‘The Dark Knight’ paints a dark picture of 2008

Summer is over now, and it is time to reflect on all the cook-outs we went to, how many times we heard “American Boy” on the radio and how much the weather sucks now that we have to bear the intense humidity while walking to class. But more importantly, now that we are all back together, it is an opportunity for everyone to compare how many times they saw “The Dark Knight.”

From what I can tell, there are several different audience types for this movie. There are those who saw it once and appreciated it for its cinematic paramount; die-hard comic enthusiasts who saw it upward of five times or more; and those who, although not necessarily into comics, felt compelled to see it two to three times, and with each time made a closer dissection of the film’s themes and cultural implications.

Let’s start with the x-factor – Heath Ledger. Like the James Deans, Buddy Hollys and even Mozarts of the past, Ledger died at the height of his career, with sensational acclaims of his performance in the film well before his death. This wraps the film in a mystique that attracts our generation to the film and adds an element of cultural unity into our viewing – one of our own has died and left behind this important timepiece of artistic creation.

However, the film itself goes much further with the common veins of our time than just Ledger’s performance. It is a testimony of today’s political tumult, with mixed-up intentions turning to the sides of good or evil with an unknowing public left to decide which is which. Sound familiar? As we approach the general election, we ourselves are questioning the credibility of opposing sides in the fight for right.

The film also appeals to viewers of our generation through its artistic direction, which focuses highly on the ironic and the macabre. I don’t know how you feel, but growing up among classics such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Rocko’s Modern Life,” I have a taste for unpleasing aesthetics, a kind of morbid awkwardness in a work of art’s presentation of itself. Specifically with the Joker’s costume design, one easily gets a sense of the filmmakers pushing through an unsavory idea – the darkness of humanity.
“The Dark Knight” didn’t just appeal to us because it was a high-budget blockbuster of the summer. It appealed to us because, in its groundwork, the appalling themes of young death, moral decay and the role of chance in our lives shook us. It does what any excellent piece of artwork does – observes the reality of our times and fights against it through expression. And that expression is left for us to observe, dissect and act upon in our generation.