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Gotham City Strikes Back: The Dark Knight
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of a series of reviews, based on fairly popular material that many people could be acquainted with, to give the readers a sense of the writer's sensibilities and development.
FINAL DRAFT
If Begins was about Gotham hitting Bruce Wayne so hard that he turned into Batman to cope, Dark Knight is what happens when he hits back. Imagine every day was 9/12/2001. Before him, the city was already more worm than apple, corrupt from the bottom up with only a few points of light holding back the darkness. Then the Bat comes and inspired the wrong people. Bedlam ensues and not even organized crime is spared. Lunatics and performance artists cannot be reasoned with because it's no longer about money or any kind of turf either side of the law can understand.
The conflict breaks down into two opposed trinities. On one side, we have the criminal hierarchies, the bent cops and the Joker. The first two like a status quo of mock order, where they hold sway and make bank. The latter (Heath Ledger playing "GTA" when everyone else is playing "The Sims" -- and it's great) just wants to collapse everything into a flaming sinkhole.
Coming to the city's defense are a trinity in danger of becoming unholy. Batman, James Gordon and Harvey Dent are plugged into the city's mythos, waging a frantic campaign in the psycho-geographical territories of a fundamentally cracked city. Their goal is to restore the fragile balance of goodness and justice or, that failing, just drag Gotham back from the abyss. They should have known a pyramid doesn't stand on its peak - unless you want to break it off. Do you believe in Harvey Dent?
Of the few disappointments The Dark Knight offers, the greatest is the treatment of female characters. Every passive role woman ever did play is repped here. The next movie had best have Catwoman in it and accord her the gravitas both villains received here.
ORIGINAL DRAFT
[784 WORDS ... WOW. FOR WORD ECONOMY, I'LL MAKE CUTTING SUGGESTIONS AS I GO]
It's difficult to describe the exact way in which IMAX differs from standard but if one were to try, it would probably be a lot like the difference between The Dark Knight and Batman Begins. [HOW ABOUT THIS: AS IMAX IS TO STANDARD CINEMA, "THE DARK KNIGHT" ENHANCES AND ENLARGES EVERYTHING FROM "BATMAN BEGINS."] Even compressed into an "ordinary" cinema screen, the picture seems to trigger the tactile center of your brain, turning movie into mass.That's The Dark Knight all over: heavy, weighty, mythic, massive, huge. [GREAT SEQUENCE] There's more words but those come later. [I'D CUT THIS SENTENCE, IT'S NOT NEEDED]
This is an absolutely realismic Batman and an absolutely realismic Batman movie. [OVERKILL -- YOU COULD JUMP RIGHT TO THE NEXT SENTENCE AND IT STILL WORKS] Batman's wonderful toys are all repurposed white-elephant military tech, devices that would revolutionize the battlefield if they weren't so ruinously expensive -- which makes them perfect for the billionaire vigilante on the go.[CUTE, I like it] Speaking of which, international Batman is not an entirely practical move except as it is used here, a one-time extra-jurisdictional excursion. It is also the one moment when his silver lining beats the clouds. [THIS BIT IS UNCLEAR, AND I'M NOT SURE IT COULD GET MORE CLEAR WITHOUT BEING A SPOILER -- PERHAPS REMOVE?] That "Dark" in the title isn't for show, ladies and gentlemen. [HEH, THESE ARE THE KINDS OF TOUCHES I USED TO LOVE]
If Begins was about Gotham hitting Bruce Wayne so hard that he turned into Batman to deal with it, Dark Knight is what happens when he hits back. [SO GOOD, THIS SHOULD ALMOST BE THE SECOND PARAGRAPH] Imagine every day was 9/12/2001. The city has become more worm than apple, corrupt from the bottom up, with only a very few good men holding the thin blue line against the forces of darkness. Then Bats comes in with his costume and his wonderful toys and his snarling voice and lights the match on the pile of dynamite [THROWS A MATCH? LIGHTS THE FUSE? CLARIFY YOUR METAPHOR]. Ironically, organized crime in the form of varying ethnicities, expensive suits and cheap bodyguards finds itself in much the same fix. Lunatics cannot be reasoned with, nor can performance artists; worse when they're both. It's not about money anymore or any kind of turf either side of the law can understand. [GOOD SUMMATION]
In answer to the unasked question, yes, of course Gotham is representative of America circa 2008. Publicized serial killers, meticulously choreographed (movie) explosions, crazed (high school) gunmen - basically, we've been asking for it and Dark Knight gives us the answer, hot from the other side of the mirror: theatrical blockbuster villains committing disorganized crime against a conflicted monolith. Sound familiar? It should. [WHY? THIS MAY BE STEPPING OUTSIDE OF THE SCOPE OF THE REVIEW, AND GETTING YOU INTO THE DEEPER WATER]
The battle breaks down to two opposed trinities. On the one side, we have the crime syndicates and gangs, the corrupt police force and the Joker. [THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS SENTENCE MAKES IT SEEM LIKE THERE'S FOUR PARTIES, SO CUT "AND GANGS"] The first two like a status quo of mock order, where they hold sway and make bank. The latter wants the messiest collapse into a flaming sinkhole possible.
Coming to the city's defence [ANGLOPHILE -- WE SPELL IT "DEFENSE" IN THE COLONIES!] are a trinity that isn't [SWAP "THAT ISN'T" FOR "NOT" JUST TO SAVE SPACE] as holy as it would like to be or as unholy as it could easily become. Batman, James Gordon and Harvey Dent are plugged into the city's mythos, waging a frantic campaign in the psycho[ADD HYPHEN]geographic territories of a fundamentally cracked city. Their goal is to restore the fragile balance of order, goodness and justice but, should that fail, to simply drag it back from its trajectory into the abyss. They should have known though, you stand a pyramid on its base, not its point unless you want to break it off. Do you believe in Harvey Dent? [THIS PARAGRAPH LACKS FOCUS, BOUNCING ALL OVER FROM "THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ..."]
Much has been made of Heath Ledger's Joker and, believe it, much is deserved. [I LIKE THE FLAIR OF "BELIEVE IT," BUT YOU'RE SO FAR AHEAD ON WORD COUNT IT MAY HAVE TO GO] He's played as a walking [ADD COMMA] talking [ADD COMMA] lip-licking apocalypse with all the power and fearlessness of someone who's playing Grand Theft Auto when everyone else is *trying* to play The Sims.[GREAT METAPHOR] He is not crazy, just willing.[THAT I LIKE, PROBABLY FOR AS MANY PERSONAL REASONS AS EDITORIAL. THAT'S A PULL QUOTE] The Joker is an ideological structure-hitter[CLUMSY, WHEREAS A DERIVATION OF "ICONOCLAST" WOULD HAVE BEEN ELEGANT, I.E. "INCENDIERY ICONOCLAST"], intent on pulling everything down and defacing the ruins. If organized crime is a parasite on Gotham and the corrupted law enforcement a cancer, then he is a turbocharged Ebola virus, infecting it with ideas that are mad, bad and dangerous to know.
One of the few disappointments to found is the treatment of female characters. Victim, betrayer, prize, motivator; every passive role woman ever did play is repped here by disproportionately few characters. The next movie had best have Catwoman in it and handle her with all the substance both villains received here. Halle who? [BE CLEARER -- THIS SWIPE TAKES SPACE YOU DON'T HAVE]
Ultimately, The Dark Knight tells a tale of psychic terrorism and scarred shadows, a seismic battle for the soul of a city in a world where ideas are bulletproof but symbols are not. [GREAT FINALE]
What the heck is this assignment again?
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