When the initial high from the midnight screening of “The Dark Knight” wore off last night, I decided to go see the film for a second time. There aren’t many films I’ve seen multiple times in the theater, and while “The Dark Knight” met all the requirements of being entertaining, thought-provoking, funny, and a visual masterpiece of special effects, costuming and makeup, it also delivered something more. Watching it for the first time on Thursday night, I tried to take everything in at once, but director Christopher Nolan included so many different motivations, twists, and battles both interior and exterior in each of the characters that it was nearly impossible. By the end of the film the first time around, I was in awe of the performances and the story and ready to see it again. It’s not often that a director delivers a film that leaves audiences satisfied but at the same time wanting more.
When I went back to the theater last night for my second viewing, I was able to take in more nuances in the dialogue and action that overwhelmed me during the initial screening. In short, the second viewing was a richer experience. Since I knew what was coming, I focused less on the “whats” and more on the “whys.” I planned on writing a follow-up review of sorts, something along the lines of “I was drunk with excitement on Thursday and I’ve now realized the film isn’t perfect.” And though the film isn’t perfect - perhaps a little too long, a little too wordy in parts, and Batman’s gargling-with-gravel voice gets on my nerves - it certainly doesn’t deserve to be torn apart. “The Dark Knight” is a masterpiece of the comic book genre and more than just a solid entry into the cinema as a whole. So instead, I decided to delve into the moral and psychological themes present in the film.
Warning: spoilers ahead! Don’t read this if you have not yet seen the movie. If you have not seen the movie, you’ve been living under a rock and deserve to stay there.
In an interview with the L.A. Times, actor Christian Bale said, “[The Joker’s] completely uncompromising, as is Batman, but Batman does have this one rule of he will not kill. But he’s in conflict often with himself about how far and how violent he can be because he does embrace violence to an extreme degree and has to counter that with the altruism of do-good, inherited philanthropy of his parents. But… the Joker comes closer than anybody has to provoking Batman to break that one rule.”
Perhaps it’s that wicked smile, the cackling laugh, or those crazy patterned socks, but something about the Joker is completely unnerving to viewers. I stand by my belief that the Nolan brothers and co-writer David Goyer made a wise choice in forgoing an origin story for the Joker. Nolan has referred to him as “absolute” and I love that the Joker is such a wild card. The challenges he provides to Batman and Bruce Wayne are expertly handled and played out; whereas “Batman Begins” found Wayne struggling with internal issues and battles, “The Dark Knight” brings them into light in Gotham’s city streets. But it’s not so simple; it’s not just that Wayne and Batman have their own separate problems that could keep the two personalities apart and balanced, Wayne and Batman are one being and, as it turns out, an incorruptible one.
As we are shown as Wayne stitches up a dog bite after the first fight scene, Wayne as a man is mortal and can be defeated, killed, or corrupted. As Batman, however, he cannot let that happen. When the Joker shows up, it’s as Ledger’s character cackles, “what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmoveable object.” The Joker, a complete psycho for unknown reasons - but, like I said in my review, what could possibly explain him sufficiently? - is so happy to have found Batman to play with; everyone else has been too easy. In this respect, the two men are equals - or perhaps parallels is a better way to put it.
The way the Joker taunts Batman sparked the question that always pops into my mind while watching superhero movies and was even brought up in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” when people turn on their superheroes, what keeps them going? After all, as “freaks,” they usually have more in common with their enemies than those they are trying to protect. But what keeps them going is a moral resolve; in Batman’s case, his vow to stand by his one rule, keep Gotham safe, and preserve the belief that not all good can be corrupted. In doing so, he takes the fall. At the end of the film, Batman tells Gordon that no one can know what Dent became because the Joker could not be allowed to win. When Gordon’s young son asks why Batman is running, Gordon responds that they have to chase him. Why? Because he can take it.
