I just saw The Dark Knight and I have to say, this movie will be a loser.What do I mean? Well, in the race that is the summer box office tallies of 2008 this new Batman movie will not win. Why? It’s not because it’s not an excellent film (it is). It’s not because, it doesn’t have the best performances of any film I’ve seen so far this year (it does – EVERYONE brings their “A” game). And it’s not because it doesn’t have the high-octane spectacle of the other super-competition (it’s got action in spades).
No, the reason The Dark Knight will lose the summer box office competition is because it is too true.
Indy and Iron man are quintessential summer escapism and their grosses will reflect it. That’s what people want this time of year. They want to get away and forget about life for two hours. The Dark Knight offers no such respite.
Even more so than Wall-E (an excellent 90 minute meditation on what it means to be human), The Dark Knight tells the truth about the real struggle between good and evil in all of humanity, how tempting it can be to give in to the latter in service of the former and just how high the stakes are in this whole thing. I was moved to tears several time by this film because it hit so close to home. We had all better listen, see and pay attention.
Furthermore, The Dark Knight is the quintessential post-9/11 superhero movie. I’m not sure this story, even as it borrows from some of my favorite ‘80’s Batman books, would have the resonance it does in a pre-9/11 world. When they talk about the Joker being a terrorist there’s a great double ring going on. I hope it’s not lost on the audience. While we watch Batman and Harvey Dent struggle with what it means to defeat the evil and chaos of the Joker, I couldn’t shake the fact that both Abu-Graib and Guantanamo Bay had been in the news just 24 hours earlier. I know Captain America addressed the war on terror in his comics a few years ago, but this movie is doing something altogether different. Pay attention to the way the Joker is finally defeated. This movie is asking what way, truth and life are as we negotiate our current global crisis. Again, I hope everyone is listening and Christians are making the connections.
All this is why a movie this good (it’s going to make 10 best lists for 2008 and may receive Oscar nods - if you care about that sort of thing), deep and true couldn’t make huge bank. And that’s OK. Verizon tie-ins and action figures be damned, I’m glad Christopher Nolan doesn’t care. He’s made a movie where Batman might not just save Gotham, but our real world as well. Those who have ears let them hear.
Peace,
D








(on break in China town yesterday)




