A Dark Knight Indeed (SPOILERS)

As always I'm not going out of my way to avoid talking about spoilers in this write-up. I want to talk about the film and if doing so requires giving things away, that's what I'll do. If you haven't seen it yet, read the following at your own risk.

Yesterday afternoon I saw the latest Batman opus, The Dark Knight... I'm still kind of trying to figure out just what I saw. The short version: It is an absolutely amazing work.

Things it's not: A summer thrill ride; an action packed extravaganza; Explosive. I would imagine if I sifted through enough reviews on Rotten Tomatos those words, or some variation on them, would pop up early and often. And it's none of those things. What is -in one word- this film?

Brutal.

Not bad. Not good (though it is). Just brutal. It is a film that hits you over the head with a crowbar and then asks you to meekly whimper, "Thank you sir. May I have another?" I really don't know how else to put it. It's a Batman story, but it's not a comic book movie; at least, in the traditional sense. There's so much going on with it that it's hard to pin down any specific event or scene that stands out.

What I found most interesting is that, in terms of character, this movie isn't the least bit about Batman. Well that's overstating it. Batman obviously has a huge part to play. But if the movie is about the nature of order and chaos (and it is) old Batsy -in this story- doesn't really represent either. Okay, well, in the end he does; but he's not meant to, if that makes any sense. Naturally, the Joker is chaos. But Harvey Dent represents, if I can use a bad pun, the flip side of the coin. Unless you read other reviews you might have no idea just how big a part Harvey Dent (played wonderfully by "Thank You for Not Smoking's" Aaron Eckhart) has in this film. How important he is. He, not Batman, is the one who is meant to embody order.

And then there's the Joker. If you think the Heath Ledger Oscar buzz around his performance is only because he died a few moths back, think again. This is, as I'm sure you have heard, the definitive Joker. No one will ever match what Heath Ledger did in this film. It's not just dark. It's disturbing. The mannerisms, the way he talks, there's no trace of Heath Ledger left. It's amazing and chilling at the same time. And no one will ever hear the same way again the words, "Do you know how I got these scars?" But it's not just Heath that nailed this character. So did director/co-writer Christopher Nolan and co-writers Jonathan Nolan and Davis S. Goyer. The words and the deeds they committed to ink in this story are what make Ledger's performance possible. The scene in which the Joker holds the lives of Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes in the balance and forces Batman to choose whom to save was your conventional fare. (Not bad, just conventional.) Where they show us just how much they understand the psychology of the Joker is when they have him tell Batman where to save Rachel, only to have Bats arrive on the scene and find Harvey Dent instead... and then? Boom.

Like I said, brutal.

Here's the other thing I suspect isn't going to show up in a lot of reviews. The Joker wins. Sure, his plan with the boats fails and he's captured. And yes, that the citizens of Gotham didn't live down to his expectations is a wonderful moment. A moment that does make you feel good when watching the film. But the Joker still won. In Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne believes he's found the one who can do what he can't. Fight injustice from the light instead of from the shadows. That Harvey Dent is the uncorruptable force that can't be stopped. And the Joker ends him. Not by taking his life, although he does die in the end (we think), but by corrupting him and driving him to madness. In essence, forcing Bruce Wayne to continue his fight from the shadows. Marvelous.

There's a lot more to the film as well. I really could go on and on. There are also, as always, some things you have to give the film a pass on. I find the Joker's ability to do certain things, like plant a ridiculous number of explosives wherever he damn well pleases, more than a little implausible. And there are certainly some action scenes and Bat-gadgetry there that are more over the top than they need to be. But almost all of it serves the story so well that there's no reason not to just accept it and enjoy the show. The only place where things really fall flat is the very end of the film, only because it, probably in an effort to wrap things up, has to rely very heavily on exposition to make an ending for the story. It, unfortunately, feels forced.

So, is this the best Batman movie ever done? Absolutely. Is it the best comic book film ever made? If you can separate a film that you like because it's fun to watch from one that is just a well-constructed piece of filmwork that must be appreciated on its own level, then yep. There is no equal to this. This isn't a film to watch to be entertained, at least in the conventional sense. It really isn't even enjoyable, at least in terms of what I think of as enjoyment. You're not going to find yourself smiling while watching it, except perhaps in a nervous, uncomfortable sort of way. (Or as part of a geek-gasm because you can't get over how unbelievably good this is.) Rather, it's a twenty car pileup on the expressway. It's terrifying and terrible and it dares you to look away. And in doing that so perfectly, so brutally, The Dark Knight achieves greatness.