CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 7/18/08

Fear Itself

By david michael wharton

Batman faces off against his most iconic villain in a stunning, morally complex crime epic that renders moot any further arguments that "it's just a comic book movie."

The Dark Knight

Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Story by Christopher Nolan & David Goyer
Based on characters created by Bob Kane

Picking up directly from the idea of "escalation" introduced in the closing moments of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight finds Gotham City's criminal underworld in disarray thanks to the actions of both the Caped Crusader (Christian Bale) and the city's crusading "White Knight," District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Batman even begins to consider whether it's time for him to retire the cowl and leave the city's care to good men and women who don't need a costume to change the city for the better. All those hopes are incinerated with the entrance of The Joker (Heath Ledger), a brilliant, sadistic agent of chaos who wants nothing more than to destroy every system, to corrupt every good intention, and, as Alfred puts it, "to watch the world burn."

As was Batman Begins before it, The Dark Knight is a story about fear. But whereas the previous film forced Bruce Wayne to overcome his fears and then harness them as a weapon against criminals, here Batman faces an opponent who literally knows no fear. When Batman's greatest weapon is intimidation, and his moral code forbids him to take a life, how can he hope to defeat a madman who can't be intimidated, and who will gleefully take any life at all? In The Joker, Batman finally faces his deepest, most unspoken fears: that maybe one man can't make a difference; that the city he loves is beyond saving; and, worst of all, that the people of Gotham might not be worth saving after all. The Joker's plans don't include any comic-book MacGuffins, no death rays or microwave cannons or Kryptonite islands. His method is his madness, his goal pure anarchy, and his fondest hope to prove to Gotham's defenders that once the illusion of safety is removed, all those peaceful, upstanding citizens "will eat each other."

But the most important fear The Dark Knight addresses isn't Batman's fear or Harvey Dent's fear or Lt. Gordon's (Gary Oldman) fear. It's our fear. With more elegance and complexity than any film released since September 11, 2001, The Dark Knight holds up a twisted mirror to our own world since that dark day. While much of Batman Begins' action unfolded in Batman-approved landscapes of shadows and rain, The Dark Knight shows us evil that doesn't lurk in the shadows or in the "bad part of town." It can strike anywhere, in broad daylight —even on a clear, sunny September morning. As the script escalates the tension, The Joker in some ways rescues the core idea behind the Saw movies from that franchise's inanity and bloodlust. The Joker forces people to choose between two equally abhorrent options, with their own self-preservation on one side and their purported principles and human decency on the other. The question posed to Batman—and by extension, to us—is not what we will sacrifice in order to save ourselves and our loved ones and our way of life. No sacrifice he can make will be good enough to stem The Joker's tide of terror. Rather, the question is what will he compromise? How much of his moral code will he abandon? Will he, in essence, become The Joker in order to stop The Joker?

This exploration of a dark gray moral landscape unfolds against a tapestry of rich and nuanced characterization. Dent could easily have played as a simple straight arrow, but while his forthrightness and determination make him admirable, we see that even he is willing to bend the rules to accomplish his goals, and the tragic consequences that eventually result from that decision, however well-intentioned, make Dent's fall from grace all the more compelling and heartbreaking. Even the script's many lesser players are done service by the Nolans' script, from Alfred's (Michael Caine) continued role as Bruce's conscience (and a fascinating glimpse as his own back story that make comic fans grin), to Lucius Fox's (Morgan Freeman) line drawn in the sand when his employer steps further into the haze of moral compromise than he can go. Even a subplot involving a WayneCorp accountant who figures out Wayne's secret is used as more than just a plot point, culminating in a single look between Wayne and the overzealous employee that speaks volumes.

Finally, any discussion of what makes for a good title would do well to pay attention during this film's closing moments. What could easily have just been a nod to comic history and fanboy lingo proves instead to be a perfect, multilayered summation of everything The Dark Knight is about, while also effortlessly setting up the direction the inevitable third film will take.

The best Batman stories have always been about the man under the cowl more than any of the superhero trappings. The Dark Knight proves to be perhaps the greatest Batman story ever told by being about us.

The Dark Knight
Warner Bros.
Rated PG-13; 150 min.

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David Michael Wharton is the managing editor of CS Weekly and a contributing editor of Creative Screenwriting. He can't wait to see the Watchmen trailer on the big screen.

The Dark Knight courtesy Warner Bros.

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