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I have come back from seeing this film.
Where...the hell...did they get the idea to make this? Who, in their right mind, could get off from a day of filming this movie and think, it's just a job? I implore you to find me someone who thought that so I can drop a colony on you.
From the get-go, it grabs you with The Joker(there is no Heath Ledger for me). He masterminds a bank robbery and kills all his compatriots. Why? No reason. For him, money isn't important. It's the "joke" that's important. It's proving that if someone has just one bad day, he can become a "freak". The most gripping point, for me at least, was the ferry boat scene. When I saw the big black guy get focused on in the criminal's boat and the suit get focused on on the civilians boat, I knew it would come down to a personal choice between the two of 'em. After all, if someone could try to kill the one dude who found out Batman's identity, why wouldn't a boatload of people kill one another to ensure their own survival? That's assuming Joker wouldn't have made it so both boats wouldn't explode. And when the big black guy grabed the detonator and threw it out the window....you knew the choice was made right. And Joker seemed dissapointed that nobody, faced with their own death, wouldn't choose their own life over someone elses, even as dispicable as a known criminal. To me, that was the point where Joker lost. That was the point where Joker knew he lost.
Then we get to Bale. Who had the job to play two totally and utterly, different people. Batman and Bruce Wayne. One, a play it by ear, super-rich bastard who's only interest seems to be partying. The other is the Dark Knight himself. A man who knows that there is a point where ordinary people cannot and will not go any further and he must go beyond that point to save everyone. He's not afraid to sacrifice his own well-being for others. That gruff voice he used, even when in tremendous pain, was just magnificant. I, for one, applaud Mr. Bale in his portrayal of the Dark Knight and hope he's attached to the cowl for a long time.
Then we come to the third player in our little game. Mr. Harvy Two-Face Dent. I honestly thought he was going to survive to plauge the Bat-Man(must use the hyphen) in the third movie. Instead...he dies. He dies as a man who broke down in the face of a mad-man. A man who was the White Knight but once he got down and dirty, he couldn't face what he saw in the mirror. He was a man who made his own luck after all and what happened to that luck? It blew up in his face. And that, more then anything the Joker said to him in that one scene, is what brought him down to the point where he went from the Hero to the Villian. Dent wanted to be a hero but what he couldn't fathom is to be a Hero, you have to remain true to yourself, not to others.
I must say, even before Rachel got blown up, I knew all the rules were gone. Why? When Gordon got "killed". At that point, I knew that nobody, not a single solitary character, was safe. Anyone could be next. From Batman all the way down to the extras in the scene, anyone could end up being the next victem of the Joker. Anyone. That, to me is the essence of this movie.
See, this movie wasn't about super-heros or villians or unrequited love or even lies we tell ourselves to keep us sane. It was about chaos and emotions and how even when we think we're safe, we get thrown a curve-ball and are left scratching our heads. The Joker proved, without a shadow of a doubt, a good man could be corrupted to the point of become an agent of chaos. The Bat-Man proved that the people don't need a shining knight, they need someone who will become whatever it is they want him to become while staying true to himself. And Nolan proved that no matter what happens, a movie that is this good will last through the ages and be spoken of throughout the world.
That...in essance, is the Dark Knight.
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