comment #1

EOTW says ...

It's a triumph.

comment #2

Balthazar says ...

There are parallels, but those parallels are simply coincidence, and should not be used in any way to criticize DK (which is a better film than No Country)

comment #3

Richard_Stone says ...

My only thought linking No Country and DK is what a dark streak would the Oscars be on should they give Best Picture to Dark Knight (probably premature talk, but what else has buzz right now besides Benjamin Button?). The Departed, No Country, The Dark Knight?

comment #4

Richard_Stone says ...

More on topic, I still see The Dark Knight as escapist entertainment, and as such it's hard to really be deeply affected byt its dark tone once I leave the projection room. Calling it a bleak cry of despair is a bit of an exageration, I doubt anyone really comes out of it feeling depressed and bummed-out, except perhaps for the fact we won't see another Ledger performance ever, except for the Gilliam movie. Despite Nolan's efforts to ground the movie in realism, I don't think this Gotham City is truly like anything going in the States right now, uless there were some metaphors I didn't get.

The only moments that could resonate in the real world are some of the Joker's lines about how no one minds when soldiers die as part of the plan, and the ending which Gerge W. Bush will probably love. I have no idea how much Nolan wants the audience to make the parallel between the Dark Knight and Bush.

comment #5

bdboudreaux says ...

Ok I'm going to commit cinephile blasphemy, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway. Christopher Nolan time and again has done something that few directors try and even few succeed at. He's basically a new Alfred Hitchcock. What I mean by that is that Nolan, like Hitchcock, is disguising large themes inside large popcorn films. Hitchcock's movies were, for the most part, wildly successful mainstream films that featured some of the biggest stars of the time. But if you scratched the surface of his films even the tiniest bit you'd find an intellectual side to them that made them the classics they are today. Nolan's the same way. Both of his Batman movies are large scale character studies with large themes. But they are also satisfying "comic book movies." Memento & Insomnia - film noirs with compelling stories and themes of vengeance, justice, and humanity. The Prestige a fantasy film on the surface, below a film about losing your soul to full fill an end.

So my point is is that it's probably not too illogical to crown Mr. Nolan "The New Hitchcock" because he's earned the moniker. Let's just hope that he is able to handle the weight of such a heavy crown.

comment #6

Edward says ...

If only Nolan's "Insomnia" were as good as Erik Skjoldbjærg's original; talk about dark. And for all it's themes, I thought "The Prestige," lost itself with it's convoluted SF hook.

comment #7

Gnome de Guerre says ...

Well, I came out of No Country shaken, scared, and depressed about society. In other words, I was affected. I came out of TDK with a shrug of the shoulders and a feeling of disappointment that the film didn't execute better on the promise of its themes.

There *is* a similarity between NCFOM and TDK though. The former portrayed a certain powerlessness in the face of evil, and the latter is highlighting a certain powerlessness in the face of the easily-impressed blogger mob. The twitch response among commenters and bloggers listening to excuse even the hint of criticism against the extremely imperfect TDK is just as scary and depressing as anything in NCFOM.

comment #8

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Love it or hate it, Edward, that "convoluted SF hook" was part of the original novel the film was based on. Not saying I totally disagree (I think the shot itself is stunning, but thematically, its reach slightly exceeds the grasp), just saying it's not always easy (or right) to adapt an author's work and change the way the thing ends.

Gnome - Kind of shocked that you think TDK fell short on its promise of themes, as I think this, like most of Nolan's work, is one of the film's absolute greatest strengths. Care to expand a little bit on your disappointment?

comment #9

Richardson says ...

"My only thought linking No Country and DK is what a dark streak would the Oscars be on should they give Best Picture to Dark Knight (probably premature talk, but what else has buzz right now besides Benjamin Button?)."

Probably premature?

I can only think of one movie in my lifetime that people correctly knew in July would win Best Picture, and that was 'Return of the King', and that was because it was de facto decided that they would save all the Oscars for the last one.

Oscar buzz in July is always wrong. Also always wrong is Oscar buzz for comic book movies.

comment #10

Josh says ...

it is the most conservative movie of the year. Maybe thats why liberal writers are calling it bleak.

comment #11

Gnome de Guerre says ...

CitizenKanedforChewingGum: TDK fell short in that it raises interesting viewpoints and has the unique opportunity to frame them within a superhero story, where the themes can play out in a streamlined way that takes the unstoppable force vs immovable object thing to the hilt, and yet its execution isn't up to the opportunity afforded. The plot is clunky, the action is clunky -- the very rails this type of film needs to ride in order to make its points! Ultimately, it doesn't push itself to the dark dark corners where it seems to be heading. I think a deeper exploration of TDK's themes would look deeper into the collateral damage aspect of the Joker/Batman escalation. In the film, the primary dramatic vehicles representing collateral damage are (*spoilers*) Two-Face and Rachel Dawes. By killing off Rachel at the beginning of the Two-Face storyline, Nolan misses an opportunity to deepen the fates and tragedies of these characters, and to deepen the emotional impact of Batman's resulting isolation from the world. The exploration was all surface in TDK, and sketchy at that. And the rails of the ride were too bumpy and unpolished for any real emotional impact.

comment #12

janee says ...

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