Saying goodbye

I'm too depressed to write that much about last night's loss. All I'll say is this; Collingwood lost for three very simple reasons. Firstly, the accountability in the midfield in the third term was atrocious. One passage on the right half flank in the third term had Daniel Wells get a handball receive, slip, lose control of the ball, stand up, gather himself, and deliver to a teammate who then hit a target inside 50. All of this, and not one Collingwood player was even in the vicinity. Disgusting. Secondly, Malthouse's foolish ploy to have players play on no matter what the cost. This was stupid for three reasons. First, the Kangaroos really aren't that good a team. This might seem invalid after last night, but Collingwood are a better team than North and shouldn't have to be drastically changing their gameplan to accomodate the weaker side. Second, it had Collingwood playing outside their comfort zone. They're simply not used to playing on like that, and unless your Geelong playing on at all costs will not necessarily produce free flowing football. Thirdly on that point, Collingwood disregarded common sense in playing on. They did it every single time. Obviously you can't do that because times will come when there just isn't room to play on. Well those times came frequently last night but it didn't stop Collingwood. Nick Maxwell was a major offender. The Pies were playing on and running straight into opposition players, it was turnovers galore for the Roos. Finally, and not to sound like a broken record, but... the ruck. Collingwood once again, as they have been for the past nine years, were raped in the ruck. Drew Petrie completely dominated them. They were smashed in the clearances. Cam Wood right now is not the answer. This must be addressed more seriously in the offseason. In all seriousness, Collingwood would benefit more as a team throwing money at Jamie Charman than they would Jonathan Brown. After last night, that is clear.

OK, that's all I have to say about last night. Moving on. I'm going to do something a bit different today and write about a film I saw. Hopefully this will become an ongoing thing, but I can't hold myself to that. Anyway, the film I watched last night was The Dark Knight. I really can't remember the last time a film was hyped so much. It's probably an Australian thing, for obvious reasons, but in my lifetime I can't remember a film being 'must-see' as much as this one. Probably the first Star Wars film, but that might be it. The hype is there for many reasons; Batman, the big Hollywood budget, the quality of the first film, the rave reviews, and of course Heath Ledger. The film basically appeals to everyone. The average movie goer will see it because of the buzz around it, deadheads will see it for the action and big budget, film lovers will see it because of the reviews, males will see it for the awesome factor, and females will see it for the Ledger factor. What makes this film so special is that it should satisfy every one of those audiences, except maybe the females (Ledger's no Casanova in the movie).

Let's talk about Ledger. When it's all said and done, the main reason this film will be remembered is because it included the penultimate performance (and final entire performance) of the now deceased Heath Ledger. Adding to the tragedy of his death is that the young actor's career was just taking off. His previous two performances (in Brokeback Mountain and Candy) were critically his most raved about. He was now an Academy Award nominated actor, and great things looked to be ahead. It's easy to call a guy like Ledger overrated because of his good looks and his home country roots, but the fact is he wasn't overrated at all. He was a versatile actor, and most importantly one that commanded the screen. On screen he had a presence that not many actors can claim to have. Pre-release talk would have you believe that The Dark Knight was to be his finest role, Oscar-worthy even. Having seen the film I can say that the hype is not at all far from the truth. Ledger's performance is an excellent one, and without it The Dark Knight would have been half the film it ended up being.

Ledger completely re-invents himself in the film, as unrecognisable as Charlize Theron was in Monster. He embodies evil, and is far and away the most captivating character in the film. I believe that there are two types of 'great' movie villains; the intellectual that provides reasoning to inhumane acts, Orson Welles in The Third Man, and those that are simply downright evil, Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. Ledger's Joker falls into the second category, and in terms of effectiveness features prominently at the top of that list. Ledger also brings a degree of physicality to The Joker, never seen before. Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson both portrayed the Joker as a crazed maniac, but never one that would fare that well in a fist-fight. That's not the case here. Ledger is a big bloke, and he makes The Joker a physical force. He kills a mob-guy with his bare hands, turns the table on a police officer, and holds his own against Batman in a fight. He's intelligent, but he's got the raw physical strength to match. In short, Ledger's Joker is a character with no redeeming features, he simply has one goal: chaos.

