MOVIE
Friday, June 27, 2008
Treat yourself to a glimpse of the epic
thriller by logging onto the website www.
thedarkknight.co.uk – it will leave you
baying for more. Joker fans, head to www.
whysoserious.com
Bat-pod
The Bat-pod may sound like an MP3 gadget
named after the masked crusader. It’s actually
Batty’s new ride – a fully-loaded motorcycle
with 20-inch front and rear tyres, armed with
grappling hooks, machine guns. To ride the
monstrous thing, Batman has to lie belly down
on the tank, which can move up and down to
enable him to dodge bullets and gunfire. The
bike is steered with the shoulder instead of
hand, and the rider’s arms are protected by
shields.
Movie Info
Director: Christopher Nolan
Screen Writer: Jonathan Nolan
Director of Photography: Wally Pfister
Costume Designer: Lindy Hemming
Production Designer: Nathan Crowley
Music: Hans Zimmer, James Newton
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath
Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart,
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman
Batman is back in a film which was shot partly in Hong Kong. But as Joyce
Woo reports, it’s the villain who steals the show
T
HE Dark Knight is the sequel to
Batman Begins. Once again, the
Caped Crusader fights his famous
nemesis. Batman (Christian Bale)
raises the stakes in his war on crime in The Dark
Knight. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon
(Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey
Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to curb
a vicious killing spree plaguing the streets of
Gotham. The trio soon find themselves prey
to a rising criminal mastermind known as the
Joker (Heath Ledger), who throws Gotham into
anarchy and chaos. Batman’s struggle against the
Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to
“confront everything he believes.” See http://www.
entertainmentbuff.com/dark-knight-joker-compare/
A better class of villain
THE Dark Knight is destined go down
as a story about a supervillain, not a
superhero – for reasons that are quite
apparent. Ledger, who died from a prescription
drugs overdose in January after filming finished,
delivers a terrifyingly mesmerising performance
as the 21st century maniacal prankster who trolls
Gotham City by night. It’s not that Batty has fallen
out of favour, just that the Joker is so brilliantly
played, there leaves little doubt that all focus will
be on him. The Joker is the craziest and darkest
we’ve seen – one that puts Jack Nicholson and
Cesar Romero (the stars who played the Joker in
previous Batman films) to utter shame.
From his voice, to the makeup, the walk, his
cockeyed posture and maniacal psychosis, Ledger
nails the dramatisation of Batman’s greatest
nemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime spot on.
Creepy garish makeup splattered over Ledger’s
face creates a ghastly visage for the psychotic
Joker. This villain is completely “fearless”, defiant,
and hell-bent on wrecking total and complete
chaos wherever he goes. He displays a “devilmay-care” flamboyance to match his psychopathic
madness. Ledger’s Joker is chillingly demented,
psychotic, and haunting.
In the extended
trailer to the
f i l m , L e d g e r ’s
depraved Joker
cryptically tells an
accomplice in a
bank robbery: “I
believe whatever
doesn’t kill you
simply makes
y o u s t r a n g e r. ”
He likes to taunt his victims in a
mocking tone: “Why so serious?”
He possesses the flair and
cockiness of a rockstar – “The
city deserves a better class of
criminal, and I’m gonna give it
to them.”
From every physical nuance
to the subtle inflections of
his pitch, Ledger’s grinning,
psychopathic diabolical
portrayal of the Joker is
mind-blowing, and dare I
say, the best performance
in the history of comicbook adaptation
ever.
A different Joker
IT was a tall order no doubt, for Ledger to play
everyone’s favourite villain. It was not an easy
thing to pull off, trying to straddle the line between
maniacal and delusional. Previous incarnations of
Jokers have tended to be been rather “clownish”,
with Jack Nicholson’s Joker looking like a creepy
old geezer and Caesar Romera’s
looking like a demented
prankster more than anything.
Staying away from the goofy
tricksters-thief image, Ledger
gives the Joker
a whole new
interpretation.
And the result
is a mordant and
sardonic, vicious
killer with a
twisted sense
o f h u m o u r.
His Joker is so
frighteningly realistic.
To play this critical role in The
Dark Knight, Ledger spent weeks
psyching himself up for the part. In an
interview with Empire magazine,
he said: “I sat around in a hotel
room in London for about a month,
locked myself away, formed a little
diary and experimented with voices
– it was important to try to find a
somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I
ended up landing more in the realm
of a psychopath – someone with
very little to no conscience towards his acts. He’s
just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, massmurdering clown, and Chris [director Christopher
Nolan] has given me free rein. Which is fun,
because there are no real boundaries to
what the Joker would say or do. Nothing
intimidates him, and everything is a big joke”
Director’s magic touch
FANS of the Batman series should be grateful
director Christopher Nolan took the franchise
over, as he gives the comic-book adaptation
series a fresh makeover, bestowing a visceral,
immediate quality to the scenes. He possesses
superb storytelling abilities that translate well
onto the silver screen. Audiences are led from one
fight scene to another at a fast pace, and the gritty
chaotic details are realistic. The creepy gothic
shadows of Wayne Manor are now gone, replaced
instead by sleek towers, shiny surfaces, bright
lighting and grand vistas of Gotham City. And
instead of relying heavily on computer-animated
wizardry to create effects, he opted to utilise Imax
cameras to shoot 30 minutes of the film, including
the entire opening of the movie. The high-tech
IMAX format bestows a larger-than-life quality to
the scenes.
The highly-anticipated epic summer thriller
promises to be a major knock-out. Hardly any
other comic adaptations have been made with such
skill and attention to detail. Between this and other
summer flicks, The Dark Knight takes the cake
hands down.
See Ledger in his psychopathic glory in theatres
starting on July 17.
E06-07