The movie “Dark Knight” is a grandiose, strange and dark piece of work of Hollywood. Although the film is overhyped and lasts too long, it is still highly entertaining and must be seen exclusively on the vast Imax screen!
When watching the very first shot of the dizzying skyscrapers and minuscule streets, I wasn’t breathing for a couple of seconds getting ready to dive into a new illusory world.
The movie “Dark Knight” is the continuation of the Batman story created by the British director Christopher Nolan. The film plot takes the story up to his confrontation with well known Joker, who is brilliantly played by Heath Ledger. His whiteface make-up makes him look like a sad Pagliaccio of crime. Anyone who wishes to compare him with Jack Nicholson should think twice though – their Jokers are of absolutely different nature: Jack Nicholson plays Joker from comics, Heath Ledger, however, was able to show us this genius of crime and chaos as he would look like if he somehow got to exist in our reality. One should mention that Ledger is highly talented at all his kinks, tics, quirks and twitches!
The caped crusader is again played by famous Christian Bale, who’s clanking around in his Batmobile so military and macho-looking! As the action begins, the audience realizes that in Gotham city Batman is still a highly important figure. People in the city still approach this vigilante because “he is the Batman”. And here’s one more reason to refer to the hero – a new crime fighter is in the city! Played by Aaron Eckhart, a handsome attorney Harvey Dent truly believes that the rule of the law must be upheld by a democratically accountable individual, not some unknown figure of the night. Besides that, Harvey starts dating Batman’s beloved one – Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal).
To my mind, the most bizarre moment in the film comes when the Joker abducts some unfortunate from the Gotham psychiatric hospital in order to “impersonate” the first love of Batman. This is what I call the joke of sophistication, hatred and lack of taste!
Actually, everything that is going on in the movie is of a mental nature. It’s not that there is no action in the “Dark Knight”, but even when the main hero is racing through the Gotham streets in his incredible gadgets, it is still the psychology of what is happening pushes the whole movie plot. Due to that, all the problems that the director faced with when working on the “Batman Begins” are absent in the “Dark Knight”. There are no complicated and extended fight scenes in the film for the reason that it simply does not need them. What really makes the “Dark Knight” action so arresting is the solid force of will that stands behind it as well as the philosophical fight that is driving it. Without a doubt, you will be on the edge of the seat every moment in the process – be it a simple conversation at the office of Bruce Wayne or a scene in a Hong Kong skyscraper.
Nothing is wasted in the Nolan’s work! There’s not a second or a minute in the “Dark Knight” movie that does not fit into a deeper, bigger and broader picture. That fits everything, along the way the famous director has filmed it. With all this in mind, I am free to state that the “Dark Knight” movie deserved nothing less than good old Imax.
Without a doubt, the massive box-office success of the “Dark Knight” movie has provided its director Christopher Nolan with the required means to create his own cheque. I really hope that Nolan will make use of this chance to cultivate works that are more maneuverable than that retro Batmobile.
