The Dark Knight
Sep. 14th, 2008 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmFinally saw this last night. It's truly a masterpiece. Not "for the genre" or "as an action movie" -- it's about as serious andexceptional a piece of writing, direction and totaly contruction as I've seen on screen. Really, really exceptional work.
Yeah it's really long, but the other choice -- for the Harvey Dent fall plotline to be a seperate film -- not only wouldn't have worked but would have, in the wake of Heath Ledger's death, ended this iteration of the franchise.
There are a hundred little smart details (the way the Joker is a lying liar who lies, the way the two boats don't blow up when they don't blow each other up, the Joker as a dog who loves riding with his head out the window, the open ackwnoeldgement of men who are too caught up in what they think they have to do to be men to have any real time for women that sees said women as people as opposed to redemption). Just a smart, smart smart movie.
Was happy to see Chicago, by and large, it only felt like not-Gotham once or twice by being so conspiculously not New York (river through middle of city). Hans Zimmer brought us a score that stayed just under the intensity of the film and thus didn't distract. The action sequences were by and large short and storycritical (it felt like the way I try to sue sex in my writing -- if it's not character development, it doesn't get written). And I think any mention of ancient Rome is powerful and alarming in the current political climate. Is this the terrible rise or the terrible fall?
Also saw The Watchmen preview which was stunning.
Unlike many of you I'm not really a comics reader, although I know The Watchmen and V for Vendetta. For me, I learned about superheroes and comics from my father, who consoled me as a child when my mother belittled me for my obsessions by talking about the comics he always bought with whatever money he scraped together during the War (I don't think my father has ever ever told me any other story about being a child during WWII). Later, he signed up for the army, missed serving in Korea by weeks and used the G.I. Bill to pay for what was then Cartoonists and illustrators school (it's SVA now). Batman and Superman were my bedtime stories. Our new myths actually told to me as fairytales. So my experience of these darknesses brought to teh screen are different. Really really different. And I think these movies may well serve me better than most.
Yeah it's really long, but the other choice -- for the Harvey Dent fall plotline to be a seperate film -- not only wouldn't have worked but would have, in the wake of Heath Ledger's death, ended this iteration of the franchise.
There are a hundred little smart details (the way the Joker is a lying liar who lies, the way the two boats don't blow up when they don't blow each other up, the Joker as a dog who loves riding with his head out the window, the open ackwnoeldgement of men who are too caught up in what they think they have to do to be men to have any real time for women that sees said women as people as opposed to redemption). Just a smart, smart smart movie.
Was happy to see Chicago, by and large, it only felt like not-Gotham once or twice by being so conspiculously not New York (river through middle of city). Hans Zimmer brought us a score that stayed just under the intensity of the film and thus didn't distract. The action sequences were by and large short and storycritical (it felt like the way I try to sue sex in my writing -- if it's not character development, it doesn't get written). And I think any mention of ancient Rome is powerful and alarming in the current political climate. Is this the terrible rise or the terrible fall?
Also saw The Watchmen preview which was stunning.
Unlike many of you I'm not really a comics reader, although I know The Watchmen and V for Vendetta. For me, I learned about superheroes and comics from my father, who consoled me as a child when my mother belittled me for my obsessions by talking about the comics he always bought with whatever money he scraped together during the War (I don't think my father has ever ever told me any other story about being a child during WWII). Later, he signed up for the army, missed serving in Korea by weeks and used the G.I. Bill to pay for what was then Cartoonists and illustrators school (it's SVA now). Batman and Superman were my bedtime stories. Our new myths actually told to me as fairytales. So my experience of these darknesses brought to teh screen are different. Really really different. And I think these movies may well serve me better than most.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-14 02:26 pm (UTC)However, "the way the two boats don't blow up when they don't blow each other up" strikes me as a plot hole. If the "goal" is chaos, destroying things to show the futility of considered action would seem to be a priority. I'm curious as to how you see it as intentional.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-14 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-14 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-14 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 03:17 am (UTC)--
I didn't want to comment on dark knight because so many people feel so strongly about this movie, but I had to see this film twice before *this* made sense to me. You put it absolutely perfectly, and for me, it made the film.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 03:19 am (UTC)It was my father (someone I had to love)
it was my wife (someone I chose to love)
it was myself
None of those things may be true.
None of those things may be what the Joker believes (although he may also believe all of them) but the sequence is critical.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 03:46 pm (UTC)Thank you.
I found the movie pretty amazing. A little too long, but I can see why. It was incredibly intense and I can't really articulate what I think..