Let's see...it's the number two film of all time at the box office, every film critic and/or movie blogger in the world has written not just one but probably multiple things about it, I've seen it twice (opening night and again a week later)...and yet here it is a month later and I've yet to write a word about The Dark Knight.Unfortunately, I don't see myself coming up with anything brilliant and/or new to say about the film in the coming days, and I'm sick of seeing this post in draft mode, so what you see is what you get.
Here is one reactionary comment, though: immediately upon the film's release, a number of people wondered aloud about its PG-13 rating, wanting to know how a film so violent could not be rated R (if not worse). I'm not sure if I saw the same movie as them. Outside of a gory (non-violent) half-face and a bunch of action that falls in line with other films with the same rating, the only scenes that really stood out for people were a) when the Joker hands a few thugs a broken pool cue and tells them more or less to fight to the death (an outcome of which we don't see a lick of) and b) the infamous pencil-to-the-brain move, a brilliantly shot and edited piece of violence that happens so fast, the audience barely has time to register what has occurred before putting their hand to their mouth and squealing "Oohhhh!!"
Was this a shocking move? Sure, and it's kind of unpleasant to think about as well - even more so had we been shown more. But, first of all, we weren't, and second, if you sit back for a minute and think about it, is there really any difference between a pencil to the brain and a bullet to the brain, which is something that any casual viewer of action/crime films has most likely seen a number of times? If anything, this is a testimonial to how benign violence with a gun has become to us in film. But surely we aren't so hypocritical to think that one method of killing a person is groovy while another is a moral outrage, are we?
Shockingly, I agree with just about everyone that the film is great. My only big gripes were with the length (broken record time: I don't care how good a movie is, an action flick should never be 150 minutes long. Ever.), as the plot was tailor made to be split in two (though Ledger's death would have shot that plan to hell, anyhow) and with the lack of screen time for the great William Fichtner, given but a minute of screen time in the memorable opening. Lesser gripes are to be found, as are lavish praise, but you've heard all that before.
Fletch's Film Rating:
"You're the best...around!"
