The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight will always be remembered as the last film of Heath Ledger. That was a tragic coincidence. However, what were the chances that it might also be among the gifted actor’s best? This is a superlative performance by the actor — who was found dead recently of a drug overdose — in a superlative film.

We’ve had quite a few good superhero films lately. If Tobey McGuire’s Spider-man is a lesson in humility, Robert Downey Jr has re-carved a career for himself with Iron Man’s tragic genius, while Edward Norton’s Hulk was about powers beyond our control.

However, The Dark Knight asks a question far more basic: what makes a person a hero? Batman (Bale) is just one of them. The film has many: District Attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart) willing to take on the mob; Lt Gordon (Oldman) fighting a lone battle in a corrupt police force; Dent’s assistant Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal) who is loved by both Dent and Batman; Dent’s CEO Lucius Fox (Freeman) who puts in his papers rather than compromise on his principles (interestingly, in the post-9/11 era, the power to which he objects is eavesdropping on the conversations of an entire city); and even Gotham City’s people who choose at one moment to die rather than live with blood on their hands.

Battling the mob and the unpredictable Joker (Ledger), Batman increasingly realises that while he can always step in to save Gotham City, it’s a battle that needs to be won by those it looks up to. While the people may be grateful for a vigilante, they can’t lead lives hoping for a man in tight suit and bat wings to come flying down to save them in trouble.

There are calls for Batman to reveal his identity, to put himself out there, even as he himself puts his weight behind “the real heroes”. In this darkest of Batmans, as the city crumbles under the lunacy of Joker, the Dark Knight doesn’t show the light. He just holds up the arm that does it.

Against this tale is the set the madness of Joker, who ostensibly seeks the mob’s millions but is after much more. He calls himself “the agent of chaos”, and notes that people are happy as long as there is order. “Tell them that a truckload of soldiers has been blown up and there is no panic. But tell them that one Mayor is about to be shot, and all hell breaks loose.”

Grimacing, merciless and supremely intuitive, the Joker wants Batman out as he is the symbol of Gotham’s hope. And he realises that as long as there is hope, he can’t win. Time and again, he questions the “morals” which put him on the other side from Batman and others, putting them to test.

His other target is DA Dent, who has given Gotham a cause to be proud for putting half the city’s criminals behind bars. Played by the golden-haired, sunshine boy Eckhart, Dent is impregnable. However, by the time Joker is done with him, Dent is reduced to a mockery of his nickname, Two Face.

After Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal, there has never been a villain you have hated as much. From his chalky face, greasy hair and gravy drawl to his slow gait, everything about Ledger screams something beyond human imagination. He gives several stories about how he turned out that way, and you are willing to believe all.

At one point in the film, he walks away from a hospital he has just blown up, dressed in a nurse’s uniform, shaking his hands in glee, when he turns around and realises that some part of it is still standing. The Joker shakes his head and rattles the remote. As explosions go off, he starts and jumps into a bus. For a long time to come, there may not be a scene as scary and funny.

“Do I look like a guy with a plan?” the Joker asks. Think about that.

Goodbye Mr Ledger.

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