Best So Far

28 July 2008



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“Dark Knight” is a Batman for Grown-Ups

Comic books have become a major source of material for Hollywood. Bob Kane’s Batman has been one of the financially more lucrative of the comic book movie franchises. Until now, that financial strength had little to do with the artistry of the story or the acting. “The Dark Knight” is the first of these films to go beyond pulp writing and acting.

The critics have made much of the late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. Some have suggested that it is an Oscar quality performance and have compared it favorably to Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the same character in the first Batman film. Sad as his untimely passing was, Mr. Ledger’s work was solid and gripping, but it will only win an Oscar if the competition this year is weak. He was good in his final film but not great.

The supporting cast includes Sir Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldham. Each plays his role with the sort of craftsmanship one expects of them. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart have much larger parts, but the true test of an actor is what one can make of a small role. Playing Juliet much easier than playing her nurse.

The weakest performance oddly was Christian Bale’s as Bruce Wayne a/k/a Batman. He didn’t really do anything badly, although he did seem a bit wooden when he was being thoughtful. It was the silly voice he seemed to adopt every time he put on the suit of armor. He felt, apparently, that he needed to disguise the voice lest his identity would be revealed.

The other point about this Batman was a willingness to use a real city of today (Chicago) rather than a Hollywood lot set in some idealized 1930s or 1950s. It lent a verisimilitude to the film that its predecessors lacked. The result was a film that a grown-up could actually watch without feeling stuck in a comic book.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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