This is going to be maybe my longest review I have ever written? So either just say meh, fuck it, or buckle up. It has been maybe 10 years since I have watched this? I was 25. Young and immature. Well now I am older and immature just maybe know a few things better. It benefits you when you rewatch this absolute OUTSTANDING MASTERPIECE.
I think the first few times I watched I thought very surface level thoughts about the movie. 1. OMG JOKER IS SO CRAZY AND AWESOME 2. SWEET ACTION! 3. OMG THAT IS HOW TWO FACE CHARACTER WAS CREATED LOL. The cool thing about aging is perspective. And I guess an appreciation for things. A desire to look deeper into things. For me, that has been film. Ok enough about that. How did I score this so high?
The overall entrainment is a 10 out of 10. Easy. Incredible action. Incredible story line. Incredible dialogue. Never once are you not interested in what is happening. Every second counts in this movie. No fluff. Which also leads me to a 10 in story telling. More on that later. 10 in acting. That’s 3 10’s, gonna put you in rare air. Also a 9 for thought provoking. I want to touch on the thought provocation and the story line next.
I never thought much of this movie being THOUGHT PROVOKING. It is a super hero action film. Right? Not to me. This time watching it, I spent hours thinking about this film. Never, my first few go around thought much about Harvey Dents character. But boy, did his arc resonate with me. Deeply. A man that so badly wanted good. The man that so badly wanted to be a hope. A man that had all the best intentions. And finally a man that was completely broken. Completely broken by the joker. It is one of the most incredible character arcs I think in movie history.
The Joker obviously, just one of the greatest movie performances ever. That might be an understatement. Heath Ledger RIP. He is playing a game. Batman cannot figure out what game he is playing. Until Alfred tells him a story about a man in Burma who went around robbing people of their jewelry and then just giving it away. Moral: he didn’t care about the jewels. He had no care about the money. Joker wanted to prove he could. Which Joker, who multiple times mentions, he is “an agent of chaos”. He could care less about any of the money involved. Who gets hurt. He is simply playing a game to prove how BROKEN everyone is. Joker is a deeply broken himself. And he wants to break everyone. Which going back to Harvey, he succeeds. And it is really sad, because foreshadow, his favorite quote was “you either live long enough to become the hero or die the villain.” Or something like that, I may have butchered it, but you get it. He ends as the villain. The dynamic between these two throughout I find more compelling than Bateman and either of them.
With that being said, the battle of Batman trying half the movie to understand who this man is. Him and Aaron Eckhart going back and forth on trying to stop this psycho with very different tactics while both wanting to be with the same woman is another great layer to the movie that does not hinder it at all. Bruce is a complex man played VERY well by Christian Bale. He is struggling with the fact that his world is being turned upside down. Batman has done so good for so long and been a hero. But now, this new person, with no morals, no compass, no reason, is completely upending everything he’s worked to protect. People are dying endlessly on his watch. He is questioning himself. Joker is also breaking him.
All of this is told so well, IMO from start to finish. These arcs just flow effortlessly though the whole film, a master class by Nolan. It honestly was hard for me to think who WON in this movie. It actually is quite a dark ending. Joker got exactly what he wanted. Which was absolute chaos and death, even though he would have enjoyed those people on the boats to blow each other up. That was a great scene in my opinion. Nolan making a point that Jokers premise is very wrong and people are inherently good and unbroken. Batman takes the heat for all the death that was cause become a martyr that needs to close up his entire enterprise and retire. Not ideal ending for him. And the DA who was a symbol of justice becomes just as evil and jaded as Joker tried to make him.
I thought the scene of Maggie G getting blown up was also just so crushing. Just such a curveball that I think broke the whole audience watching it. Especially given the fact she was in fact going to leave to be with Eckhart. I thought the touch of Alfred NOT giving Wayne the letter she wrote him telling him this was a really nice touch. At that point so much had been lost, FROM EVERYONE, there simply was no point. He needed some hope in his head after this.
I would be curious to know who Christopher Nolan think WON in this movie. You might argue Joker. He proved that humans will turn and become broken or corrupt against each other in MOST cases. No matter who they screw over. Themselves first. His whole point all movie. Minus the boat scene, he proved it over and over and over, just breaking person after person. His dying meant nothing to him. He was throwing a party and going out with a bang.
If the Joker won , that makes this a pretty damn dark movie. Again, the boat scene being the one saving grace. They decide to lie to the public and say that Eckhart died honorably and do not tell a soul about what he became in his final days. Pin it on Batman, so they can believe that their leaders are willing to die for their protection. Batman leaves the scene to assure the carnage will be gone that “he brought”. It is a somber ending and a complex one.
Either way, LONG WAY! from WOAH SICK ACTION MOVIE! haha. The beauty of aging and rewatching. Just an absolutely spectacular movie. Fucking A. That is a review.