilante. He feels guilty that so many innocent people have been killed because of him. The law has not been able to eradicate crime. He seems to retreat into himself leaving society to try to help itself. This is not the confident American comic book hero of so many films. The present Batman is not the fulfilment of the American dream.

Peter Malone