So I spent the night before I left for the theater with bel my gf (dressed to impress, joker style ofcourse) reading bad reviews of this film (and they were in the minority most defiantely). The same bad reviews that I thought of when the end credits rolled. I understood them then and why they are wrong. This is not a superhero movie and anyone who went to see it just for that will be let down, as these reviewers were. It's not a comic book movie filled with amazing powers, big setpieces, chase scenes, ending in a duel of absolute, simple good against evil. The Dark Knight is a brilliant crime drama about people viewed perhaps as bad by some, good by others, and the thin fragile line that separates them. It's like saying Heat is just a movie about cops chasing robbers.

This is a landmark film, period. Let me clarify what I actually mean by that, it means I will tell my grandkids about the time I saw The Dark Knight when it came out. 

It isn't just about having seen a great film, it's something that is both rare, special and important somehow.  The reasons for why a film is a landmark could be anything, just like how "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" is one. The technical aspect of a landmark is usually always flawless, but there is just an extra special magic ontop of it. what landmarks all have in common though, is they are unique, and one of a kind.

Does that mean Heath Ledger gave his best performance to us right before he left us? Most defiantely, but The Dark Knight is more than just Heath's swansong. EVERYONE is on their top game here. With that I'm talking on and off camera too. 

Heath Ledger is one pearl, on an extremely wonderful necklace. I'm sad that he is no longer with us, but it would've been even more a tragedy if he wasn't able to leave us with this. The acting follows right down to someone who you might see on the screen for 20 seconds.

Those who know me personally, know I have strong opinions of Hans Zimmer, brilliant composer but he created the mechanics in the industry to have clone, derivative scores for A LOT of films. Called Remote Control Productions (formally Media Ventures). Most have no formal training in music, and can be seen in how they're scores come out. I have been WAITING, WAITING for him, to get off his ass, and again, show how you can make a stylish score, which both works in the narrative drive of the film and has substance of an individual work for an individual piece. In The Dark Knight, we got it, Hans collaborated with James Newton Howard, and it is exactly what I knew Hans was capable of. Another pearl.

 

I could go on, but it is just one big stream of pearls, Aaron Ekhart, cinematography, script, the ballistics of weaponry, pryotechnics, the guy who had the ambition Chistopher Nolan, and the string of pearls keeps going. Which is the idea of a landmark film and truely deserving the phrase, masterful epic. Wall-E has been talked about as the best film since Citizen Kane. Haven't seen it but from what I have seen, that thought seems unjustified in my head, and offends me, and all the landmark films that have graced us throughout history.  Would I agree if someone said the same for The Dark Knight? Probably not but it wouldn't offend. I haven't decided but right now?

Maybe.

I final note on Heath Ledger is that it is tragic he is not here, but I am here to witness his talents and celebrate it and I hope many others will.

 

Smokey signing off