Brighten someone's stocking with 'Dark Knight'
By Bruce R. Millerbmiller@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Sunday, December 07, 2008
Here's the gift movie fans have been waiting for all summer: "The Dark Knight" on DVD.
Filled with more nuance than many epics, it's a disturbing classic that deserves all the praise that was heaped on it.
Unlike Adam West's foray into biff-pow-bam! camp or Michael Keaton's turn as a slicker, wiser crime fighter, Christian Bale's interpretation is practically definitive. He shows the wheels turning, the cogs meshing. His Batman isn't an attempt to gain a higher audience profile, it's the real deal -- a performance meant to dissect the character, not its box office potential.
Even better? Heath Ledger's Joker. It's everything we've been primed to expect and more. This is an Academy Award-winning performance, no caveats allowed. Ledger creates such a warped villain we finally understand why the Joker's the scourge he's made out to be. "Why so serious?" isn't just a great tagline, it's a demonstration of the actor's ability to create menace out of vocal variety and body modification. Like Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter, this is one for the ages. Even Jack Nicholson's Joker pales in comparison.
Credit writer/director Christopher Nolan with creating such a broad canvas for both Bale and Ledger. His storyline isn't just another run at the legend, it's an explanation that has contemporary resonance.
Terrorists? They don't get much more frightening than the Joker.
Self-serving civil servants? Take a good long look at Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent.
The district attorney is on a mission to stop vigilante justice in Gotham City. Batman? He could be the biggest target of them all.
When the Joker starts his random run on civility, no one is safe. And that's what makes "The Dark Knight" so unsettlingly good.
Sure it's a familiar story but Nolan approaches it in Shakespearean terms. Batman isn't just a cartoon crime fighter. He's this generation's Hamlet.
When he's put into play with Dent and the Joker, this is a championship chess game.
The film's cinematography, dark and brooding, gives its special effects great depth and realism. It's a tribute to Nolan's ability as a director that so many behind-the-scenes talents bring their "A" games.
While "The Dark Knight" may scare kids expecting another popcorn film, it does restore confidence in the genre. Superhero films don't have to be thinly disguised attempts at making the most money. They can also be great works of art.
This one is.
Also: 'Horton'
"Horton Hears a Who" doesn't embrace Dr. Seuss' joyous rhymes. Occasionally, Charles Osgood checks in with a passage or two but the bulk of the film is left to Jim Carrey and some fairly simple prose.
Carrey provides the voice of Horton, a big elephant who happens to hear voices coming from a speck on a clover. Realizing there's more to the world than his little universe, Horton vows to bring the speck to safety. Meanwhile, a cantankerous kangaroo (voiced by Carol Burnett) does whatever she can to derail his plan. An evil bird swoops down on poor Horton; creatures pen him in and the folks from Whoville don't believe there's a greater force at play.
Carrey isn't as vocally gifted as Robin Williams, which makes his performance less than telling. Then, too, Steve Carell (as Whoville's mayor) sounds so much like Carrey, it's hard to tell them apart. When they're bantering, you'll swear it's just one schizophrenic guy.
Others -- like Amy Poehler and Will Arnett -- are able to make their characters stand out. Instead of trying to guess who's talking, you listen to the voices.
Also:
TV: "Deadwood," complete series; "Get Smart," complete series; "Gunsmoke," season three; "Happy Days," season four; "Lost," season four; "Rawhide," season three; "The Wire," the complete series.
Film: "Elephant Tales"; "I am Legend"; "It Happened One Night"; "Man on Wire"; "The Man Who Came Back"; "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"; "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington": "Open Window"; "You Can't Take It With You"
Filled with more nuance than many epics, it's a disturbing classic that deserves all the praise that was heaped on it.
Unlike Adam West's foray into biff-pow-bam! camp or Michael Keaton's turn as a slicker, wiser crime fighter, Christian Bale's interpretation is practically definitive. He shows the wheels turning, the cogs meshing. His Batman isn't an attempt to gain a higher audience profile, it's the real deal -- a performance meant to dissect the character, not its box office potential.
Even better? Heath Ledger's Joker. It's everything we've been primed to expect and more. This is an Academy Award-winning performance, no caveats allowed. Ledger creates such a warped villain we finally understand why the Joker's the scourge he's made out to be. "Why so serious?" isn't just a great tagline, it's a demonstration of the actor's ability to create menace out of vocal variety and body modification. Like Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter, this is one for the ages. Even Jack Nicholson's Joker pales in comparison.
Credit writer/director Christopher Nolan with creating such a broad canvas for both Bale and Ledger. His storyline isn't just another run at the legend, it's an explanation that has contemporary resonance.
Terrorists? They don't get much more frightening than the Joker.
Self-serving civil servants? Take a good long look at Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent.
The district attorney is on a mission to stop vigilante justice in Gotham City. Batman? He could be the biggest target of them all.
When the Joker starts his random run on civility, no one is safe. And that's what makes "The Dark Knight" so unsettlingly good.
Sure it's a familiar story but Nolan approaches it in Shakespearean terms. Batman isn't just a cartoon crime fighter. He's this generation's Hamlet.
When he's put into play with Dent and the Joker, this is a championship chess game.
The film's cinematography, dark and brooding, gives its special effects great depth and realism. It's a tribute to Nolan's ability as a director that so many behind-the-scenes talents bring their "A" games.
While "The Dark Knight" may scare kids expecting another popcorn film, it does restore confidence in the genre. Superhero films don't have to be thinly disguised attempts at making the most money. They can also be great works of art.
This one is.
Also: 'Horton'
"Horton Hears a Who" doesn't embrace Dr. Seuss' joyous rhymes. Occasionally, Charles Osgood checks in with a passage or two but the bulk of the film is left to Jim Carrey and some fairly simple prose.
Carrey provides the voice of Horton, a big elephant who happens to hear voices coming from a speck on a clover. Realizing there's more to the world than his little universe, Horton vows to bring the speck to safety. Meanwhile, a cantankerous kangaroo (voiced by Carol Burnett) does whatever she can to derail his plan. An evil bird swoops down on poor Horton; creatures pen him in and the folks from Whoville don't believe there's a greater force at play.
Carrey isn't as vocally gifted as Robin Williams, which makes his performance less than telling. Then, too, Steve Carell (as Whoville's mayor) sounds so much like Carrey, it's hard to tell them apart. When they're bantering, you'll swear it's just one schizophrenic guy.
Others -- like Amy Poehler and Will Arnett -- are able to make their characters stand out. Instead of trying to guess who's talking, you listen to the voices.
Also:
TV: "Deadwood," complete series; "Get Smart," complete series; "Gunsmoke," season three; "Happy Days," season four; "Lost," season four; "Rawhide," season three; "The Wire," the complete series.
Film: "Elephant Tales"; "I am Legend"; "It Happened One Night"; "Man on Wire"; "The Man Who Came Back"; "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"; "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington": "Open Window"; "You Can't Take It With You"
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