Click Here For Our Interview with Heath Ledger
Click Here For Our Interview with Christian Bale
Click Here For Our Interview with Aaron Eckhart
Click Here For Our Interview with Maggie Gyllenhaal
Click Here For Our Interview with Gary Oldman

The Dark Knight

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

Iron Man was this summer's first massive hit and, as of this writing, is still the biggest movie of the year. But while I found it to be a lot of fun, it amused me that the Tony Stark character basically is the person that Bruce Wayne pretends to be: a womanizing partier living off the money from his rich dead parents.

Funny, because in the battle for the superhero crown of the summer, it's Iron Man that turns out to be the pretender. Nothing against that extremely entertaining trifle, but you will leave the theater for The Dark Knight certain that you just saw a masterpiece. It's that good.

This is a crime epic. What struck me the most is that its story is about Gotham City as a whole -- its cops, criminals, media, justice system, everything -- and Batman himself is just one of the many major players who can shape it. Obviously, the movie's called The Dark Knight, so he gets the most screen time, but he's one of many power players: Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman), new Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and a criminal anarchist named the Joker (Heath Ledger, of course) are all often portrayed as equally influential.

I'll take it a step further: The Dark Knight doesn't even feel like a superhero movie. You could replace Batman with a more realistic vigilante, or maybe even cut him out altogether, and you'd still get a whopper of a crime drama, only one that would ironically, without the "superhero" stigma, probably be cast in the same league with The Departed come award season.

Because Batman's not a superhero here; he doesn't want to be, anyways. He's using all the power he has to clean up Gotham's crime, but if he succeeds by a reasonable measure, he'll quit and try to start a life with old pal/love interest Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, suspiciously taking over for Katie Holmes), who's currently dating Harvey Dent. (Bruce claims he'd quit, anyway: perhaps the film's most interesting train of thought is that Batman is Bruce Wayne's true nature -- after all, the playboy image is a ruse -- and, considering the psychology that goes along with that, he's just as crazy as the Joker.)

The arc of The Dark Knight belongs to Harvey Dent, who appears as "Gotham's White Knight" -- the guy with real political power who teams up with Batman and Gordon to stand up to the criminal element and the corruption -- but who most of us know is tragically destined to become the villain Two-Face. The storyline is terrific, and the character dynamics it creates are more ...