BY: SHRISHTI MITTAL
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call The Dark Knight as one of the most refined and exacting work of its kind. Christopher Nolan’s follow up to Batman Begins is a tragic, tangled and disturbing film that pulls and immerses the audience into an unconventional world of digital precision.
Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne, a billionaire socialite who commits himself to protect Gotham city from a criminal underworld as a bat-masked vigilante who is hailed as “Dark Knight” at night. The key performance in this larger than life movie is, however, by the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, a ferocious and psychopathic criminal mastermind who portrays himself as an “agent of chaos”. Also, there is a new typical crime fighter in the town, the handsome district attorney, Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart.
The plot involves Joker’s inumerous attempts to humiliate the forces, and expose Batman’s secret identity. The city authorities are doing their best to pacify public fears, and get rid of the organized crime in Gotham city. However, the citizens start blaming Batman for the city’s violence and corruption which forces Batman, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey to make impossible ethical decisions. Even Dent, who was called the “White Knight” in the beginning, succumbs to evil, by the end. The Joker not only feeds on destruction, but also tries to catastrophically damage the philosophical foundations of the society, the very foundations that Batman stood protecting, thus representing the triumph of evil over good.
The characters are carefully weaved, and the performances are simply magnificent. The plot is unpredictable, which makes it even more thrilling and cinematography is incredible. It would not be wrong to say that it’s cinematography is Christopher Nolan’s best work till this date. With no second thoughts, it is a remarkable tribute to Heath Ledger, who unfortunately couldn’t see his own astonishing work, which won him an Oscar posthumously for the Best Supporting Actor.
Panorama 2016 