Entertainonomics: The Dark Knight

My electronic music teacher, Krzysztof Wolek, sent me this link - presumably because I would appreciate the grammar of film used to dissect one of this generation's most unique entertainonomic phenomena in film. The Dark Knight.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/press_play/index.html?story=/ent/movies/feature/2011/09/12/dark_knight_jim_emerson_press_play

I'm glad I don't make "Hollywood" movies. As soon as your work starts making money, people have found a new pariah.

While much of what he said about this movie was accurate from the standpoint of technical filmmaking rules, (which are about as "universal" or monolithic as the rules of tonal music) are true, I think he would be less likely to spend so much time ripping apart a Kurasawa or a Tarkovsky or a Herzog. Maybe the guy just fancies himself an action sequence guru? I guess I didn't think of the sequence as disorienting because it fit into the context of the film. Granted, I will rip up on the script - why writers or producers-cum-writers think it's a good idea to give non-characters these stupid, needless lines (i.e. "Lock and load!") is the reason I tend to stay out of the movie theater and stick to my home projector.

It seems pretty banal actually to watch a movie and pick apart how physically impossible the action is. What does that say about our culture? Why do people have this dual demand that films should behave completely in every aspect as if they are happening in real life right now, but when these things are sad, depressing or true to the content of life people are mad because it's not an "escape" anymore. If people really wanted films to be true to life, they'd make movies about the guy that hates his job working at Best Buy. There would not even be such a thing as an action sequence. Life is not physically that exciting. So the only thing of value I can see that Mr. Emmerson says is "All the jumbled up movement can cancel out any sense of momentum."

I suppose this is because I have come to see film making as if it were music. This is probably why Joey and I like David Lynch. Is the acting immaculate? Not in the usual sense for sure. It seems sometimes the characters are not even acting. Do we receive all the visual information we need to follow a plot that is real to life? Absolutely not. Do we find an overall form, rhythms, harmony, dissonance, contrast of elements? Absolutely so. Life IS as exciting as an action sequence at times, but not because things are literally physically happening like they do in action sequences. Life is exciting for the same reason music is exciting - it moves from moment to moment, ideas culminate, things appear to have happened for a reason and we perceive action and momentum. We could not experience music with only our sense of logic and reasoning. We require our emotions to make sense of music, and music makes sense of us. I don't see why filmmaking is judged any differently. I suppose it's not. There is radio pop and there are Blockbusters. Critics will leave us alone so long as we continue not making any money. :) And you will never make money unless you follow the instruction manual for making a movie.

As far as The Dark Knight goes, I don't love it. I'm honestly a bit indifferent to it. I like Heath Ledger's masterful portrayal of a 2D comic villain as a fully rounded human being.  I like the darkness, the Noirish chiaroscura, and the cocktail of comic-like simplicity and familiar political themes. But what I can truly not deny about this movie is that it managed to draw a crowd from so many sects of people. This was a movie I DID see in the theater, right there next to the people who come to see every blockbuster, the nerdy boys who only see action movies and cult specialties like Star Wars, the critics (which I don't identify with either) and the independent crowd.  

Actually, I like the role of the critic when I think about it - yes they are annoying naysayers that quest after the conquest of ruining a good thing because it's just not good enough, but they're the system of checks and balances. No one should ever make too much money.