The dark knight will forever be remembered as Heath Ledger’s last film, and - I want to get this out of the way with quickly – probably his best. Warning, this review contains spoilers.
Brokeback Mountain was a brilliant performance in a fantastic film, but his performance as the joker is what people will remember him for. If your’re going to die, you might as well put in the best performance of your career so far. It’s only right, isn’t it?
Anyway, to the film.
The Dark Knight is exactly how a Batman film should be. It is dark, un-sentimental, brutal and realistic. It is also quite long, but we will forgive that, because at no point during the film do you feel as if it’s dragging, or you’re watching a piece of filler. The action starts early and never lets up. I don’t want to spoil anything for you so I’m not going to reveal too much, but the bank job at the beginning of the film sets the pace and also gives us our fist glimpse of the Joker.
From there, the story unravels, and we begin to see that not only is the joker insane, but also ruthlessly efficient and smarter than the average criminal. Any time the Joker is on screen you can’t take you eyes of him - a testament to Heath Ledger’s extraordinary portrayal. The films plot centres around the mafia and its money (which we see the Joker stealing at the beginning of the film), and although small clues are left throughout the film, until the last hour, we think that is all the Joker is after. The final twist and show down are great, but the highlights of the film come not from the big action set pieces but from the smaller moments, such as Bruce Wayne’s meeting with Harvey Dent and Rachael Dawes in the restaurant.
The Joker’s nurse outfit, his terrorising of Wayne’s Guests, Alfred’s advice and Luscious Fox’s meeting with the Lau in Singapore all stick in my mind moreso than the final big action scene. All this says to me is that The Dark Knight is a film that doesn’t need to rely on action gimmicks (although when they do arrive they are pretty damn awesome), and why would you when you have some of the most talented actors of the past few decades all on screen together giving brilliant performances.
In short, The Dark Knight is about as good as a Super Hero film can get, and that is one of the hardest things to pull off.
I saw this last night. Absolutely incredible. Ledger for the Oscar?