Heavyweight genre films rescue insubstantial dramas in 2008
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
WING NUT: Heath Ledger (front) as the Joker and Christian Bale as Batman in 'The Dark Knight'
Genre entertainments invariably rake in more money than heavyweight film dramas — that’s what they’re made for. The striking thing about 2008 wasn’t just that the popcorn movies had more explosions and sight gags, but that they had more to say than the theoretically more substantial films. Movies about monsters, robots and caped crusaders seemed more engaged with present-day issues than the work of such celebrated filmmakers as Ron Howard, Sam Mendes, Clint Eastwood and the Coen Brothers.
Iron Man and The Dark Knight both depicted costumed zillionaires fighting injustice, but also contained pertinent metaphors for the duties of the individual in the face of urban and global problems. In the bright, frequently funny Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. offered a playful but revelatory turn as a weapons-building industrialist reassessing his company’s — and, implicitly, his country’s — influence in the world. The Dark Knight’s knotty, expansive crime story became an increasingly fraught exploration of the risks of imposing civic order, unleashing chaos and taking responsibility for collateral damage. The film’s tragic dimensions were only heightened by the late Heath Ledger’s compelling portrayal of the Joker as an anarchic psycho. (more…)
