The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight
As long as I’ve been watching movies about superheroes,
there has been one of the famed caped crusaders who’s always stood out for me.
And that’s Batman. It could be a case of who I was introduced to first, or
perhaps I just related to the character and vision of The Batman more than say,
Superman. By the time Marvel came along I was nearing my twenties, and even
though I’ve enjoyed those heroes immensely, they could never recruit me as strongly
as Batman did.
The first film from 1989, directed by Tim Burton and
starring Michael Keaton in the lead role, was where it all began. Too young to
see it at the movies, I recorded it off TV onto VCR, and kept that video in a
safe place. I can’t tell you how many times I watched it as a youngster. Then, I
got to see “Batman Returns” at the movies in 1992, and loved its darker more
gothic vision of Batman. Three years later, and “Batman Forever” came along,
and although visually different in every way to the first two instalments, I still
enjoyed it. It was hip, cool and colourful, and I thought Val Kilmer did okay. And
I’ll admit, I’m also a Jim Carrey fan and loved his work as The Riddler. As the
Batman saga evolved through the 90’s, I was on board and eagerly awaited the
next instalment.
But in 1997, something went wrong. That something was “Batman
& Robin”. It must have sounded great on paper; Arnold Schwarzenegger as the villain Mr Freeze, and everybody’s
favourite hunky doctor from “ER”, George Clooney taking over as Batman. The trailer
looked promising, continuing on the visual tone of Batman Forever, but with a
more comic book approach. And the pay off? Well, the film really took the saga
in a new direction – the direction to nowhere. It was corny, campy, cheesy and
overblown. It paid no respect to the vision of Tim Burton, and was aimed squarely
at kids, ignoring the large adult audience Batman had, who were very disappointed
from this film.
It would take eight years for the dust to settle and superhero
films to start creeping back in, when “Batman Begins” would come along. Determined
to not be seen as a remake or a prequel and putting to rest the debacle of
Batman & Robin, 2005’s Batman Begins meant business. It secured an up and coming
director in Christopher Nolan and skilled character actor Christian Bale. It also
rounded out it’s impressive cast with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan
Freeman and Liam Neeson. And, it portrayed Batman in a more gritty, grounded
way that made us believe a man with revenge as his purpose, could muster up a
suit, cool weapons and a modified army tank, to become The Batman and save Gotham
City from the clutches of its own mob.
Although stellar in many ways, Batman Begins left me feeling
a little wanting. I felt like it only
taunted and teased us as to what it could have been, and I believed this was an
intentional, and intelligent, move by it’s creators. Set the stage with a promising
new rendition of the classic hero, and then take its inevitable sequel up a
notch. And three years later, things were looking good for “The Dark Knight”.
The highlight of this entry would be bringing the villain of The Joker back to
screen. And even more exciting was the casting choice; Australia’s own Heath
Ledger. Hot off the heels in his career ascending performance with “Brokeback
Mountain”, Ledger showed he had the acting chops to pull off any character, and
the early footage and photos of him in the clown make up and purple suit looked
awesome. But then, as you will recall, tragedy struck before the release of The
Dark Knight.
Somehow, you can always recall where you were when you found
about a major event. Whether it was the Port Arthur shootings in Tasmania of 1996, the death of Princess Diana
in 1997 or the September 11th terrorist attacks of 2001. It’s the emotional
charge behind a global tragedy that makes us never forget how we heard about it
for the first time. And many well known and loved celebrities die every year,
but I can still vividly recall the moment I heard about the sudden death of
Heath Ledger.
It was about 7.30am in the morning, and I was driving to
work. I turned on the radio, and the voice of the announcer sounded low and
sullen. He said something like, “…it’s just shocking. He was so young, s so
talented and had his whole life ahead of him. This is going to hurt many
Australians, and many people across the world…” then silence. I was impatiently
waiting to hear of the news of who had actually died. Then the DJ spoke again “…
so if you are just joining us, we’re reporting on the sudden death of actor
Heath Ledger, aged 28, found dead in his New York apartment from a suspected
drug overdose…” and I froze. What? Heath Ledger dead? The young Aussie actor we
all knew and loved. Only 28? Drugs? What the fuck? I started the drive to work,
and the story was retold a couple of times on my one-hour commute. It sunk in
more and more as the day went by, and as this was the early days of social
media, we didn’t rush onto Facebook to post our respects and find out the news
of what had actually happened. We waited to speak to someone we saw and ask
them what they had heard, or ultimately, watch the news that evening.
As more details emerged, it was apparent that Ledger had
died alone in his apartment from a combination of sleeping pills and
prescription medication; something of his own cocktail. As he was alone, and
there were no signs of self harm or talk of suicidal thoughts leading up to his
death, it was all the more shocking. And with only seven months until the
release of The Dark Knight, now the most anticipated film of the year for a
whole other reason, the rumour mill went into overhaul about what lead to the death
of Ledger. Some said it was his intensive portrayal of the Joker that drove him
mad, causing him to take drugs and kill himself. That the character drove him insane.
