Batman Week Concludes: The Dark Knight Returns

So the big day finally arrived! The biggest movie of the summer! In IMAX, no less. I had a group 20 people (organized by yours truly) there to watch the film and experience it with me (yes, Daisy, AH, and Scuba Steve were there and Eddie, in spirit if not in fact). The screening started with a brief teaser for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in IMAX 3-D (yes-going to be there opening weekend...next...) and then the trailer for Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" film, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I will be writing a column on "Watchmen" (one of the best works of fiction ever written, by the way) in the future. And then...the main event....

The deep base from Zimmer and Newton Howard's soundtrack started, and the Warner Brothers and DC Comics emblems flashed on the screen and disappeared. From the distinctive opening notes of the soundtrack that announced this as a Batman film, the music shifted to the eerie strains of "Why So Serious", a track that reflected the tonal shift that this film would represent versus the previous film. We see a group of gangsters dressed in clown mask...and a solitary figure standing on the street corner, his scraggly green (GREEN!!!!) hair blowing gently in the wind, his back to us, holding, with his left hand by his side, a similar clown mask. The mayhem begins as the Joker is introduced to the audience, representative of all of the chaos that is sure to follow. This was no villainous R'as Al Ghul or Scarecrow-level of lower tier villain. The Joker represented chaos in all of its glory. Did I mention this sequence was shot completely in IMAX (taking up the vast expanse of the IMAX screen? WOW. We track Batman to a parking garage fighting off Russian mobsters, a gang of Batman-inspired vigilantes, and the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy reprising his role in a nice little cameo). The movie then begins in earnest, and we learn that new cops and a new DA have restored hope to Gotham, a hope that remains so long as Batman is serving as guardian over the city. In their efforts to halt organized crime in Gotham, they have driven the criminal underworld to the brink, and the Joker is there with an offer for them-an offer to kill Batman. While this is occurring, Gordon, DA Harvey Dent, and Batman are showing just how far they will take their "ends justify the means" approach to cleaning up Gotham by working covertly to kidnap a Chinese national (the mob banker of Gotham) and return him to Gotham. This is a little unsettling; gone is the clear cut line between what was right and what was wrong that seemed so apparent in the first film. How can there be a clear cut line when chaos is just around the corner? Even though Batman has the mantle of the bat to protect those that he loves, it is not enough to protect those who fearlessly are out in front without the benefit of such disguises. All of these parties pay dearly not only for their own moral transgressions but also for daring to hope in a city that could give birth to a creature such as the Joker.

It is extremely difficult to speak of different aspects of the film without going into specific plot points. I must warn that the following will be one of my patented "favorite moments from the film" bullet point list, and it WILL be full of spoilers, so read on at your own peril.








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OK-here I go:

1) The establishing shot of Gotham through the lens of an IMAX camera was astonishing to behold. Everything was crystal clear, and the shot provided an amazing sense of perspective from the skies of the city.

2) The introduction of the Joker and the performance of the late Heath Ledger throughout the film. Wow. At times, I forgot that I was watching an actor. Ledger inhabited the role of the Joker to an amazing level. He created an unforgettable character and was faithful enough to the comics versions of the Joker to satisfy even the most die hard of Batman fans (such as myself). From his voice innotations to the way he wielded his daggers, the Joker was a living unpredictable force of mayhem in an arena (a comic book film) where such things should not exist. In point of fact, one could almost sense the palpable tension that gripped the movie audience whenever the Joker was on the screen, as no one could predict what he would do next. While I marveled at the performance, I am also saddened by the knowledge that we will never see this actor in another new film. This was a performance for the ages.

3) The action sequences over Hong Kong were amazing (also shot in IMAX). Batman's assault on the skyscraper and his amazing escape with his hostage were truly amazing to behold. If I have not mentioned this before, let me say that this film needs to be experienced in IMAX.

4) The capture of the Joker: round one. The chase sequences were breathtaking and the last minute rescue of the Dark Knight by an unforeseen participant was a joy to behold. The interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker was hard to watch. After all, Batman is one of the good guys. He was played by Adam West, for gosh sakes! Here, he mercilessly pummels the Joker while demanding information, and, even more disturbingly, the Joker lets him know that there is nothing Batman can do to him. He just does not care. The tragic sequence of events that unfolds soon after this...well, even though I could spoil it for you, there are some things that need to be experienced. The interrogation scene also held a special place for me because of its eerie resemblance to a similar scene at the beginning of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's graphic novel "The Killing Joke." This was a great way to pay homage to this excellent story.



5) Speaking of "The Killing Joke", I also loved how the Joker HAD no origin. He just simply seemed to...just...be. I was taken with how the Nolans chose to purposefully keep the origin of the Joker a mystery, and the fact that the Joker used as his henchmen many of the escapees of Arkham from the first film made his anarchaic tendencies all that more chilling. There have been many Joker origin stories, but the Nolans' approach (there IS no origin) is, by far, the best of them all.

6) The Nolans seemed to borrow from a lot of Batman graphic novels. The look-alike Batman vigilante echoed the Mutant gang/Sons of Batman from Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", and the tragic rise and fall of Harvey Dent owed a lot to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's maxi-series "Batman: The Long Halloween". The slogan "I believe in Harvey Dent", the character of Maroni (portrayed by Eric Roberts),the decision of the mob to "go to the freaks" to deal with Batman, and even the scenes with Dent and Gordon all seemed to be lifted directly from "The Long Halloween". In the film, Dent's transformation to Two-Face was tragic and affecting, and the excellent CGI work that was used to give actor Aaron Eckhart the gruesome visage of Two-Face deserves special attention. Finally, the devil's choice that the Joker gave the citizens of Gotham at the climax of the film mirrored the Joker's feelings from "The Killing Joke"-namely, the feeling that everyone has the capability to feel (or not feel) as the Joker does and all it takes is something to push them over-was wonderfully realized as the expected response does not materialize at all. Confused? Trust me, see the film and it will all make sense.



7) The supporting cast. From Morgan Freeman's quiet humor in light situations and his gravity in serious situations to Michael Caine's similar approach, Lucius Fox and Alfred continued to be indispensable parts of Bruce Wayne's fight for Gotham. I particularly loved a scene between Alfred and Bruce that mirrored one from the first film. The scene in the first film was where Bruce, after the funeral, breaks down as he believes the death of his parents to be his fault. Something similar is at work here, and Alfred, as always, knows what to say.

8) The final face-off between the Joker and Batman, where the Joker intones how Batman will not kill him and how their fates will forever be intertwined. Now, because their fates have been intertwined for almost 70 years in the comics, this particular bit of dialogue rang true and also reflected a similar conversation between Batman and Joker in "The Killing Joke", but in that story, Batman was giving this same bit of reasoning to the Joker.



9) The ambiguous ending. Sure, most of the good guys were standing at the end, but at what cost? The city has been put through the ringer yet again, and every single person has lost something. The final voice over montage delivered by Gordon was eloquent. In the hands of an actor other than Gary Oldman, the monologue might have seemed cheesy. Here, it seemed sad, as Gordon informs his child of how Batman is to be hunted and to be viewed as an outlaw for the good of the city.


There is SO MUCH more that I could write about the film, and I will probably re-visit it when it comes out on home video. For now, all I can say is that Hollywood saved the best of the summer for last. Bravo!