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The Night of the Dark Knight

Welcome to a World without me having seen this movie yet.

I’m going to forgo the posting of Part Four of my Multi-Part blog tonight, because I have more important things to get off my chest here in regards to one of the most anticipated films of my life.

In the early months of 2006, I had been checking out all the other online havens for geekery and reading about how, during the filming of Christopher Nolan’s brilliant THE PRESTIGE, Nolan, and actors Christian Bale and Michael Caine would sit down at lunch together and hammer out some ideas for the next BATMAN film.

And since those months, with drool cup firmly planted under my chin, I have been salivating over the release of THE DARK KNIGHT. I’ve sat through the casting announcements, like the casting of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and the incredibly inspired choice of Heath Ledger as The Joker. The most important casting for me was the replacement of Katie Holmes by Maggie Gyllenhall, because I hate Katie Holmes and more importantly, I love Maggie.

I’ve sat through all the viral marketing, the occasional phone call from someone who was being held hostage in a bank robbery, the occasional phone calls from Harvey Dent asking for help in his campaign for District Attorney, the occasional email that laughs at me, and of course, the occasional email that tells me that I can buy cheap Viagra. Unfortunately, the latter of these had nothing to do with the film. At least I don’t think so.

Then came the peeks at Batman’s new suit, which a lot of nay-sayers said made him look like Robocop, but I thought looked damn cool. Then came the first glimpse of Heath as The Joker.

Then came the first trailer with actual footage from the film. I watched it several dozens of times. Then filming wrapped in my native hometown of Chicago, and they were headed for post. Everything was just shaping up to be so incredibly cool.

Then on the afternoon of January 22nd, as I was sitting in my psychiatrist’s office waiting to see him, I saw a breaking news headline on MSNBC announcing that unconfirmed sources were saying that Heath Ledger had died.

Thank God I was in my psychiatrist’s office already.

The reason that I was so deeply saddened by his death was not because he was The Joker, but because he was someone who had his whole life in front of him, and his biggest film ever was coming up, and he had a child and he was a human being that by all accounts was a very cool person. The only celebrity death that ever really affected me was Brandon Lee, and they were for very much the same reasons. It was just a terrible and meaningless accident, like Ledger. And soon, the thoughts started going through my head about how this was going to affect the film, and I hated myself for that. I just couldn’t believe that this was a concern. But after reading all the other blogs and posts in reaction to his death, I found that I was not alone in either my grief or that I felt like crap for thinking about how this might affect the film.

But time went on, and we got out of the detritus that we were bombarded with about the circumstances of Heath’s death, and we started to get excited about the film again. You have to understand that THE DARK KNIGHT is easily the most anticipated film for me since THE PHANTOM MENACE. Now, I learned from that film that trailers and marketing do not make a good film. But that film was also a George Lucas film, and I don’t really like him much as a filmmaker. And I think that Nolan is pretty damn brilliant. And looking at the cast that he had assembled, I knew that even if he did a horrible job of directing, the actors could pull it through.

Time went on, and the anticipation grew stronger and stronger… and the midnight show was on its way. All of the reviews of the film that I’ve read have been stellar, including the one found on this site. Everyone so far is raving about this film.

And right now, it is 12:42am local time, and I am not there. I am at home blogging to you about it. Why?

I have two Batman tattoos. I have MANY Batman figures. I have shirts. I have comics (duh!). I have a great deal of Batman paraphernalia. Why am I not at the very first possible showing of THE DARK KNIGHT if I’m such a rabid Batman fan?

I pondered that question long and hard, and after days of soul-searching, I found the answer.

I saw Tim Burton’s BATMAN at the latest possible time on June 23rd, 1989 which was 10:45pm. I was 14 years old and the film was scheduled to begin and 10:45pm, but didn’t start until about 11:30 because people were still pouring in. It was a great time for a teenager and it took me a few more viewings and a few more years to realize how awful that film was. But I am now 33. I’m a working stiff. I just don’t feel like waiting in line in the Phoenix heat for at least a few hours. I also don’t really relish the thought of seeing it in a packed theater. I go to the movies now pretty much exclusively during the daytime now, because the crowds usually bug the living hell out of me. You’ve got people texting, filming it on hidden camcorders, talking, explaining the nuances of the characters to the people next to them… going to the movies nowadays just is not the “YAY!” experience it used to be.

I know that I sound like a crotchety old bastard, but I just feel like having my movie-going environment a little more controlled. So, I’ll be going tomorrow afternoon.

And tonight I was happy to sit at home, watch BATMAN BEGINS on DVD with the surround sound pumping and the sub-woofer shaking the furniture. I’ve also been watching episodes of the terrific animated series. And also tonight, the cable network TNT was kind enough to show BATMAN AND ROBIN, which is such an amazing train wreck of a film that it’s almost impossible not to have fun while watching it.

And then tomorrow…