Double Take: Austinist Goes Batty For The Dark Knight
So hot, in fact, that we had to stage a brutal dance-fight for the right to review it. Austinist contributors Luke Quinton and Darcie Duttweiler both caught IMAX screenings earlier this week, and what follows is a conversation about human nature, Oscar nominations, and shirtless Christan Bale.
Luke: Could The Dark Knight have been any darker? It is sprawling, brutal, thrilling, and does. not. let. up. It sort of sucks your soul. I may have lost the will to live.
P.S. Heath Ledger for Best Actor. For sure. (R.I.P.)
Darcie: Yeah, where Christopher Nolan brought audiences a fantastic origin story with the previous Batman installment, The Dark Knight plummets viewers into a much grittier, foreboding place (and we’re not just talking about Christan Bale’s Batman husky growl) that poses questions of right and wrong, good and evil. And, in case you’ve been living under a rock lately and haven’t seen any of Heath Ledger’s Joker performance, it completely retools one of the most iconic villains of our generation. Whereas Jack Nicholson gave us a smooth, Prince-loving, partying Joker, Ledger dives into the abyss of his character and doesn’t let up. He’s psychotic, unrelenting, funny, dark, deadly, and oh-so-much-fun to watch. But, does Bale keep up?
Although, to be honest, while I really did love Ledger's performance, I think: a) if he DOES get nominated it will be for best supporting actor, and b) I almost think, that--while it was an incredible character development--they’d just be doing it because he died. It’s a tricky, tricky subject...
Luke: I think Bale is up to it (and most anything for that matter), but he’s got a few things up against him here, most noticeably Ledger stealing most of the movie (and Batman’s mojo). There’s also the fact that even if the plot hung more on his side, Bale is still opposite a manic energy that he cannot mirror in an obvious way. Batman can’t start using a knife or being an anarchist, because that’s not his bag. Batman has always been a badass, but since Adam West and Burt Ward teamed up, rarely has he been more than a flawed, but clever, underdog.
I agree that having Heath Ledger considered for an Oscar is tricky. I don’t think anyone could say for sure how they would react if he were still alive. But, that said, I feel strongly that my reaction is legit. He seems transported by the role. And, of course, the New Yorker’s review eloquently regrets the possible connection between Ledger’s full immersion into his character, and his subsequent death. I think that’s fair, and I think it’s genuine. But I also think that the film is the film, and we should respect that.
In a way, Ledger carries the whole movie, and he makes every scene he’s in more real, more surprising, more remarkable. That’s what film is all about. And whether it’s for Best Actor or Best Supporting, I think he’s got a great shot. I’m pretty sure they’ll need a stopwatch, though some research tells me that screen time is unimportant.
Darcie: Totally. Seriously, the nuances of Ledger’s performance, the tics and intonations, and the laugh are really breathtaking character developments. He truly dives into the psyche of a deranged psychopath, but somehow makes him human with every inhumane act he inflicts on dear Gotham. Even if Ledger hadn’t been taken before his time, this performance would still be highly lauded. It is not merely hyperbole…
Luke: On to another topic. We both saw this in IMAX. I wrote in my notes that it was the “loudest fucking thing” ever. My girlfriend plugged her ears 80% of the time (wuss), and my eyes had to noticeably adjust to the scale of the screen (even in letterbox it is beyond huge—tip: sit in the back of the theater. We were in the middle, and I felt like I had cataracts).
Also: is this a dick-flick? I don’t recall Christian Bale taking off his shirt. Hang on, my girflriend says otherwise. . . figures. So, dudes only, or what?
Darcie: Well, I don’t have a dick, and I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Although some shirtless action would have been welcome. My boyfriend called it the best superhero movie of all time, well, up there with Spider-Man 2 definitely. And, to me, it just didn’t feel like your typical run-of-the-mill action, hero movie. It was more like a crime drama unfolding into many, many, many parts. You have your good guys (Harvey Dent and Lt. Gordon) and your villains (the Joker and the mob), and it’s a little unclear where Batman fits into the mix. He’s not the definite all-around good guy. It may be hard for people going into this film to think of it as a comic book movie, especially after the awesome fun that was Ironman. They are completely different beasts here. One is light and fun and easy. There is definite good and evil (yay for terrorists being the baddies), but with The Dark Knight the fun isn’t necessarily free-flowing. While the stunts, fights, and definitely the acting are incredible, the film may not leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling in your heart (perhaps your nether regions if you’re a nerdy fanboy).
As for the IMAX screening--holy shit, did it feel like I was scaling up buildings and flying down with Batman. I nearly cried, it was so awesome. I have no qualms with the size or the volume of the film, but I sometimes have the attention span of a five year old, and really, a two-and-a-half hour film is always tricky to sit through, no matter how entertained I was.
Luke: Yeah, some reviewers chastised the movie for ignoring the “comic” part. I have another take on it: just because it’s fantastical doesn’t make it simplistic, or comedic. You don’t need the shot tilted at a 35 degree angle to make it work. Nor do you need banana peel sound effects. This can be, and is, some dark shit. It can punch out of the box. Parts of it play like Godfather II—something the old genre could never have compared to—the definite dark sheep of the series. Long live the Dark Knight.
Darcie: As a total child of the ‘80s, Burton’s Batman has always stuck with me as one of the ultimate caped crusader movies with its over-the-top camp and cartooniness. (Okay, granted, Michael Keaton is a little dorky to be Batman, whatever. . .) A lot of reviews have said that The Dark Knight doesn’t have the rise and fall or heart of the “original,” and I couldn’t disagree more. Burton’s film was more about a Joker who loves life and loves fucking with people, and this Joker is more about pointing out the flaws and chaos in humans. Nolan makes Gotham into a gritty, dark, seedy place that NEEDS a hero, and Bale, Ledger, and Co. definitely deliver a well-tuned machine sure to entertain, albeit slightly uncomfortably at times.
