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The Dark Knight – Violence vs. Heart

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Contributed by: Holly Heiman on 7/21/2008

I go to movies to be transported by fabulous storylines. The Dark Knight is wonderful sci-fi - the kind of thing that can take me away better then any Calgon bubble bath.

The problem arose when the violence and twisted plots become too thick to be accurately portrayed. Subplots, explosive special effects...stories within stories within stories - and although the Lord of the Rings Trilogy had the same type of configuration, at least it was played out in such a way that we could understand what the heck was going on.

Anytime I watch a violent action movie longer then 90 minutes, my brain goes into "overload!", and wants to shut-down. The gratuitous violence was never ending...A scene that comes to mind is Batman's show of his private feelings by brutally beating the Joker. This sets it up to show us his "downfall"......but the exploding, shooting, and otherwise endless brutality, hid these subtle, and what could be heart-rending scenes.

The director minimized the heart of the story, and substituted the special effects and brilliant acting of Heath Ledger, for showing Batman's soul (and what it means to be a dark knight). Granted, we got a great Joker, that makes Jack Nicholson's Joker look like Bozo the clown. But Batman's "dark night of the soul" was lost - and for me, that was the purpose of the movie. The soul first discovered in Batman Begins, the movie that gave me hope after the silly characterizations of Michael Keaton's Batman, was not present.

The beginning and ending were attention-worthy...the second half could've been cut by 30 minutes.
Perhaps when the DVD comes out, the deleted scenes will uncover the emotion that this movie buried.

And of course, if you dont care about story-line, go ahead and see it for 150 minutes of brain-busting violence & special effects. I DO NOT recommend kids see this movie - It should be rated R for violence and scary scenes.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFO

Holly Heiman

Green Mountain Falls , CO

Holly Heiman has posted 12 stories and 4 comments since joining on 6/28/2007. Holly Heiman 's average story rating is 4.62.

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