As I came out of the movie theatre, treading fairy footsteps so as not to trip over the sagging carpet, I looked back at the screen as the ending credits of 'The Dark Knight' rolled down against a shadowy tapestry of a myriad movie-goers. And I could only think of one thing: DC - 1; Marvel - 0. This one goes to Bob Kane. The man who gave us the Batman, would have been proud of this one. To see his characters come alive on screen not through the chicanery of special effects, but in flesh and blood. As people with angst, hate, fear, self-loathing, and heroics.
And whilst Bale's Batman may have been spent more time brooding and dishing out pithy on-liners than one might have expected, the masthead of the plot had to be the triumvirate of the Batman, 2-face and the Joker. Master stroke that, from Chris Nolan. It could very well have doubled as a 101 on Freudian analysis. Batman and the Joker each living in the hope that society would embrace the best and the worst (respectively) of human tendencies, whilst Harvey embodies the fragile balance between the two, forever swinging between right and wrong, aided and abetted only by a coin and a fascination with chance. Somehow, amidst all the chaos it was Harvey, and not Bale's Batman that stood out (at least in the first half) as the sole voice of reason and hope. And he proved - at least for a while - that sometimes, you don't need a costume and a mask to take up a cause that is right.
In particular, his line about 'You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain', was a rebuke to modern morals, I think. Is he saying then, that one can't survive by treading the straight and narrow?
Something to think about,... especially for all the corporate wannabes out there. But one thing's for sure... this one goes to Batman. And maybe it's time Marvel had a deep think about what it comes back with next, to counter this Knight's move.
Till next time.
