The Secret of the Wednesday’s Haul

O.k.  I think I’ve figured out why The Dark Knight really works (and I apologize to any site that’s already posted this but I’ve been avoiding the net and Batman reactions this weekend.)

The Joker is real.

Yup, that’s it.  The Joker may be the first threat in a “comic book” movie that’s real.  This isn’t a meglomaniac trying to wipe out Gotham City by sucking the moisture out of the air.  This isn’t the over-the-top portrayal of Jack Nicholson, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carey or the Terminator.  This isn’t even the comic-booky Dr. Octopus or Venom.  The Joker is scary because he’s real.

In The Dark Knight, the only motivation for the Joker is anarchy.  He doesn’t want to rule the world but he wants to throw off all of its rules.  That sounds a lot more possible than killing off an entire city, doesn’t it?  Almost all other comic book movie villains have a singular and obsessive goal that is ripped out of the mad-scientist/evil meglomania how-to book.  There’s a goal that Lex Luthor or Obidiah Stane have that’s relatively easy to identify and easier for the hero to thwart.

But the Joker’s goal, to recreate Gotham in his own image, is actually deceptively simple.  It’s almost viral the way he works it.  Heath Ledger’s Joker is a force of nature more than a character.  He’s an idea or a concept that, once introduced to a closed environment, can never be shaken and will always be there.  Gotham may have survived its dark night but did it come away unscarred?  Did any of the characters in the movie come away unaffected by the chaos introduced by one man?

And that’s why I say that The Dark Knight isn’t a “commitedly vulgar frickin’ super hero movie” but a movie of weight and stature because it really questions the actions of its protagonists and antagonists, digging deeper than the surface level of the costumes and capes.  The Dark Knight looks at what would happen if we were knocked off of our safe perches and forced to face the idea of there’s no purpose or plan to anything.  It looks at what we’re faced with when society begins to crumble upon the sight of its own frailities. 

The Dark Knight is good because the Joker is, finally, a real threat in a comic book movie.  It’s interesting to see how everyone says that Marvel took the comic book movie crown because of the way it’s interlocked Iron Man and The Hulk.  Forget that.  Until someone can come up with a terror to match the Joker, DC still holds the crown.

Covering the same topic

• The Dark Knight- Fifty Two Movies #14
• Random Quote– the evolution of comic book movies