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.