INTRODUCE A LITTLE ANARCHY

The nightmare begins in billowing clouds of blue black fire. They dissipate to the image of disembodied face of a clown, a sign that things will not be what they seem. A bank is being robbed by obvious professionals in clown masks but there is no honor among thieves here. They don’t even know it but they are now trapped in a web of insanity and intrigue, setting in motion a chain of events that will turn Gotham City inside out, exposing everything no one ever wanted to see. That, of the two prime movers of this revelation of truth, one hides his face behind a bat mask and the other behind splotchy clown make-up is only one of the several ironies at work in The Dark Knight.

Somewhere between Good and Evil lies the cold pragmatism of order and the burning liberation of chaos. Dancing in and out and around these hazy lines is the Joker. The servant of no master the Joker lives only to blow up all the old preconceptions, to expose our conditioned societal crutches for the flimsy, tired relics they are. The Joker terrifies criminal and law-abiding citizen alike not because he breaks the law but because he constantly subverts understanding. He’s not motivated by greed, revenge or anger any more than he is by truth, justice and the American way. Why he does what he does is unknown to anyone including, probably, himself. The Joker proves to be the maddening mirror to the Batman, telling him (and therefore us) the truth about himself. Batman is not only as mad as the Joker, he is just as dangerous.

It’s no accident that the Joker figures so prominently in the marketing of the movie. Batman is only ostensibly the main character of the film. Really, the movie is about the Joker and what he tells twenty-first century America about itself…and it isn’t pretty. Ironically, when the movie drifts away from the Joker – or runs away or explodes away—it loses its grounding. He’s the reason the movie exists and he should be. In the context of Gotham City it is the Joker who is our prophet, the Joker who sees us for who we are and lets us in on the secret. In this day and age we’re not looking for a hero, we’re looking for a villain. We’re looking for someone or something to define our insanity, to give shape and purpose to our suffering – even if that purpose is to destroy purpose. In a world of stimulation addiction, pornography, drugs, rampant technology, serial murderers, pre-emptive wars, voracious corporations and Paris Hiltons we might be inclined to ask what does it all mean, what is it all for? The Joker is here to tell us that it doesn’t even matter and if anything, we should stop pretending that it does. We know the truth.

In the last role before his death Heath Ledger is electrifying. Playing the Joker is like playing Jesus…everybody has a pretty clear idea of how they think the role should be performed. Ledger manages to give the audience everything they would expect and still find his own richer, deeper textures in his madman dervish. He’s brutally recognizable, much more grounded on the streets outside our door and the dark corners of our petty weaknesses than we’ve come to expect from a super-villain. His proximity to reality makes him the first truly frightening Clown Prince of Crime ever captured on film. His make-up looks like his skin is splitting open with all of his pain and anger, all of his questions. The Joker’s most dangerous quality is his willingness to die for what he doesn’t believe in – because he doesn’t believe in anything. The Joker can’t be dismissed by Gotham City, by other gang lords or even by the Batman himself. He has to be reckoned with. This Joker is no joke – though he is not without his own humor. Has there been another scene in recent memory that told you everything you needed to know about a character as much as the Joker’s Disappearing Pencil Trick?

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Paul Gagne   |SAdministrator |2008-08-22 10:05:21 Wonderful review, as always. I think you might be too smart for this website And not to be a cunt or anything, but TDK is not Ledger's last performance. He'll be seen in the upcoming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/)

Misty  - You are too awesome!   |63.83.137.xxx |2008-09-05 15:07:12 I always love your reviews, because you make me think without making me feel dim, ya know? I'm always slow to realize little things that seem to just pop out to you. You're gifted my friend!

Midnight Butterfly  - Thank you.   |Administrator |2008-11-09 09:05:05 Thanks for your comments. I have to admit part of the reason I could write so much about this movie is that I saw it four times. I haven't done that with a movie >whew!< Since I don't know how long ago. I have to say I saw a little more in it each time. Marvelous movie.

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