Director Christopher Nolan has established himself as a master of mood, and his films have made it clear that his interest is in not only the cerebral, but the furthest stretches of the cerebral. Films like Memento and The Prestige, are nothing if not statements by way of furthest extremes. The Dark Knight is no different, and Nolan focuses on familiar ground by examining the human psyche, but this time around he tackles morality itself as well.
“Christian Bale's Batman faces Heath Ledger's Joker.”
Batman faces off with The Joker this time around, and Heath Ledger’s Joker is a wildly different class of maniac from the almost chummy version Jack Nicholson delivered to the masses. Our Joker here is an anarchist and sociopath of a rarely, if ever, filmed caliber. Christian Bale is again inspiring, delivering well in hyper-kinetic action sequences, even as the majority of his performance relies on subtle nuance, but The Joker is the star of this film, and his anti-morality is the foundation for the brilliant script. If there were nothing else positive to say about this film, I would recommend purely on the performances of Ledger and Bale.
“Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent.”
Thrown into the mix this time around is Harvey Dent, Gotham’s newest DA, and the man that Batman rather wishes he could somehow be. The Good Man, fighting the good fight, without doing it from the shadows. A rallying point for Gotham who shows his face. As might be expected, the Joker’s goals throughout are various spins on destruction. Literally thousands of explosions and bullets later, it becomes clear that Joker truly understands the destruction he’s after. Whether he focuses on Batman or Harvey Dent, killing is not destroying. Destroying Batman is unmasking him, and destroying Dent is turning him. In at least some sense, he will eventually accomplish both.
“Come on, I want you to do it. I want you to do it. Come on, hit me. Hit me!”
The high-flying action scenes are driven largely by Joker’s penchant for destruction, and nearly orgasmic death wish, but the true heart of the movie revolves around a quite serious morality study. The Joker seems hopelessly insane, but his morality is actually solid, and rigid. As some of the greatest thinkers in the history of the world will attest, it is also not illogical. Harvey Dent’s morality is also quite rigid. Batman’s, however, is malleable, and as we will see, sometimes rather questionable. This is the inescapable draw and power of Nolan’s Batman. Harvey Dent and the Joker live in black and white, but black and white is only something we pretend exists. As the Joker points out, we pretend it exists because it serves to march civilization along somewhat smoothly. Batman, on the other hand lives with the rest of us. Where situations are not resolved by consulting a guide of predetermined “correct” actions, and where we dread blind adherence to rules as much as not adhering to any rules.
In the end, according to Dark Knight, there as many moralities as there are people, and your morality is mostly a combination of who you are and the options you truly have available. The choices you actually have to make, not the side you wish to claim in hypotheticals. Ultimately, the only real difference among the major players is that Joker and Dent think they are right, and Batman thinks he’s probably wrong. As the movie will display in a variety of situations, doing what you think is right is always easy. Doing what you think is wrong is hard. In fact, it is something beyond the abilities of most people.
5 out of 5 stars
