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The Dark Knight is easily the most memorable of all Batman sequels, writes Ervell E. Menezes
The subtlety of the title The Dark Knight is probably a hint of the treatment meted out of the third Batman episode and director Christopher Nolan very cleverly steers clear of the obvious. It is the grey areas he revels in and giving enough attention to the subsidiary characters he fleshes a luscious action adventure that is glowingly mesmeric in its legendary and dark moody grandeur. Taking off from where he left off in the earlier film after eliminating Ra’s Al Gul, Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) continues on his quest of good over evil and is now giving organised crime a doze of its own medicine. But the media frenzy gives rise to a number of fake Batmen wanting to bask in his glory so it becomes rather confusing even if it is of nuisance value. Batman is joined in his fight by District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and police lieutenant Lucius Fox (Gary Oldman) but they have a worthy opponent in the Joker (Heath Ledger) and this makes the battle fraught with immense possibilities. The contrasting drama is startling and powerful. You have power, insanity and lawlessness balanced against hope and justice. So it is a tightrope walk for both elements with deep psychological insights. Gotham City is resplendent with bright lights and dark shadows and action that shuttles between the two to provide a blend of form and content. The Joker’s character too is well fleshed out. He is dark, twisted and melancholic so one cannot help but empathise with him despite his devilish evil to become hauntingly memorable, as psychological as Jack Nicholson, the original Joker, was physical purely because of Nicholson’s persona. The visuals are resplendent and the camerawork excellent but they are balanced with flesh-and-blood characters who are put across by a team of talented performers. That Heath Ledger died during the film gives his performance an added impetus but excellent as he is, it is Christian Bale who steals a march over him and this despite playing a low-profile hero. Aaron Eckhart DA and Gary Oldman’s cop are good even if Michael Caine’s Alfred and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel are merely academic. The Dark Knight
is there-fore a totally ambitious, psychologically heavy and easily
the most memorable of the Batman films — something quite rare
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