A bright night for a dark knight

By Steven Zeitchik

It's late and we're fresh from -- that is, tired because  of -- a six-hour marathon at the Dark Knight premiere (three hours of which were actually spent in the theater -- two-and-a-half for the screening and a half hour for a Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard musical performance that could best be described as a planetarium sound-and-light spectacular meets the Gong Show).

So perhaps we'll thread this post with some more thoughts over the coming days. But here are the basic sights and sounds from the premiere in Gotham on Monday night.

First, the movie. It's  very good. Not Citizen Kane-meets-Star Wars-meets-The Godfather very good, but still very good. There are political themes, questions of techno-ethnics, a subtle exploration of nihilism, complex civic politics and a crowning moral dilemma right out of the Twilight Zone -- in short, things you don't see in a typical summer tentpole (though do find in a typical Chris Nolan movie). Bale and Ledger are both strong, even if the latter is given a lot more to do, taking full advantage in a performance that's equal parts Nicholson's Joker and Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter. (Despite the creepiness of his role, it's somehow less haunting to see Ledger in a posthumous performance while he's in full makeup than it would have been to see him without it.)

If Nolan could have eased his foot off the accelerator on the high-decibel action scenes -- some script surprises just don't get a chance to breathe because of this relentlesness -- he nonetheless compensates for it with graceful directorial flourishes and surprisingly seamless transitions between the movie's various styles and themes.

And in Imax you really can see here the future of moviemaking, coming if we're ready or not, swooping shots from dozens of overhead angles that will finally render true all those fatuous critical blurbs comparing action movies to roller coaster rides.

(It's all enough -- mostly -- to make us forget that it is one more movie about a reluctant superhero underappreciated by the very people he's trying to save, a conceit begun with "The Incredibles," continued with Bryan Singer's "Superman" reboot, and hammered more frequently than Lindsay Lohan this summer in pics such as "Iron Man," Hancock" and now this. We get it -- he's a postmodern hero so he can't just save people, fight evil and be loved for it. But does the source of tension always have to be the unwashed public? Is there really no other group who can abuse him properly?)

Next, the party. It was an expectedly swishy affair, leavened by who wasn't there and, in a weird way, by who was -- Ledger's parents, Kim Ledger and Sarah Bell. Seeing them at an event they'd probably never have come to in their son's life brought home the tragedy in a whole new way. Forget the mythmaking and the punditizing and the talk about his performance and What It Means (though for our money there's no way he doesn't get an Oscar nod, most likely in best supporting). The power of the moment lay in the very ordinariness, the un-movie star-ness of it, in someone who simply did his job very well but now isn't around to see the fruits of his work. So his parents come and try, nobly but futilely, to revel in that work in his place. That's heartbreaking whether you're a movie star or a construction worker.

Warners execs, too, said they were trying to strike a balance between celebration and commemoration. "Obviously it's a bittersweet night because everyone agrees Heath's performance is stunning, and I'm truly sorry he's not here to share it with us," Warners topper Alan Horn told Risky Biz. "But I don't necessarily want to weigh this down with that. Tonight is about Chris Nolan's multiple-year vision and about Christian Bale, who did a fabulous job."

On that subject of that vision, it wouldn't be right -- and would be out of keeping with climactic scenes left more wide-open than a Pee Wee League receiver -- if we didn't address the question of whether we'd get more Nolan in the inevitable follow-up. Many directors of a franchise tend to stick around for the second installment but not the third, and one insider speculated Nolan might want to return to an indie movie soon (he's already on board to adapt a feature version of the 60's British series "The Prisoner" for Universal).

Asked if he would do another Batman movie with Chris Nolan, producer/financier Thomas Tull of Legendary Pictures -- who would be a lot more likely to do another Batman than an indie movie -- told us at the party. "I just saw Chris and I told him 'I'd do anything with you. I'd do a wedding video with you.'" In Imax, of course.

Comments

[Liz]

Bite your tongue - wedding videos in IMAX are going to be the new fad for indulgent parents with way too much money to throw away.

[james]

Another year, another critically acclaimed audience loving action film that should garner Best picture nominations, etc, rather than your special effects oscars. Last year, it was the bourne ultimatum -- which nabbed 3 oscars -- showing that academy members did love the movie but are somehow unwilling to nominate it for bigger prizes. When will this end and when and why won't the oscars reward movies such as the dark knight. They nominated Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark in the past, why can't the dark knight receive serious oscar consideration. Why so serious? Because i'm sick of the Academy not truly rewarding the best or being afraid to nominate a popcorn flick.

[Sean Maloney]

First of all, Iron Man was loved by his public in the movie. They just wanted to know if Tony Stark was Iron Man or not. Superman has always been loved by his public. Spider-man is loved by most and hated by a few powerful people. Part of the whole crux of who Batman is- is that he's a vigilante who is often compared unfavorably to the criminals he confronts. He's a dark hero who is sometimes looked at as the enemy. This concept was even explored to a lesser extent in "Batman Returns" and hinted at in the Tim Burtan's "original." Only someone who grew up with the old Adam West campfest would think that the whole "Batman: Hero or Menace?" idea was a 21st century invention.