Dark Knight discontents
It has come to my attention, via yesterday’s comments, that there are folks out there who not only dislike The Dark Knight, but who find it an abomination — or, as berkeley314567 puts it, "a steaming pile of clusterf*ck." I will not be able to begin proper analysis until Tuesday at the earliest, but until then I’d very much like to hear from folks what they don’t like about the movie. To you folks, I’d like to know what you had heard, what you were expecting, where the movie failed you, how it fell short. Well-stated opinions will be respected and specifics will be greatly appreciated.
I will say this: the folks who compare The Dark Knight to The Godfather or Crime and Punishment I think miss the point (R. Sikoryak notwithstanding). I think a comic-book movie to compare to the tragic grace and penetrating social analysis of The Godfather is just over the horizon, but The Dark Knight is better described as a foursquare, meat-and-potatoes pop-culture action thriller that delivers the goods with spectacular visuals, excellent acting, superb shooting and, for the purposes of this journal, an uncommonly intelligent script. It does not tell us anything profound about the corruption of the human soul, and it does not intend to. I would compare The Dark Knight, instead, to The Fugitive, Alien, Star Wars (that is, episode IV) or The Silence of the Lambs — all movies with pulp roots and grandiose spectacle that transcend their genres and achieve substantial dramatic weight through skillful plotting and firmly grounded, well-performed characters.
Nota Bene
I have a couple of important meetings coming up in the next few days, preparing for which will prevent me from the kind of in-depth blogging you folks have come to expect. My apologies.
Like many Americans this week, I spent more time than I really had available with my DVD of The Dark Knight. If, by some strange quirk of fate, you have not yet obtained a copy of this motion picture, and if you are blessed with a large enough monitor screen, I highly recommend the blu-ray edition. (Oh, and you’ll need a blu-ray player, which you might as well get in any case.) The whole movie looks great, but the action scenes, which were shot in Imax, are simply jaw-dropping in their detail and picture quality.
When I return, before I finish up my Spielberg analysis, I plan to sit down and do a thorough, multi-part, act-by-act, scene-by-scene analysis of The Dark Knight, the densest, most deceptive, most accomplished, most compelling screenplay I’ve encountered in many a year.
(I was also planning on analyzing all the other Batman movies, to better place The Dark Knight in context, and I may still, but I think I will do The Dark Knight first.)
Then Munich, hopefully before Christmas, but you know me.
BREAKING: I am old
The Onion has published their Best Music of the Year list. I find that, of the albums listed, I own one.
One. (Portishead’s Third, to answer your next question.)
Back in my day, if you can believe it, we had artists like Elvis Costello and Talking Heads, and we listened to music on vinyl discs on turntables, where you would put a tiny fake-diamond needle on the surface of the vinyl and then you’d have to sit there and listen to the songs in the order the artist intended while you looked at the big cardboard sleeve the thing came in. Now it’s all blippity-blip music and coarse youth with their gaudy styles and lack of melody. Where did you go, Johnny Rotten?
Also: get off my lawn.
Spielberg: War of the Worlds part 4
Ray Ferrier has spent three acts of War of the Worlds fleeing the predations of the unknowable aliens who seem bent on destroying his family — that is, his action has been, up to now, the act of avoiding action. Now, as Act IV begins, the aliens go one step over the line, forcing Ray into a crisis of action.
Spielberg: War of the Worlds part 3
As Act III of War of the Worlds begins, Ray Ferrier, who has just lost his son, seeks refuge from the giant mechanical beasts rampaging across the countryside. He heeds the call of Harlan Ogilvy, who lures him down into the basement of an abandoned house (either that, or it’s Harlan’s own house — I’m not sure). Ray only wants to hide, to get out of the way of the horrifying machines, but he will find out that Harlan has much bolder plans in mind — armed insurrection. (Why Ray should be surprised at Harlan’s plans is something of a mystery — Harlan calls Ray into his basement by holding a shotgun aloft in his clenched fist — a signal for armed insurrection if ever there was one.)
