more dark knight stuff

i can't wait to go see this movie again. it was such a refreshing experience to see a purported summer "blockbuster" movie actually use explosions and action as a subtext to a more philosophical conflict (what a shocking concept, right?). i guess i just expected to enjoy seeing a lot of shit getting blown up and was very happy to instead see a movie that actually made me think. it's also really great to see the majority of critical opinion getting behind this film, and also seeing it spark actual conversation about morality, etc. (though a lot of the critical discussion in mainstream channels insists on comparing everything to an allegory about the war on terror, which is somewhere between very and sort of ridiculous).

i was going to write a review for the movie, but after checking out the reviews flying around rottentomatoes for an hour or so, i think this one pretty much says what i want to say and says it way better than i would.

i think he/she hits the nail on the head by characterizing the film as ultimately "exhausting". it really was. it was so simultaneously immersive and nihilistic that sitting in my seat at the end of the film, i felt more like i had read a volume of nietzsche than seen a big-budget movie. of course, maybe it's just because i'm the sort of person who reads nietzsche in the first place that i would say that in the first place. i have a feeling that someone could go see this movie and just enjoy the explosions and go home with a smile on their face.

the thing that really caught me about the above-linked review was this: "Superheroes are, say it with me, Our Modern Mythology, but we maybe tend to forget that myths and epics are very bleak places to find yourself. Every myth foreshadows destruction, for the purpose of myth is not to give us a rollicking entertainment but to hold up a funhouse mirror to who we are as a people and where we are going because of it."

i've always loved studying mythology and what you could probably most accurately call "literary fiction" because of their desire to provide insights or at least provoke you to develop your own insights regarding the human experience and your particular version of that experience...with a few exceptions, i generally see movies as simplifications of these types of stories, with the desire to entertain (and therefore simplify anything that might be un-entertaining to think about) instead of inform or provoke...so hooray to christopher nolan and company for taking one of our most overly-simplified and black-and-whited forms of movie entertainment (superhero action movies) and reworking it into something more elemental, something that doesn't spend two hours patting us on the back and telling us that good and evil are simple and you can learn the difference just by, well, watching movies (because hollywood is just like real life) and instead takes the chance of treating its audience intelligently and showing them that sometimes your best isn't good enough even if you're a superhero. holla.