The Dark Knight is essentially about three men; Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and The Joker. It's an interesting trio dynamic, one reminiscent of Platoon. Wayne is Willem Dafoe, representing good, The Joker is Tom Berenger, representing evil, and Harvey Dent is Charlie Sheen, stuck in the middle. Here we have three interesting characters, and three fine performances, but the film doesn't really have a focus on any one character in particular, and that leads to a slightly disjointed experience. You would expect a Batman film to be mainly about Batman, but in The Dark Knight Batman is probably the third most important character. I'm actually a little disappointed that Christopher Nolan didn't take the Jack Nicholson root and make the film mainly about The Joker. Such was the quality of Ledger's performance, an opportunity may have been missed. Remarkably the main character in the film might in fact be Aaron Eckhart's (underrated actor, Thank You For Smoking was awesome) Harvey Dent.

The action scenes in the film are high quality, as you would expect from a film with a budget of $180 million. Strangely enough the best action scene is the very first one, a memorable bank robbery, which immediately puts on display The Joker's cunning and cold-heartedness. There are a number of other successful action sequences, but the heart of the film and where it is most effective comes with with its key themes and dealing with morality.

The Dark Knight is a film all about the basic decency and integrity of humanity. The Joker plays a number of Saw-like games with the City of Gotham, albeit on a less gruesome scale, and the ethical repercussions are interesting to look at. My personal highlight of the film comes when the Joker rigs two boats full of people with explosives and gives each boat a detonator for the other boat, telling each boat to blow up the other before they are blown up themselves. This is the ultimate ethical decision in the film, and a truly uplifting moment comes from the resulting decision of a prison inmate. The Joker manipulates Gotham into a state of chaos and anarchy, portraying the worst of what humans are capable of. But moments like this remind us of the goodness and the potential to do what is fundamentally right that we all possess. They give us hope.

All the performances in the film are fantastic. Ledger is the highlight, as we have already touched on, broadcasting the evil of the Joker through his chilling voice, facial mannerisms and unpredictability. Christian Bale has a much more limited role this time around, compared to Batman Begins, but he embraces it. He's icy cool and commands the screen - he's hands down the best Batman we've ever seen. The wildcard is Aaron Eckhart who doesn't seem to get any attention ever. He's a mixed bag as Harvey Dent, the most complex character in the film. As the heroic Harvey Dent, protector of the city, he's perfect, exuding confidence, charisma, fearlessness and a steely resolve. The same can not be said when his character turns nasty. Whether it was the script or the performance, or both, I can't be sure, but I simply didn't buy Dent's hasty transformation. And that in reality is the film's only shortcoming. Maggie Gyllenhaal is good as the love interest of Bruce and Harvey, a big uprade over Katie Holmes. Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are brilliant as Commissioner Gordon, Butler Albert and Lucious Fox. Has there ever been as good a minor supporting trio as those three?

The Dark Knight works on so many levels. As an action and popcorn film it provides satisfying scenes of adrenaline and big bangs. As a character study of three different men, it works, albeit to a lesser degree. But what makes the film so great is its study of people, how they react, how to control them, and the decisions that they make. Every single character in the film at one stage or another makes an ethical decision, and more often than not they face the consequences. The film shows that the good guy doesn't always win, and that making the right decision doesn't always come without a cost. From Heath Ledger's magnificent performance, to the presence of Bale's Batman, to the wonderfully dark cinematography, to the tragic yet magnificent manipulation of Harvey Dent at the hands of The Joker, The Dark Knight is hands down the greatest superhero movie of all time. And that, is perhaps as close as we will get to a fitting tribute to one of the greatest young actors of his generation. R. I. P. Heath