Bullshit! It was just an accidental overdose, and those negative rumours soon
subsided, as the film neared it’s release and the whole world showed up to
watch it.
Seeing The Dark Knight for the first time was an amazing viewing
experience. In true Christopher Nolan style, the story moves swiftly, and if
you’re brain isn’t turned on you might get left behind. The opening action
scene was great, taking place with a bank robbery. We are given a quick peek at the Joker, as he
leaves the scene of the crime. Pulling off a clown mask, to reveal the clown
underneath, he says “Whatever doesn’t kill you, only makes you… stranger”.
From here, we catch up with Batman as he disposes of some drug
dealers in true vigilante style. Then we see him as Bruce Wayne, conversing
with Alfred (Michael Caine), and through their dialogue we are brought up to speed
on what’s happening in Gotham. The new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart)
is cleaning up the streets, locking up the city’s worst criminals one by one.
Bruce Wayne’s advisor Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is tinkering away in the lab,
helping Wayne make adjustments to his suit. And the beautiful young Rachael
(played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, replacing Katie Holmes) is still the object of Wayne’s
affection.
But the moment I was waiting for, as was everyone else in
the theatre, was the first proper reveal of Heath Ledger in his final, defining
role. As a group of mobsters are gathered for a secret meeting, talking about
how to deal with Batman, a shady figure walks in uninvited. A cackling laugh
fills the air, and it’s coming from a demented looking character, in a distinct
purple suit. His face is a smear of white pasty make up, a tortured mouth that
stretches wide and red across the cheeks, and long greasy hair, green and
ragged. It’s the Joker, and with no hesitation, tells the mob how it is. “We
kill the Batman” he says casually. They all laugh, and one asks, “If it’s so
easy, why haven’t you done it yet?” at which the Joker replies, “If you’re good
at something, never do it for free”. Cool, confident, chaotic and conniving,
the Joker sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Just as it was in 1989’s
Batman, where Jack Nicholson stole the show as the Joker, Heath Ledger does the
same here. But there will be no comparisons to Nicholson’s Joker; Ledgers portrayal
here is completely his own. Challenging something of a punk-like, “Clockwork Orange”
sort of feel to the character, Ledger showed that just shy of 30 years old, his
acting was at a level well beyond his acting peers of the same age, and
comparable to the likes of his counterparts, ten to twenty years his senior.
Watching his performance unfold on screen, in one stellar scene
after another, was incredible to see, and took The Dark Knight into a whole other
realm of movie brilliance most other superhero flicks couldn’t hope to emulate.
But watching it was also sad, knowing this was his last full performance. In fact,
as he passed away in New York, Ledger was actually on a break from filming what
would be his final movie, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, directed by
the weird and wonderful Terry Gilliam. But he had just completed the principal
photography of the film, with the majority of the special effects still to be
filmed. In a smart move, the director cast Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell
to step in and complete Ledger’s scenes, which each of those actors did in respect
for the actor.
And as short lived as his career was, Ledger turned out a versatile
range of films and characters. From teen heartthrob in “10 Things I Hate About
You”, to leading man in “A Knights Tale”, it was his brilliant performance in
Brokeback Mountain that showed this young Aussie guy had a lot of talent, and a
long career ahead of him. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be, and for my generation,
we will always remember Heath Ledger as The Joker, surely his greatest
performance ever, and one of the great
character performances ever. His performance, as well as his sudden passing of
course, brought in probably double the audience to see the film, leading The
Dark Knight to rake in about $1 Billion bucks, and also gave Ledger a
posthumous Best Supporting Actor Nomination at the 2009 Oscars. YouTube that
clip to watch a very emotional speech by his family as the Who’s Who of Hollywood
watch on with tears. It’s very moving.
The Dark Knight has gone on to become a classic movie on
many levels. It showed Batman was still the preeminent superhero of them all,
it gave his true fans the film they had been waiting for but didn’t expect
could be achieved, and it secure the Nolan-Bale vision of Batman for one more
film, in “The Dark Knight Rises”. For me, the second story I’ve just reviewed
here is my favourite, and surely one of the defining movies of my twenties. It was
my connection to the character of Batman, told in a riveting and compelling
movie, showing that comic book hero adaptations could be intelligent and
grounded in reality, and finally, a great tribute to the late, great Heath
Ledger; a young talent with a bright spark who burnt twice as much as most his
age, but like any spark that burns twice as bright, will only last half as
long. Perhaps he was a soul not destined to live forever, but by the age of 28
his work in the movies continues to live on today.
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