Altered Egos

Reflecting on the Dark Knight not too long ago, I came upon an odd realization. As anyone remotely familiar with Batman knows, Bruce Wayne puts on a disguise and assumes the identity of Batman when he's fighting crime. But in Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne also seems to put on a false face to the public Bruce Wayne.

That public Bruce Wayne is arrogant, brash and brazen. Bruce is larger than life and has all the cars, money, women and power. So why, then, does he show humility and humbleness around his confidants Lucius, Alfred and Rachel? It's as though he's only able to be himself around those people.

Around high society, he's Bruce Wayne: billionaire playboy. Around the dregs of society, he's Batman. Around his friends he's just Bruce: a soft spoken man who just wants to make the world a better place. Which one is the real Bruce Wayne?

This got my mind running wild as I think I finally understood why it is I inherently like superheroes. You have 2 identities occupying the same body (usually, sometimes more like in the above example), but only one of them can be the genuine one. Consider this:

• Does Peter Parker want to be taking photos as a journalist? Or does he want to be making headlines as Spiderman?
• Is Bruce Banner more himself when he's suppressing his rage? Or when he unleashes it and becomes the Hulk?
• At the end of the day, does Kal-el want to sit down to a nice quiet night as Clark Kent? Or does he find that boring and need to protect Metropolis as Superman?

Too many questions, not enough answers. And that's a big reason to why I'm drawn to it.

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Dark Chivalry

I saw the Dark Knight tonight. If you haven't seen it, go see it. Right now.

Seriously, right now.

I cannot review the movie because I could never hope to do it justice. But I can say this: this movie actually made me upset that Heath Ledger is dead. Callous as that sounds, and as tragic as his circumstances were (any death is always tragic), I personally don't believe being able to entertain a few people is cause for national mourning. Soldiers killed in combat serving our country move me much more, and where is their press coverage? That's a rhetorical question, of course, and perhaps a rant for another day.

But Heath did something magical as the Joker. At all times when he was on screen I was simultaneously fascinated, appalled, frightened and captivated. It's selfish I admit, but I'm pissed off no one will ever be able to be the Joker again... at least not one as perfect as Heath Ledger's.

See, my exposure to the character of the Joker was that of the cartoon show as a kid, and the Jack Nicholson version of the Joker. As I was explained to by a friend, those were at best a parody of the comic book's version, ironically making the Joker to be more of a clown than he was. Heath's Joker was truer to the comic book: dark, and truly twisted.

And yet, the Joker makes sense. He's the exact opposite of Batman. Where Batman is trying to protect the order within Gotham, the Joker is simply trying to plunge it into chaos. No more, no less. And though he was an agent of chaos he had a plan all along, only finally knowing what his true motives were at the end of the movie.

The depth of this Joker was almost unreal too. His insanity was apparent from get go with the bank robbery he masterminded, and his "magic trick" shortly thereafter is something that's going to stick with me for a good long while.

Balance that out with the Joker's comic nature which was shown in subtle, yet powerful ways. Watch the scene where he's blowing up a hospital in a nurses outfit and tell me that isn't anything but brilliant. There were little mannerisms here and there all throughout the movie that really made you laugh as you were anxious to see what the Joker did next.

And the different stories the Joker kept telling on how he got the scars on his face was an incredibly powerful way to get me to think about what makes the Joker tick. Throughout the movie I kept trying to figure the Joker out, and at no point - even at the end - did I ever really get much answered, which makes him now (at the time of this writing) all the more enthralling.

For me, this Joker is easily as the greatest movie villain of all time. Before seeing this movie, Hannibal Lecter held that spot without question. Hannibal is a smart, calculating, chilling villain that would make me soil myself if I met him in real life.

Heath Ledger's Joker? He's like that but to a much much grander scale. Also, he does it with a smile on his face.

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