Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Heart of darkness

A posthumous Oscar nod? Don’t rule it out — the late Heath Ledger is just that freakyscarygood as the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” the second chapter in the Nolan Brothers’ stupendous re-creation of the Batman mythos.

After reintroducing the Caped Crusader (Christian Bale) in 2005’s “Batman Begins,” director Christopher, who co-wrote the script with sibling Jonathan, gleefully rev to full throttle here.

Refining their minor stroke of genius in starting all over at the beginning but dropping the whole mythos into our highly unsettled postmillennial age, the Nolans continue their campaign to wipe the franchise clean of its silly, campy 1960s fluff, a vibe that persisted through the 1990s films. (Who can forget the “bat nipples” on George Clooney’s outfit?)

Their excitement at getting the chance to reinvent arguably the most legendary comic-book villain ever is almost palpable, and they draw the performance of a lifetime from Ledger, the bright light who died in January at 28, having barely scratched the surface of his rich potential.

Any comparison between Ledger and Jack Nicholson in 1989’s “Batman” is futile. Nicholson played the Joker as suave clown; Ledger, in perfect sync with the revisionist vibe, takes the character to a much darker place in which he cries only on the inside — if at all — and more than once turns the Kevlar-swaddled Bale into a supporting player in his own film.

Affecting a nasal whine and slouched posture, with yellowed teeth, facial scars, dank, stringy hair and haphazardly applied pancake makeup, Ledger is all white-hot id, playing the Joker as a psycho force of nature.

He’s on a rampage, pouring lighter fluid on a Gotham City mob war that is swiftly exploding beyond the control of allies Batman, police Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and white-knight District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Dent is well-known to Batman fans, and his preordained fate late in the film is a jaw-dropping achievement of makeup and CGI.

But the Joker is not motivated by money or power — it’s the sheer thrill of creating anarchy that gets him hot and sweaty.

“Some men just want to watch the world burn,” observes Alfred (Michael Caine), man-servant to Batman and his zillionaire alter-ego, Bruce Wayne.

But the Joker is also lucid enough to recognize the symbiotic nature of his relationship with Batman, another elemental force who, at this point, is in the early stages of his crusade, still defining himself with the support of Alfred and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), chief operating officer of Wayne Enterprises — the man designing and engineering his boss’ burgeoning Bat-arsenal.

“Why do you want to kill me?” Batman demands of the Joker in one searing confrontation.

“I don’t want to kill you,” his foe smirks. “What would I be without you? You ... complete me.”

Moments like this show that the Nolans truly get the deep, dark psychological undercurrents that have always defined the raw, corrosive link between these two pulp-fiction titans — and here they twist that relationship into nothing less than a metaphorical battle for the soul of civilization.

At 2½ hours, the movie runs long, but true fans can never get enough of this stuff, especially the way the Nolans serve it up.

It’s a big, bold, bombastic, beautiful flick, with a high-powered cast, sublime shots of ironic, laugh-out-loud humor tucked into unexpected places, and an unnerving theme about the chaos building just outside the gates that resonates all too chillingly in this day and age.

Mix in stunts and special effects that are simply off the charts (check out that Bat-Pod, which glides like a Porsche and booms like an Abrams), and “The Dark Knight” becomes everything pulp-fiction fans have been eagerly awaiting — and more.

Rated PG-13 for scenes of intense violence and creepy menace. Got a rant or rave about the movies? E-mail cvinch@atpco.com.