Dark Knight

I feel compelled to write about Dark Knight because Batman is so deeply entrenched in my childhood. After I saw the first Tim Burton Batman I become obsessed in the way only a child or crazy genius can be obsessed. For a solid year afterward I would dress up as Batman, along with my friend who also dressed as Batman, and run around the neighborhood, solving fake crimes and killing fake bad guys. For two years straight I was Batman for Halloween. I created my own custom cowl from papier-mache and had my grandmother sew me a cape. My friend and I would sandwich our play (oh but it wasn’t play it was real) between additional viewings of that first Batman. I’ve seen it so many times that I know every single sound effect before it happens, every single note of Danny Elfman’s score. Something captivated me so much about the Batman that I wanted to be him. I fantasized about what it would really be like to one day become a masked superhero, weighing the logistics with my child logic. Frankly, it seemed possible.

Eventually I got older, and Joel Schumacher came along. Nothing really needs to be explained about that one. You know well. The mystique evaporated and I started watching MTV and liking girls. Thank god for that.

But Batman is still a part of me. Something about an outcast nerdy boyhood creates a magnetic attraction to the Dark Knight. Naturally as I decided that I wanted to be a filmmaker I had fantasies about how my own Batman film would look. Thankfully, Chris Nolan came along and made Batman into what I always dreamed it could be. A naturalistic truly dark super hero married to an approach with a slavish devotion to pragmatism. Why would Batman really have a cape? What would a real Batmobile look like? The kind of realistic approach I might have hoped for as a child, as someone who was really trying to figure out how I would one day become Batman for real.

Dark Knight is so good it’s painful. The world just drips and I’m still covered in it three days after seeing it. I can’t get it out of my head. It connects with my childhood fantasies with an electric shock that won’t let go and it’s all pure joy. I will see this movie many times.

I will not however, dress up like Batman this time.