By the time Batman and the Joker have a showdown in Gotham’s streets, it has become clear that even though Wayne feels that he cannot endure the Joker’s madness, he has realized that Batman must. Before this, he had been ready to hang up his wings, saying, “I’ve seen what I have to become to fight men like him.” But he ultimately prevails, coming to Gotham’s rescue in a spectacular return to his role as black-caped vigilante. As badly as he wants to destroy the Joker, he cannot allow this clown-faced villain to make him break his one rule. Batman is able to separate himself from Wayne’s urges. Here we see that the dichotomy between the two is not good vs. evil but rather order and justice vs. chaos and anarchy. It is the relationship the Joker creates with Dent that represents the more conventional good vs. evil plot.
When Dent falls, it’s striking how relatively easy he does. Yes, he’s been disfigured, and yes, the woman he loves is dead, but it didn’t really take much effort on the Joker’s part to get this result. Harvey Dent’s two-headed coin illustrates, during the first half of the film, that he might just be that pure and good. He may threaten people with death using the “luck” of the coin, but it’s simply a trick; he would never stoop to the level of killing anyone in cold blood. However, when the Joker upsets his plan and destroys what he loves most, Dent quickly turns to evil. He goes out for revenge, separating his evil from the seemingly random madness of the Joker. The Joker doesn’t care who or how many die in his games, but Dent knows exactly who to go after. In the second half of “The Dark Knight,” Dent illustrates, by flips of his coin, the duality that exists in all of us and how fragile we can be made by the twists of fate.
The Joker claims to be a man without a plan, but he has developed elaborate ways to reach his goal: unmask Batman and corrupt him. Without any sort of code of morals or ethics - he kills even members of his own gang without remorse - the Joker is made extremely unpredictable and disorienting to viewers. Listening to varying stories on how he got his scars but not knowing if either is even remotely true, we cannot form any emotional connection or understanding with the villain. He does, however, represent many of the political undertones Nolan included in the film. In his “it’s all part of the plan” speech delivered to a crispy and hospitalized Dent, the Joker brings to light many contemporary issues of complacency in the face of evil in today’s world. As long as everything is planned out and people stick to the plan, it seems, there is no real cause for alarm. It’s the Joker’s uncontrollable malice that turns us off and raises the red flags. Why? Because he’s unpredictable and somehow almost omnipotent - just how exactly did he get all those bombs wired? It no longer matters how he got things done, it’s a matter of trying to figure out what he’ll be up to and where he’ll be next. Confronted with the pure evil and fear embodied by the Joker and his gang, the people of Gotham, and audiences worldwide, need to believe that there is some good left in the world and that not everyone is corruptible.
The temptation to be driven from good to evil is layered throughout the entirety of “The Dark Knight.” When Batman breaks into Wayne Enterprises and creates a wall of sonar listening devices in an attempt to find the Joker, Lucius Fox tells Batman that one man should not have this power. Fox understands that men can become corrupt even when trying to do good, and he fears that Batman has wandered into an ethical gray area. Batman triumphs once again as it is revealed that he programmed in a self-destruct key to make sure the technology would only serve the purpose of finding the Joker.
On a larger scale, the Joker sets up a dastardly trap for the citizens of Gotham. Two ferries sit in the harbor, one carrying prisoners and the other carrying civilians. Given the detonators to the explosives on the other ship, the passengers must choose to either kill the people on the other ship or wait to be killed by the Joker. Ultimately, goodness prevails, a slap in the face to the Joker, and the look on his face in reaction to the lack of fireworks is priceless. He has lost this game, but the only thing stopping him from making good on his promise to blow up both ships is the fact that Batman has arrived just in time. Even that doesn’t phase this madman, and the last we see of the Joker, he is hanging upside down. Nolan chooses to turn the camera so that the Joker’s face is right-side up, as if the shot-reverse-shot conversation is taking place between two men standing eye to eye. This turn of the camera turns not only the Joker upside down, but also the world behind him; Batman is faced with a city that, under his watch, has been turned on its head. But the exercise with the ferry boats shows Batman and Joker that while individual men are capable of being corrupted, perhaps society as a whole hasn’t been lost yet.