The Dark Knight: News, Reviews, your Views. "SPOILERS" welcome!

[LauraGigs]

As scary and hard-to-take as TDK was (especially the body bag scene in relation to real life events), I really did like it a lot.

And, am I correct in thinking we're not really supposed to know if the Joker really dies or is even captured at the end?  I thought that Batman's villains always survive somehow.

Batman leaves the Joker dangling from the building ledge, and as he leaves, you see SWAT team members getting ready to apprehend him from there.

So it does end with him getting captured.  Although as easily as he evades a tight spot, I'm sure they would have a sequel in the works. 
(Would have.   )

[Brown Eyes]

Batman leaves the Joker dangling from the building ledge, and as he leaves, you see SWAT team members getting ready to apprehend him from there.

So it does end with him getting captured.  Although as easily as he evades a tight spot, I'm sure they would have a sequel in the works. 
(Would have.   )

Yes, this is what I mean.  I do recall the last we see of the Joker is him dangling there.  But, you're absolutely right that the Joker has proven himself capable of getting out to tight spots all the time and he can easily get out of prison, etc.  The fact that we don't see him killed or even arrested I think is meant to make his fate extremely ambiguous and open ended.

It's something I've never quite understood about Batman's villains particularly (and maybe it's explained in the comic books, etc. and I'm just not aware).  But, his villains seem to always be capable of coming back.  So, we have here the second manifestation of the Joker.


Did any of you re-watch the Jack Nicholson Batman/Joker movie in preparation for TDK?  I watched it years ago when it first came out (and I really like that one too, I recall).  But, it's been so long since I've seen it I don't really remember the details or even the plot of that one.  It would be really interesting to compare those two Batman films in-depth.

[BelAir]

I had somehow missed that Rachel died in the film.  I had to have that explained to me at lunch afterward by Lynne and LauraGigs.  Seems like a movie can pretty much bring anyone back in a sequel, or for that matter in the same film (Commissioner Gordon). 

As Rob Lowe as a movie executive says to Aaron Eckhart in "Thank You for Smoking" you can explain anything in a movie with a line something like, "Thank goodness we invented the XYZ technology." 

Elle - how did you miss that Rachel died!!! 

 

That's what sent two face on his rampage...

I know, I know, you only had eyes for Heath...

(I am catching up on the thread after having been away for a week.)

[BelAir]

I remember she wrote a very good review of "The Fellowship of the Ring," which endeared her to me, a Ring-lover.  I just read her TDK review and have to say I agreed with the bulk of it.  I'm no expert on Hitchcock, so can't comment on her comparison, but I agree with this:

There's no dramatic arc in "The Dark Knight" -- only a series of speed bumps. The moments in the movie that should be the most dramatic are glanced over so quickly that we barely have time to register what has happened.

And this, most of all:

But the finest moments in "The Dark Knight" belong to Ledger as the Joker. Bob Kane has acknowledged that the Joker was inspired by Conrad Veidt's character -- a gentle-spirited loner with a carved-in smile -- in the piercing 1928 silent "The Man Who Laughs." Ledger's performance, stylistically, is nothing like Veidt's, and the conception of the character is completely different. But Ledger, behind that smudged, chalky makeup, and with that cruel, scar-tissue leer, does channel some of Veidt's poignancy -- though he lets us see it only in flashes, like the flanks of a fish in a muddy pond. There's desperation beneath the Joker's cruelty, and Ledger shows it to us in his hunched-up walk, and in the slurry precision of his speech.

The performance is unsettling and difficult to watch, partly because it's impossible to remove it from the context of Ledger's death. But it's a fine performance regardless, and I wish the movie around it were more deserving.

That part at the end is what I tell people, when they ask if I liked the movie.  Albeit I do it much less eloquently...

 

[BelAir]

I think I was definitely a fish out of water watching this film.
Did anyone here who saw it laugh at parts.?
 When I went to see it lots of the audience were laughing at various points and I was just WTF did I miss something here?

I felt that way (i.e. WTF when they were laughing).  I mean, the lines were funny, fine chuckle at that...  But I didn't like it when they (the audience) laughed at death...  (It worries me, how the world is 'inured' to violence, sometimes.)

[BelAir]

I saw TDK on Monday morning, and yes, the death stuff was hard to take.  Like you, Amanda, I was a bit surprised that they left those scenes in.  After having seen it only once, I've yet to decide if those scenes were so integral, that they couldn't have been left out, even for respect for Heath's memory.  I was in tears; thankfully, I was in the back row, and managed to keep it pretty quiet.  But in tears, nevertheless.  When you think about it, though, pretty much every movie Heath ever made involved either his character dying, or coming very close to death.  The Patriot, Monster's Ball, Four Feathers, Ned Kelly, Brothers Grimm, etc.  They're all much harder to watch post-Jan 22 than they were before.  I've not decided if I'll see TDK again or not.  To me, the only part of that very long movie that I found enjoyable were the scenes with The Joker.  Gave me goosebumps, in a good way, every time he came on screen.  I thought Heath's was a masterful performance, but that it was rather wasted in a film I found to be quite unspectacular.  Just my opinion.  Perhaps I've just seen one too many comic-book movies.   

I can't remember if I said this or not, but I am going to try and go see it a 2nd time (I think) at IMAX purely so I can see Heath up on the IMAX screen.  (I saw it at a regular theater.)

[mvansand76]

BODY BAG SCENE? What? Did I miss something? He didn't die in my version! 

[Mandy21]

Um, are you kidding, Snork?  Unless you saw a diff version than the rest of the world, there was def a body bag scene with the Joker emerging from it.  Hmm, come to think of it, there were probably quite a few body bag scenes, in the wake of all that darkness and destruction.  We just didn't get to see them quite as clearly as the one with Heath in it.  Ouch...

[mvansand76]

Oh yes, THAT scene, sorry, I should probably READ things thoroughly before replying. I should know better.

*scurries back into her corner*

But the Joker doesn't die in your version does he?

Your version. LOL. We have a Dutch version in which you can see him smoke pot.

[LauraGigs]

We have a Dutch version in which you can see him smoke pot.

Seriously, or are you pulling our leg, Melissa?