Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight
“Don't talk like one of them, you're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me. They need you right now. But when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper. See, their morals, their code... it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you, when the chips are down,these... these civilized people? They'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve.”
-The Joker
At face value Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight can be seen as a dark, unpredictable, and extremely entertaining superhero film. That would not be doing the film justice at all. The Dark Knight is a grand tragedy about the good and sanity of mankind where all actions have real and sometimes horrific consequences. The film shouldn’t be classified as a superhero film, because it is so much more. It isa film that pushes just exactly what mainstream film media can look like and for that is a masterpiece.
It’s hard to imagine the Dark Knight without Heath Ledger’s terrifying Joker. Ledger’s Joker is unlike any villain seen before. He’s menacing because of his wicked intelligence instead of might or force. The Joker knows how to get into the head of his opponents, how to tear them apart piece by piece until they have no sense of sanity left. The Joker can take even the best man and turn him into an evil incarnate by twisting his buttons in the right way.
Thus is where the tragedy comes in, ultimately while the story can be seen as the conflict between Batman and Joker the main message is carried through Harvey Dent. Dent is the classic tragic who is brought from the height of good and falling to the depths of evil through a series of disastrous events. The sequence at the end of the film involving Harvey attempting to take Commissioner Gordon’s family because “it’s what’s fair”, because the hardships that happened to him are a direct result of the efforts to be “decen tmen in an indecent time” is evidence of the man that Harvey becomes. He’s the archetype of the man that can snap and Nolan’s showcase for the malleability of man’s sanity.
Then there is the fact that the film is just plain entertaining. The Dark Knight is so well written, directed, and acted it’s astounding. The film has a constant energy to it that carries it throughout thefilm. There really is never a dull moment in this film. The other aspect of th efilm is the twisty plot. Just when the viewer can comfortably think that they have just figure the film out Nolan throws a curveball creating a film that isdeep and complex in every way.
The Dark Knight is an amazing film that works both as an action thriller and as a deep, almost Shakespearian tragedy. Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be given to the film is that it isn’t the greatest superhero film because it isn’t a superhero film at all; it is so much more.
-Frederick Cholowski
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