evigilo!

Warning: The following review contains spoilers and offensive material.

I used to like Christopher Nolan. I used to love his films. I certainly don't appreciate his latest film, The Dark Knight. In fact, I detest it. This over-hyped blockbuster is, in my view, one of the most vile United States Propaganda films in the entire recorded history of movies and film (and other motion pictures).

The Joker establishes himself as a terrorist from the very beginning by acting like a murdering psychopath. Why is everyone praising the acting of Heath Ledger so much? It's not because of his magnificent performance or because he's dead (good riddance), but because people everywhere secretly want to be evil at heart - they love Joker's apparent limitless freedom to do whatever he wants, an anathematic anarchy. I'll admit, I've often fantasised about stabbing one of my coworkers in the head with a pencil.

Bruce Wayne soars to new levels of arrogance with his billions of dollars by designing a sonar-based tracking system in order to locate and spy on any one of thirty million people in Gotham City. What message is the director trying to convey here? Obviously he, like Barack Obama, is in complete support of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) bill.

Harvey Dent starts out as an incorruptible "White Knight" (notice the contrast to "Dark Knight") whose "image" becomes twisted and destroyed by the nefarious Joker, turning Dent into the character called Two-Face, a principled but unjustified murderer, motivated only by his blind need for vengeance. The subtext here is actually implying that being too good is actually wrong. Go figure. And speaking of blindness, why didn't Harvey's left eye melt out of his skull like the rest of the skin in the surrounding area?

The difference between Batman and Harvey is striking. The Batman, akin to the US Government, has to get his hands dirty in order to make the hard decisions, to do the "right" thing. It's ultimately the good and not as hardened Harvey (like most hippies) who can't make the more difficult decisions and as a result, fails. This justifies the Knight of Darkness' morally skewed decision from having "too much power" to snoop on Gotham under the pretext of catching a terrorist.

The reason the Dark Knight doesn't kill the Joker at the end is not really out of any "misguided self-righteousness," but because like the Joker, he too, is obsessed with having an opponent worthy of a challenge, a consummatory villain. This is why the Bush administration never really attempted to catch Bin Laden, because if they did, it would presume a victory for the War on Terrorism, which is never meant to be won.

I'm going to end this review because I'm getting pissed off writing about this absolute bullshit-of-a-film. But first, here's a short letter that I wrote and emailed to Christopher Nolan:

Dear Chris,

I hate you. You probably had Heath Ledger murdered just so the movie would have more "buzz" and make more money. You fucking prick.

Your biggest fan,
Bryan Frasier

P.S. I threw away my Widescreen Two-Disc Limited Edition of Memento.

I give the movie 0/10.

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