The Dark Knight (2008) I
Bill Long 8/9/08
Heath Ledger's Valedictory Performance
In Honor of My Brother Chris--and His New Work
In this latest iteration of the Batman theme, though without the word in the title, Director Christopher Nolan gives us a recognizable story line (Gotham in trouble, Batman to the rescue), but with a significantly different "twist" in the portrait of the Joker by the late Heath Ledger. Rather than a weird, entertaining Jack Nicholson-esque Joker, we have, in "Ledger's Joker," an almost Miltonian figure of diabolical evil. While Ledger was powerful in Brokeback Mountain, his performance here is nothing less than mesmerizing. Even when the film tends to degenerate into mindless explosions and forgettable chase scenes, it is always brought back to the "center" by the cruelty, heartlessness and sociopathic destruction wrought by the Joker. Again, even when the thematic coherence of the film is suspect (the "mob" consists of a "we are the world" collection of Italians, African-Americans and one Asian guy), the Joker saves the day and delivers not simply action that keeps us riveted but lines that make us wonder about the persistent power and mode of evil's operation in our world. The rest of these two essays will reflect on some of the Joker's lines and whether he does, in fact, see the world correctly.
Three Memorable Lines
1. Director Nolan adds a nice touch when he dips slightly into the psychological history of the Joker--to explain the permanent twisted smile on his face. When the Joker bursts unexpectedly into a gangster meeting and puts a knife to the boss's mouth, he says, "Why so serious?" and then tells the story of how his drunken father cut his face to give him a permanent smile as a sort of punishment for his anger/confusion at his father's beating his mother. We all bear the scars of our past, some more visibly than others. Cruelty, then, has an origin and a reason; to avenge in some way the cruely inflicted on oneself when innocent and vulnerable. The Joker isn't alone in that. Repaying the world for slights visitied upon us is probably one of the strongest motivators to action in the world. Can any kind of message of good "triumph" when this is such a strong motivator?
2. We have to explore in more detail the Joker's world of evil. In a word, it is an anarchic and not very subtle. When he has gathered up all the money from the mob banks, 50% of which he said he wanted (and was refused), he sets the pile afire with the words, "It's not about the money; it's about sending a message. Everything burns!" If there is any "bottom line" of the Joker's life, it is contained in that line. Everything burns. There is no redemptive possibility when he is involved in a situation. Or, as he says later, when trying to explain the twisted world, which reflects his twisted face, he says, "See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve." The meaning of that line is that he intends to launch a reign of anarchy in the world and that others will be emboldened or encouraged by his action to join in the fun.
Yet, for all his anarchy, he isn't what you might call a subtle creature. Or, to put it differently, Director Nolan begins to explore the Joker's potential subtlety but really isn't up for the task. For example, one of the unexpected developments of the movie is when the Joker "converts" ace District Attorney Harvey Dent to the cause of destruction. But then there is some confusion as to what really was the cause of it, since Dent was known as "two-faced" long before the burns he suffered eroded half of his face. The Joker plays on human vulnerability, to be sure (having two ferry-loads of passengers play "chicken" with each other), and hints at the erosion of trust that now characterizes human relationships (by emphasizing how "alone" the new police commissioner is), but we don't see what would be the truly terrifying work of the Joker, and that would be to bring deception to the mind--which is at the heart of evil's work.
3. This anarchic theme should be pursued a bit further. When fighting with Batman, the Joker says, "The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules. And tonight, you're gonna break your one rule." In addition, the Joker describes the society in which we all live as based on control--on the efforts of officials to "control" the one little area under their authority. When all is "in control," the populace receives explanations of things without flinching. Even if a busload of prisoners die, we are ok with it, but if "one mayor" is killed, we go bonkers. We simply can't stand to have certain indications of societal stability taken away. The Joker knows this, and knows the irrationality of this--and will want to exploit people's fears.
Here is where I have a slight quibble with the film. The unexamined assumption is that chaos or anarchy is the work of the Joker (the embodiment of evil). But why not also see order as a gnarled expression of evil? Order is always brought about as a result of suppressing something; it is just that we are so used to certain impulses or actions not being expressed that we go along with order. But, is "order" as we now have it, an unmitigated good? One of the American criticisms of the Chinese today (President Bush, for example) is that they "order" of their society is really a repressive one, one that undermines human aspiration.
The next essay concludes my reflections.
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