The Dark Knight Redux
Nov. 2nd, 2008 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAll my plans for this weekend unraveled due to the inadvertent poisoning of my system with gluten. Sigh. Didn't even like the items that did it to me. The first was a minature snickers bar - ingested on Friday, which left me feeling sick until sometime around 2pm on Sat. The second was scalloped potatoes at brunch on Sunday, which made me ill until about now. The symptoms were the same, fatigue, depression, indigestion, and the desire to cough up what I'd ingested. Annoying to say the least. Totally kicked my social arrangements. Apparently, I need to be far more vigilant about what I'm putting into my body than I've been to date. (Frustrating, since I've been pretty vigilante - I passed on the French Toast with slab of bacon and ordered an omelete, even double-checked to make sure nothing in it. And I'd been told by gluten-free books that snickers were okay.)
Flipped through EW (Entertainment Weekly) this afternoon, after the above mentioned brunch with Wales, where one of the columnists suggests that the flick, The Dark Knight, should get an Oscar nomination.
Agree or disagree?
I agree. Granted I haven't seen that many movies this year, but then not many of them have appealed to me. Of the one's I have seen both on netflix and in the theaters, only three stand out, The Dark Knight, Tell No One, and Persepolsis (which was released in theaters last year). The Dark Knight still haunts me. And I agree with the columnist, Mark Harris' points regarding it - which are as follows:
"The Dark Knight uses the modern comic-book movie to hold a fun-house mirror up to present day realities that other filmmakers have either avoided or (remember all those Iraq movies?) bungled."
"As reimagined by Nolan, Gotham City isn't a galaxy far, far away; it's basically contempo Chicago with better skyscraper lighting. The subjects Nolan explores are equally grounded in reality - The Dark Knight examines the way fear can change the mood of an urban population, the way politicians and outlaws can stoke and exploit that terror, and the way leaders, either self-appointed or elected, can lose their moral bearings when they grant themselves unlimited authority."
The Dark Knight - while cathartic in places is not an upbeat, feel-good film a la the Fantastic Four or Spiderman. Or even for that matter Superman and Superman Returns. Nor is it the campy stylistic thrill ride of Tim Burton's BATMAN, in which Nicholoson's Joker was more funny than scarey or even menacing. It's in some respects an adult morality tale, in other's a funhouse mirror to where we could go, while at the same time showing that there is hope.
If there wasn't that kernal of hope deeply imbedded in the middle of the tale - as shown by how the ferry passengers react to the Joker's bomb threat or by the Dark Knight himself,
it would not have broken those records. In some ways, I think, the hope in the center of the film is far more realistic than say what we feel at the end of popcorn flick like Spiderman, where the colors pop, the hero wins, and all is right with the world. Not that Spiderman is not a good film in its own right, it is, but it wants something different than the Dark Knight did. It's going for the fun, while I think Nolan's film has something to say - something that I'm not sure we can ignore. And in all the films that have been released over the course of the last eight years, may say it the best. Two-Face in some respects makes one think of George W himself. The stalwart hero, the righteous man, who cannot see the flaws in his own logic. And those who surround him, who want him to be their savior, only to discover, he is all too human.
The Dark Knight leaves one with the realization that we have to be careful about hero-worshipping, careful who we put on that pedestal, or decide to give our hearts to. Because, hero-worshipping always ends badly. At the end of the Dark Knight - it is not Batman (the worshipped hero at the start of the film) nor Harvey Dent (the would-be hero at the center) but the people of the Gotham, the ones on the ferry, and Police Commissioner Gordon who are the heroes - flawed, true, but heroic in the own stead. That's the hopeful message at the center. It's not the Dark Knight or Dent who can save Gotham, not some fantastical super-hero or crusader, but the citizens themselves, their choices and their actions with each other. The Joker teases they can't or won't - but he is proven wrong. It's that hope, well-played or not, we can argue over that all day, which I think resonates long after.
Flipped through EW (Entertainment Weekly) this afternoon, after the above mentioned brunch with Wales, where one of the columnists suggests that the flick, The Dark Knight, should get an Oscar nomination.
Agree or disagree?
I agree. Granted I haven't seen that many movies this year, but then not many of them have appealed to me. Of the one's I have seen both on netflix and in the theaters, only three stand out, The Dark Knight, Tell No One, and Persepolsis (which was released in theaters last year). The Dark Knight still haunts me. And I agree with the columnist, Mark Harris' points regarding it - which are as follows:
"The Dark Knight uses the modern comic-book movie to hold a fun-house mirror up to present day realities that other filmmakers have either avoided or (remember all those Iraq movies?) bungled."
"As reimagined by Nolan, Gotham City isn't a galaxy far, far away; it's basically contempo Chicago with better skyscraper lighting. The subjects Nolan explores are equally grounded in reality - The Dark Knight examines the way fear can change the mood of an urban population, the way politicians and outlaws can stoke and exploit that terror, and the way leaders, either self-appointed or elected, can lose their moral bearings when they grant themselves unlimited authority."
The Dark Knight - while cathartic in places is not an upbeat, feel-good film a la the Fantastic Four or Spiderman. Or even for that matter Superman and Superman Returns. Nor is it the campy stylistic thrill ride of Tim Burton's BATMAN, in which Nicholoson's Joker was more funny than scarey or even menacing. It's in some respects an adult morality tale, in other's a funhouse mirror to where we could go, while at the same time showing that there is hope.
If there wasn't that kernal of hope deeply imbedded in the middle of the tale - as shown by how the ferry passengers react to the Joker's bomb threat or by the Dark Knight himself,
it would not have broken those records. In some ways, I think, the hope in the center of the film is far more realistic than say what we feel at the end of popcorn flick like Spiderman, where the colors pop, the hero wins, and all is right with the world. Not that Spiderman is not a good film in its own right, it is, but it wants something different than the Dark Knight did. It's going for the fun, while I think Nolan's film has something to say - something that I'm not sure we can ignore. And in all the films that have been released over the course of the last eight years, may say it the best. Two-Face in some respects makes one think of George W himself. The stalwart hero, the righteous man, who cannot see the flaws in his own logic. And those who surround him, who want him to be their savior, only to discover, he is all too human.
The Dark Knight leaves one with the realization that we have to be careful about hero-worshipping, careful who we put on that pedestal, or decide to give our hearts to. Because, hero-worshipping always ends badly. At the end of the Dark Knight - it is not Batman (the worshipped hero at the start of the film) nor Harvey Dent (the would-be hero at the center) but the people of the Gotham, the ones on the ferry, and Police Commissioner Gordon who are the heroes - flawed, true, but heroic in the own stead. That's the hopeful message at the center. It's not the Dark Knight or Dent who can save Gotham, not some fantastical super-hero or crusader, but the citizens themselves, their choices and their actions with each other. The Joker teases they can't or won't - but he is proven wrong. It's that hope, well-played or not, we can argue over that all day, which I think resonates long after.