I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this could have been the greatest movie ever made. Period.
I thought that the idea of jump starting the Batman franchise was brilliant. It had simply become too cheesy. When Kilmer got involved with Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey, that was when things started heading South for me and I started losing respect for the franchise.
I thought the original Batman with Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger and Jack Nicholson (in my Top 5 actors of all time – with this being one of his greatest performances) was an excellent comic book adaptation. The sequel maintained the same over-all feeling of the film. Gotham was still a dark place to be… and Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny De Vito and Christopher Walken were all superb. That’s where it ended. Batman and Batman Returns. I try not to think of Batman Forever nor Batman & Robin. I had initially thought that the idea of George Clooney as Batman was on the money, but I was wrong. Clooney is too clean cut and smooth. He was born to play the role of Daniel Ocean. Never has a leading man been more fitting for a part. If it makes any sense, he was a great Bruce Wayne, but should never have put on the bat-suit!
However, 2005’s Batman Begins was not a jump start. Nor was it a sequel. It was a complete re-birth. A new vision… and that vision was in a word – awesome. Picture the Top Gun air-craft carrier, parked on the fields of Bannockburn, with the entire cast of the upcoming ‘Expendables’ fighting side by side with Autobots against Decepticons at the command of John Connor, in The Matrix with F-22’s flying over-head shooting the crap out of Aliens. That type of awesome.
I have been a huge fan of Christian Bale since I first saw him in American Psycho. That was an incredible film. He was pure perfection in his performance. It was a very violent and unsettling film but never have I been more glued to the screen in watching a story unfold scene by scene, as when watching Bale’s ‘mask-of-sanity’ slipping off his face. He was insane. He was a psycho.
Batman Begins was bought to the screen by one of my new up and coming favourite directors, Christopher Nolan. He gave us Memento (with Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss) which is a such a backward movie – you’ll understand the humour in that when you watch it. He also gave us Insomnia (with Al Pacino, another of my Top 5 actors of all time, and Robin Williams – in one of three, very disturbing, departure from comedy role performances). In my opinion, Nolan gave us Gotham as it should be… not a completely dark and comic book world, but rather a realistic setting of a dark city.
The selection of Liam Neeson (awesome in Taken), Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai), Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Katie Holmes and Morgan Freeman as co-stars was epic. Incredible supporting ensemble cast. The film was superbly crafted from every angle. Bale gave us a smart and cocky Bruce Wayne but a hard-as-nails Batman. It’s what the genre required. No cheesy one liners.
As if it couldn’t get any better, in 2008, Nolan returned with the entire cast (less Katie Holmes but plus Maggie Gyllenhaal) with The Dark Knight. We now added Aaron Eckhart, Eric Roberts and… Heath Ledger. This was literally the greatest screen performance I have ever seen. I don’t care what anyone says about the ‘hype’ of his death fueling above average reviews. This guy nailed the performance. Actually, he knocked it out. Nicholson’s performance in the original was a home run, Ledger’s was out of the park. It had that goofy and crazy side, which Nicholson had mastered, but an evil streak that the joker needed. Ledger was frightening.
You never think twice about his motives. He has no motive. Nothing will stop him. He doesn’t want money. He is simply ‘wants to watch the world burn’. In an interview with Michael Caine, the first time he had seen Ledger in full costume and make-up, was when shooting the Joker crashing Harvey Dent’s fundraiser. They were shooting the scene, when he (Alfred) was standing at the elevator doors as they opened. He says he genuinely jumped at the sight of Ledger for the first time.
The film was shot in IMAX, for the realistic full scale effect, it must have been amazing to watch on that screen. Even on the smaller big screen it was spectacular. The opening scene shows this in full use as you see a bank robbery being staged. The end of that scene indicates that Gotham has a new player in town who methods are unorthodox to say the least. But he’s arrived and he means business. Thing is, we never know why or what for…
Gotham’s crime lords are shattered from the effects that the caped crusader has had on their choice of profession, but things are even worse since Gotham’s White Knight, District Attorney, Harvey Dent is following Batman’s lead by putting his foot down on crime, any chance he gets and any way he can.
The arrival of the Joker gives the crime lords a new hope. They are sceptical at first, but through his simple business pitch and a magic trick involving a pencil – they see he may have a ‘point’ and decide to follow his lead. Throw in a few sub-plots involving a shady Chinese business deal in the making with Wayne Enterprises, Bruce’s love interest falling in love with both the White Knight & Dark Knight of Gotham and a corruption investigation in the Gotham police force… and the film has you entertained at every turn.
It’s a very difficult film to try and sum up in a brief review. There are some very deep under-lying points that the film is trying to make and I’m sure that students of film around the globe have spent months dissecting every aspect of this film. For me, they were simply that 1. anarchy is a frightening concept and 2.how far does one push the boundaries of the law to make the world a safer place before in fact becoming the evil you are trying to stop. It’s an incredibly fine line to walk. Every character is utilised to perfection. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are always excellent and for me they play ‘father figures’ to Bruce in the film. Allowing him the freedom to do what needs to be done, but at the same time guiding him along a righteous path. They are the ones who help him walk that line. Constant figures of support, encouragement and wisdom.
I said at the start of this review that this could have been the greatest movie ever made. There is a point in the film, at which the Joker escapes from custody in a police vehicle. The music (which is an incredible score and the entire soundtrack is a masterpiece) picks up in speed and volume, and we see this image of him hanging out the window like a dog. Eyes closed. Make-up running off his face. Basking in the heat of the night, at his excellently executed escape. A hugely elaborate and multi-faceted plan has all fallen into place. We then see batman standing, head down, on a smouldering, burning pile of what was a building. Harvey Dent being rushed to hospital. The joker escaping. It could have ended right there.
It would have been set for another sequel. I stand corrected but it’s about 1 hour 45 to 1 hour 50 into the film. That would have been the ultimate for me. It doesn’t though and goes on for a further +- 45 minutes. It works either way though, believe me. And, the suspense and entertainment doesn’t halt for a second and the next ‘ending’ is also awesome. But it’s the reason the film only gets 10/10 instead of 11/10 – like Ledger’s performance. This is one my Top 10 films… it’s the reason I love the movies.