Spielberg: War of the Worlds part 2
At the end of Act I, Ray Ferrier sees his home — indeed, his town — destroyed by gigantic machines from another planet. In Act II, the longest of War‘s acts, he will take his kids on a road trip to find a safe haven. He will seek refuge in his ex-wife’s home (in the basement), then, when that home is also destroyed, he will flee toward her parents’ house in Boston. Before he reaches Boston, he will lose his son and be forced to take shelter in a third home, this one not his own (in another basement).
Spielberg: War of the Worlds part 1
WHAT DOES THE PROTAGONIST WANT? Ray Ferrier, like Frank Abagnale, has lost his home. Like Viktor Navorski, he has lost his home due to an unexpected war. Like John Anderton, he has a problem with losing his son.
Tweets for Today
- 09:29 Good instructions on how to setup LT on LJ mouser.livejournal.com/379686.html #
- 09:51 One issue should now be fixed, still monitoring and I’ll blog about it later (blog.loudtwitter.com/) #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
UPDATE: Seriously, what the hell is this? I have no idea. There must have been a box that I checked somewhere a couple of months ago, I’ve never seen this before. Now if I could only find out how to either:
*use it
*un-check it
Any 21st-century people of the future out there?
Also: iChat — my new laptop seems to think it’s something everyone uses all the time. WTF?
Sam’s ideas for Jurassic Park IV
(Sam, 7, has been keen on Jurassic Park ever since he saw a fleeting image from it in a video store at age 3. He has now seen all three movies several times and owns the soundtrack, the themes of which he can be heard to sing incessantly around the house. His interest in Indiana Jones is more recent — he first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark less than a year ago –– but is no less strong. The first name in filmmaking he learned was George Lucas, but the second was Steven Spielberg, and it is Spielberg who has had the much greater impact, as we will see.)
SAM. Dad?
DAD. Yeah?
SAM. Is there going to be a Jurassic Park IV?
DAD. I don’t know. They’ve been planning one for a long time, but I don’t know if they’ll ever make it.
SAM. What do you think it will be about?
DAD. Well, I actually know something about that.
SAM. Really?
DAD. Yeah. I’ve heard — now mind you, this is only what I’ve heard — that in Jurassic Park IV, a the government breeds raptors to carry out commando raids.
SAM. Really?
DAD. That’s what I’ve heard.
SAM. Could they do that?
DAD. Um, sure, I guess. Velociraptors are pack hunters, they must be about as smart as dogs, you could probably train them if you started from birth.
SAM. What if — oh! — What if they train velociraptors to be commandos, and then send them back in time to fight the Nazis?
DAD. Well dude, that sounds like the greatest idea in the history of movies.
SAM. (really rolling now) And, how come there haven’t been any water dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park movies?
DAD. I don’t know, they should really —
SAM. Because, it could be like, the opening of the movie, there could be the island, right, and there’s a T-Rex walking on the shore, and he’s hunting somebody, right? And he’s just about to strike and suddenly a Megalodon jumps out of the water and grabs the T-Rex off the beach and drags it into the water!
DAD. Wow!
SAM. A giant shark jumps out of the water, grabs the T-Rex, comes completely out of the water and then splashes back down into it! How many times do you think people have seen that in a movie?
DAD. Most people? Probably never.
(pause)
SAM. Do you think it’s too much to have the Megalodon and the Nazis in the same movie, or should we save one of them for Jurassic Park V?
Spielberg: The Terminal
WHAT DOES THE PROTAGONIST WANT? Viktor Navorski is on his way to New York for reasons that will not become known until the end of Act III. Due to a strange quirk of fate, finds himself stateless. His fictional country, Krakosia, has experienced a coup while his plane was in the air, his passport is now invalid, and the US does not recognize the new government. The "strange quirk of fate" aspect of the narrative is important, because it marks The Terminal as a comedy. (In Greek terms, a comedy is when the gods mess with your life, a tragedy is when you mess with your own life.) It also marks Viktor as a passive protagonist, a simple soul powerless against large antagonistic forces. Which is acceptable for a comedy — up to a point. Because Viktor’s key problem is a civil war half a world away, he has no choice but to wait in the airport terminal until the war is over. This is a comic situation, so the screenwriter must raise significant dramatic tension, out of nowhere, to keep the narrative balls in the air.