OK, readers from coast to coast have been asking me to write something that's a bit more connected to popular culture. Glad to oblige!
We saw "The Dark Knight" yesterday. I was underwhelmed. Let me count the ways in which I was:
1. Hype, hype, hype. Big box office receipts. Big money for certain other people, and none for me. Not proud of the emotion, but I feel a general sense of resentment. This is not great art. There is nothing to admire here--only the level of revenue it's generating.
2. Action, action, action. Films these days try to set new records for vehicles chasing other vehicles, people falling off of buildings, people trying to hurt each other, and lots and lots of (BOOM!) explosions--with twelve special effects per minute. But less is more. And more is definitely less. Yeah, it's a cartoon, but it's still over the top.
3. Preposterous plotting. Many things made no sense whatsover. Got the Joker in custody? Do something totally stupid to enable him to escape! Cell phones rigged to track people? How could one possibly use the giant screen where all these cell-phone-derived images appear? Blow up a hospital with about a dozen pre-planted charges? No problem--it's the Joker, after all! He and his minions can sneak in just about anywhere. (He's very good at timing and orchestrating all sorts of violence to the exact moment when it needs to happen.)
4. Batman's voice. I believe one critic referred to it as a cross between Darth Vader and a grizzly bear. Sounds silly.
5. Maggie Gyllenhaal. Still kinda cute--i.e., I'd date her in real life--but not the kind of woman to be the focus of a titanic struggle, a love interest in a major motion picture. Not enough romantic gravitas there.
6. The Joker's motivation. OK, the late Heath Ledger did a nice job of acting demented, but I worry that some people believe that the world is just filled with people who like to see chaos and violence, and for no apparent reason whatsoever (like them "terrorists" we've been told to watch out for). Subliminally, the message is, some people are just plain evil, and there ain't nothin' you can do about that. I think it's a bad message in the current geopolitical context. (If you think I'm a little loopy here, understand that a recent Newsweek column suggests that our stance at Guantanamo regarding torture may have been influenced by Jack Bauer, of "24" fame. If Jack can extract a key piece of information with torture, then we should too! Even a U.S. Supreme Court justice--Antonin Scalia--has mentioned that Jack needed to use torture because, on the show, there was a nuclear warhead hidden somewhere in Los Angeles. Scalia said, "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles . . . He saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" I wish I was making this up, but there is evidence to support the notion that a TV show has influenced our response to "terror." And I believe this Batman movie subliminally affects our view of just about anyone who resorts to violence--such people are evil, amoral sociopaths.) [See "The Fiction Behind Torture Policy" by Dahlia Lithwick, Newsweek, 8/4/08.]
7. The joke's on us: we never learn what HAPPENS to the Joker! (Even though it SEEMS to be clear what MIGHT have happened.) But in the world of Hollywood, when you see such an ambiguous ending, "sequel" is the magic word, and if we don't know for sure what happened to that guy, we may well be seeing him again. But if we do see the Joker again, who will play him? Ah, who cares? For them, it's another bazillion dollars in box office receipts and sales of little Batman figures from a special promotion at Dairy Queen or some such place.
I was ready to be dazzled, but in the end, I was frazzled. And even a little bored.
2 comments:
I must disagree. I would like to go through point by point and refute you, but you made too many ridiculous points. The psychology of the movie was amazing. The way they had the people of the city reacting to current social and cultural climate was well-though-out true. Also, I think that some people out there are truly evil and do things for pleasure rather than some other motivation. I liked that they didn't try to make the joker "human" or to explain his acts through some "nature vs. nurture" conundrum. What is more dangerous, showing that a person can be truly sick, or blaming every evil in the world on the bad guys parents?
I'm mixed. I was in Kristen's class at the height my my pre-dark knight release excitement (I'm a HUGE batman fanatic) and we shared some thoughts on the movie in class. I have to admit I didn't like DK the first time I saw it. I went back the next night and saw it again. I liked it a little better that time. But the third time I went (about a week later) I realized that Heath Ledger's Joker was really the only redeeming quality in the movie had. For me, the script was lacking. I felt that the cast was capable of putting together a really powerful movie, but Batman Begins had a better screenplay. I feel like Nolan fell out of the zone.
I also agree that this whole evil terrorist mentality is hurting society. I didn't even finish watching Ironman because I was so offended by the portrayal of Islamic extremists in the first few minutes. Shame shame.
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