Movie Review: The Dark Knight-A Tale of The Good, The Bad and The insane.

Personal Rating: I DO NOT DARE.

Director: Christopher Nolan.

Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Cain, Aaron Eckhart

Genre: Drama, Fantasy.

What is the difference between art and entertainment? Both entertains us, but only one has a name that follows. This was the question that always popped in my mind whenever I watched any of the Christopher Nolan’s “The Batman trilogy”. And at the end of the movies I always felt a sense of accomplishment and then the feeling would fade away filling the void of my mind with the question again. What is the difference between art and entertainment? This may seem not related to the review I’m writing but in reality it is intertwined with the context.

Imagine, you are in an art gallery where this centuries most prominent modern artists are showcasing their art. And they’ve planned a surprise for you. Now you enter the first chamber and start looking at the pictures one by one. Then you notice that they all are telling a story. One story. All of the arts are combined as one hardcore piece of grand epic. “The Dark Knight” wouldn’t fall short of such praise.

I’m writing this piece almost after a dozen years later of the movie’s release. And since then many awards, praiseful critique have been written and given to this movie. Mine wouldn’t do enough justice to it compared to those but here it goes.

A big budget action movie with great heroes and grand villains always means the fight between good and evil. How there will always be peace in the world and heroes will always triumph. But the philosophy behind The Dark Knight is not that simple. It shows how the good is always in the eyes of who and how they see it. The savior yesterday can became the destroyer of tomorrow. At least perspectives can be manipulated to do so.

Heath Ledgers performance was such extraordinary that the effort and other things he used to deliver it partially costed his life. Such method can drive one insane or make one commit suicide. The maniacal laugh, sloppy eyes, damn care ideology mixed with chaotic looks were mostly drawn from the silent classic of (1928) “The Man Who Laughs”. And the other portion was from The Killing Joke.

A plot summary of this movie is- how a sociopath with absolutely corrupt ideologies filled in his head who found his match and drove a good man to a ledge, pushed him to fall and turnd him into a monster. As joker tries to undermine the forces of good and show everyone who Batman really is under the mask he tries to hurt people who are close to him. And in its Consequence he puts batman in an impossible situation, where he has to either save Harvey or the love of his life, who also was Bruce Wayne's ex lover, from death. And from this insane event comes to rise Two Face who was once the white knight of justice.

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two Face delivered a strong performance which wasn’t shy of Heath ledger. Among the supporting characters, his role was vital to portray the cruelty and chaos joker inflicts upon whoever or wherever he targets.

Christian Bale was most probably the best batman till date. After the trilogy Batman has been recast twice. Ben Affleck’s one looked like the comic batman but failed to provide. And now Robert Pattinson has been cast. I hope he can pull it up to the mantle. And now to the original question I started with has an answer that is yet not known to me. But a quote by Roger Ebert “Batman is not a comic book anymore” tells us something though. It is that in hands of such visionaries as Christopher Nolan the distinctive line between the two is not visible to naked eye.