Madness is Not a Bad Word
The Dark Knight could possibly be the new Blade Runner. Reborn in a much more intricately weaved picture of the ever so bleak anti-hero plot. Complex, riveting and intelligently portrayed. This might just be Christopher Nolan's finest hour. I'm sure most would agree that Memento was probably his best work, but let's just agree to disagree just for the duration of this meandering post.
This film challenges many known conventions that Hollywood holds dear for decades. It questions the film industry's all-too-well known big blockbuster formulas. Hero has incredible (and sometimes superhuman) abilities, beats the bad guy to a pulp, saves the city (and sometimes the entire galaxy), saves the girl, kisses her under the oh-so-artificial purple sunset and lives happily ever after. It has been pretty damn nauseating watching different films with such similar plots. You only need to watch the first 20-30 minutes to be able to mentally carve out the entire plot of the movie, including the part where the hero and heroine do tongue Olympics like there's no tomorrow.
What I like most about the film is that it shows the entire spectrum of Batman's fictional story in it's truest form. It shows the reality of the film, the comic, the underlying narratives. There's no sunshine and rainbows, no dodging bullets, no impossibly drop dead gorgeous heroine, and no crazy escapes from certain death scenarios ala Ethan Hunt.
The Joker was obviously the focal point of the film, accidental or not. Although the movie is about Batman, Gotham's dark knight, The Joker somehow managed to effortlessly outshine Batman by a mile. No doubt I do personally find Batman's character endearing and rather interesting. Elements of duality and dichotomy in it's character is extremely strong. Complete polar opposites when brought together creates a very strong attracting force, and that's exactly why Batman, and other superhero characters, have managed to attract legions of frenzied fans like gravity. Apart from the fancy gadgets and tight leather suits, of course.
But The Joker was really something else. In Heath Ledger's own words, he said that The Joker was a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic with zero empathy". Well, we all have come across such characters in other films before. But what Heath brought to the film was truly unique. Just like how Johnny Depp brought life to Captain Jack Sparrow, so did Heath in playing the role of The Joker.
What I find interesting is the genius behind the madman's character. In the film, he was always a few steps ahead of the entire mafia, the police force, and even the almost infallible Batman. He masterminded the entire plot to shake the very foundation of Gotham's soul, and succeeded. He was completely out of his mind, but the measure of his intelligence, fearlessness and flawless execution was beyond doubt. It's usually the first assumption that crazy people are, well, just crazy. But insanity is far from being one-dimensional. The multitudes of creative possibilities that arises from the condition, or disease if you may, are unquestionable.
The eccentrics, the lunatics, the schizos, the manic depressed, the drug addicts, are a broken lot. But in between those cracks lies a silver lining that most are completely oblivious and unaware of. Even in the most wretched of broken things. Madness is the reverse of reason, and what is opposite of what we perceive as normal, scares us. It is only human to fear what we don't understand. But despite all that, and despite one of my most favourite dead person Michel Foucault's very convincing criticisms on the romanticism of madness, I believe there is some concrete truth behind the silver lining of insanity and chaos. History never lies, and it has shown that our world have been shaped by men who did extraordinary things, who thought outside of the box, who took the road less taken, who said and did things that were widely believed to be unconventional (at their own respective times in history).
But of course, I'm talking in the most general sense of the word. The "insanity" that I speak of here, does not mean that such a person is a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic with zero empathy". What I mean is that a person who is deemed to be "insane" is simply someone who embodies one or more characteristics that is against societal conventions. It is a strong word, no doubt. But it's merely a word nonetheless. A composition of letters. An idea.
I have always strongly believed in the idea of duality. Without either half, life and existence as we know it will cease to prevail. Nothing will make sense without the intertwining of opposites. Everything is relative. What little I understand from Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is that everything needs something to be compared to in order for it to be measured, calculated, weighed, and understood. Everything needs an opposite for it to work. An atom without an electron will not work. A married couple of two chatterboxes will not work. The cold hard steel pistons in your car will not work without slick, slippery grease. That Hugo Boss jacket won't come crawling to you without pushing for overtime at work.
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction", wrote you-know-who centuries ago. I know there's a paradox behind that law, but scrap that and just think about it on the surface. It explains this whole duality nonsense in the simplest way possible. Newton's Third Law of Motion doesn't need to only apply on motion between objects (again, scrap the maths), but on the motion of life. The formula speaks of the movement between order and chaos, good and evil, life and death. The application of the law is far reaching, extending beyond the realm of science and into places that even mathematical equations can't fully explain in its entirety. I have an easy example. Think of karma; if you do wrong to someone, you will get it back. Bitch slapped right across your face, in this life or the next.
Without one, what will be the other? And more importantly, what will "be"? Will we ever know what is light if there is no darkness? Will we ever appreciate life if there is no death? Will we ever truly feel love if there is no suffering? Will we treasure something truly beautiful if nothing before it is ugly? Will we find our soulmate if we have never met all the wrong ones? Will we ever know what is real if we have never dreamt? Will we ever have faith if we have never lost it?
– Rainer Maria Rilke
