Dark Knight
Year: 2008
Grade: A-
Country: USA
Director: Nolan
Reviewwith the arrival of the joker gotham is seemingly even worse off than it was before. lawlessness is an all time high, etc., but now they at least have batman. perhaps, though, batman is a crutch. perhaps he does so much for them that they can’t do for themselves, this is addressed a bit in the final installment.
i love the allegory of the three films, but this installment in particular. have we become too decadent a society? are we so stupid and hero-hungry that harvey dent’s legacy must be protected by throwing batman under the bus? in this way it reminded me of the ending of the watchmen. they decided that ignorance was bliss and that everyone would be better off not knowing the truth that the “alien invasion” was manufactured to unite the world. of course rorschach screwed that plan up in the end. at the end of the dark knight batman must become the fall guy. he sacrifices his legacy and (it turns out) the next 7 years of his life for the good of harvey dent’s legacy and gotham is better (though this is debatable) for it as a result.
adding to the 99% stuff…there’s a lot going on not only with bane and his plot, but also with bruce wayne losing his fortune. he becomes a regular guy, at least by his standards. it’s basically unbelievable that he doesn’t have any money anywhere socked away for something like this. also unbelievable that the lights go out and he doesn’t have any friends (asshole or not) to help him with something that basic. that’s the difference between a “broke” donald trump and a broke homeless guy – access, connections, and credit. anyway, that added another layer to the story.
superhero films, sci-fi, zombie movies, apocalypse films, war films, prison movies…they all have in common the ability to reflect the best and worst of humanity and this is what i love about them. they show us at our most desperate or extreme and illuminate our nature in the process. dawn of the dead comments that all the zombies go to the mall “because it meant something to them at one point.” it’s a pointed commentary on the mindless consumerism of americans…and that was in 1978. to me, the best ones make this element a central pillar of the story. the dark knight trilogy definitely does this and is all the better for it. so much is revealed about human nature and society as a result of the epic battle that occurs between batman and ra’s al ghul, the joker and bane.