"The Dark Knight"

One of the greatest things that makes "The Dark Knight" so good is it's fulfilling the promise made at the end of "Batman Begins;" the promise of escalation. What follows the more intimate, fear and anger driven origin, is the large-scale, chaotic and choice driven escalation. We see the rise of a dark knight and witness the tragedy of a beacon of hope, all courtesy of the brilliance that is Heath Ledger's Joker character. I feel almost bad that the greatness of Christian Bale reprising his role as the tortured Caped Crusader and Aaron Eckhart's role as the fallen District Attorney are completely overshadowed by the extraordinary Heath Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime. But then I realize that that just means more greatness for us, the viewer, to watch. A lot can be said for the technical aspects of this movie; cinematography seems to have found it's ultimate groove stemming from "Batman Begins" and "The Prestige," acting is once again directed wonderfully, and the music comes to life as an eerie, fitting character. But what is truly great in this movie is story and character and how they work together. We have Gotham's white and dark knights, their roles in saving Gotham, their relation to each other, and their choices which ultimately set them apart. This is their story of their choices to save Gotham City with the chaotic slash through of the Joker to test them. This exploration of right and wrong through these characters is brought to life by these actors. One can't help but feel overwhelming sadness toward the tragedy that is Harvey Dent. One can't help but feel substantial hope toward the self-sacrifice that's personified by the Batman. These are two faces to the same coin, that when faced with disaster and despair chose two different paths and come out to separate ends.* It's difficult to blame Harvey for his choices when it seems like the almost natural reaction to that situation (killing 5, 2 of them cops, may be a bit of an overreaction), and it's hard to think what it takes to make the decisions that Batman did, but it's relatively easy to make the right choice when it's clearly black and white or you're in an easy situation. But when faced with darkness, and the chaos is swirling in around you, then is the time to hold fast, be strong, and make the right decision. That may seem a bit melodramatic, but it is one of those truths the resonates with me from "The Dark Knight" and why it is so much more than an action or comic book movie. With "Batman Begins" I was watching an intimate action movie; with "The Dark Knight" I was watching an escalated, large-scale action movie that spoke to me intimately.** Christopher Nolan did perfect in making the movie and the story that emotional and exploratory journey on such a grand scale that makes me want to watch it again as soon as Gordon*** speaks his closing words and the screen cuts to black.

*Like how I related them to Harvey Dent's coin from the movie with two head's sides (or faces *wink wink*) and how one got scarred and the other remains bright and shiny because it symbolizes their two different paths and separate ends?

**And of course by "intimate" I mean a physical, "I need to talk to my Bishop," type of intimate.

***I love Gary Oldman!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/