Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan’s 2005 reboot of the Batman franchise, Batman Begins, came to us as an epiphany of what Batman and superhero films could be. At once it both redefined Batman by placing him in a gritty realism as well as portraying him and the Gotham universe in perhaps the most faithful way to the comic books that we’ve seen on screen — in terms of the thematic and psychological directions the comic books have taken in the past twenty-five years or so. I absolutely love Batman Begins and have looked forward to its sequel The Dark Knight since leaving the theater. Nolan made a wonderful choice of establishing Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) by having him face off against a few of the comic’s more minor villains: Carmine Falcone, Scarecrow, and Ra’s Al Ghul. This choice allowed us to know Batman at a depth that had not been previously achieved because the famous villains often edged out Batman in the earlier films. We saw Batman seek to turn the terror criminals use to incapacitate the general population back on themselves and we were left wondering whether that psychological warfare might belie deeper psychoses in our hero.
The Dark Knight explores the question of Batman’s mental health and moral limits and is just as psychologically and philosophically rich as it is exhilarating. The film delves into discussions regarding order and chaos, whether society is actually all that civilized, and who we are at our cores. It asks questions that are at once immediate and timeless. How do we maintain hope and order in the midst of terror? What limits do we have or should we place on ourselves when protecting society? And in standing against monsters, how do we ensure that we do not become monsters ourselves? Nolan and his actors clearly love these characters and the endless hours spent on honing them comes across. Oh, and there are fantastic action sequences, so don’t think you’re going to an ethics symposium.
When we come to The Dark Knight, things appear different in Gotham. The city is not as dingy as in the first film, and we see that when the Bat-signal lights up, criminals flee the streets immediately. The police and city officials, in particular the new charismatic and showy district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Ekhart), now directly confront the crime bosses. James Gordon (Gary Oldman), who now expertly heads up the police department’s Major Crimes Unit, wondered aloud in the previous film about escalation — certainly the criminals would not go down without a fight and what would they unleash in response to Batman turning up the heat? The Dark Knight’s events shows that Gordon understands the criminal mind all too well.
These Batman films by Nolan remind us that at their cores, comic book stories, and especially the Batman tales, are cops and robbers stories. The Dark Knight seems more akin to Heat, The Untouchables, or The Departed than it does the Superman or Spiderman series. Nolan has crafted a spectacular crime story so multi-layered that it will reward several viewings and will provide fodder for several essays. In many ways, The Dark Knight achieves the best of popular cinema: it offers thrills along with intelligence, spectacle along with introspection. It asks big questions without giving trite responses.
(more…)
Tyler
