18 July 2008

film: the dark knight

I, like many, saw a midnight showing of Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight. Chris Vognar's assessment that the films is perhaps the "first hybrid of novel and all-out action move" is spot on. I actually told my brother last night that it was like a baggy Victorian novel; Dickens crossed with Wilkie Collins. There came a point where it felt too long--as all Victorian novels do--but then it made complete sense why the narrative included that last arc. The acting is superb, with Christian Bale still beautifully shading the three facets of the character--the Batman, the Bruce Wayne, and Bruce. I found Ledger's performance almost unbearably creepy and disturbing; I frequently had to hide my eyes before his masterful take on anarchy. Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent is probably going to be overlooked, as self-righteous characters often are, but I think his work here--and the way that Nolan is able to work his theme of heroism vs. stewardship--is the glue that holds the film together. It isn't a film about good vs. evil; heroism vs. anarchy; rather, the Dark Knight is about the reality of living where those categories cannot function. This is the dichotomy that the Joker and Dent work in, but Bruce doesn't operate in this world of absolutes. It helps that I watched Batman Begins again before seeing the Dark Knight, which delineates a lot of this idealistic vs. realistic discourse. Bruce has moral lines he won't cross, but they aren't idealistic ones per se. Not being idealistic, they are harder to see but also harder to break. Dent is an idealist. He reminded me a lot of Sydney Bristow in Alias, actually. Self righteous, cocky. Where Sydney almost always had to eat her idealistic words, however, Dent is instead broken into two. In many ways, Dent becomes what Batman could easily have become: a broken, righteous vigilante. Somehow Bruce, because of his father, because of Rachel, because of Alfred, because of his time spent as a criminal, avoids this trap. He has other demons to face down, but Bruce cannot be self righteous. Neither can Gordon. Neither can anyone else. Dent is so much the white knight that he is absolutely blinded by his own moral absolutes. Consequently, he is much easier to push over the edge than Bruce, who almost, but doesn't quite, break. Such prettiness--both of morality and physicality (Eckhart is at his chiseled best here)--is the perfect mirror for the Joker's deranged, dark nihilism. Then of course, there is Bruce, at the end, committing self sacrifice to save the city that will never comprehend the measure of his gift to them or the pain that goes with it.

03 July 2008

politics: throwing around the marxist label and sweater making

So, I keep hearing the words Marxist and Marxism coming out of the right to describe Obama and pretty much everyone else on the left. The term is usually written in a hyperbolic style meant to strike to fear in the heart: "He's a Marxist, for crying out loud." I have two queries about this phenomonon: 1) Does this term still resonate in the way? and 2) Which Marxisms are we discussing? I mean I don't immediately jump to visions of the Cold War when I hear the word Marxist, just visions of sad hippies and anti-hippies trying to recreate their youth. Admittedly, I work in academia, which supposedly makes me some kind of indocrtinated drone. Nevertheless, no one has told me that I need to subscribe to Marxist political theories. I actually think Karl Marx is a horrible writer; Engles had the better grasp of prose and economics. Of course, I also think Marx needs to be read in context. Both Marx and Engles were writing during the Hungry 40s, or the 1840s, when the plight of the working class was between dying of starvation and well, dying of starvation. Nor were Marx and Engles the only ones to address the condition of England question or to call for a radical rethinking of the system. I prefer Gaskell's stewardship model, actually, but when most people invoke Marx, they aren't considering or aware of this context. Plus, since the nineteenth century, Marxism, as a socio-economic-political theory, has taken many forms. I find Gramsci's theory of hegemony vastly more compelling than others. I like the idea of being complicit in the system because it means you change the system from within in gradual steps. I don't think this is the kind of Marxism that conservative commentators have in mind. I think they want people to see red.

Side note: I'm almost done with my cardigan. Less than half the back to knit and a sleeve. I also think I'm going to undo that baby blanket and use the yarn for something else...like a shawl for me.

01 July 2008

great salt lake

I flew back from a wedding in Oregon yesterday, and we flew over Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake. It is perhaps the strangest natural landscape I have ever seen. The lake is two distinct colors because of a railway line running across it changing the algae composition. The northern half is a deep red and the bottom half is a crystalline blue. The water is clear enough to see the topography underneath. From the air, it looks like a prehistoric land or the results of a post-apocolyptical desoltion. Even the land surrounding the lake is surreal in its starkness. It looks like a giant hand carefully placed each strata of sand.