The Dark Knight. 2008. USA. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Screenplay by Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan. With Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine. 35mm. 152 min.
The Dark Knight’s hellacious vision of Gotham makes Taxi Driver look like When Travis Met Iris. But of all the Christopher Nolan collaborations with Michael Caine—from The Prestige to Tenet and Dunkirk—this is perhaps the most deeply satisfying. Coldness is tempered by kindness, for a change, as Caine’s family butler Alfred Pennyworth uses tough love on master Bruce Wayne to get him to lighten up a bit; around Alfred, Christian Bale—“the best Batman ever,” in Caine’s estimation (many would agree)—slackens his steely jawline and loosens his teflon carapace just long enough to forget that fateful day when his hero father was shot in the face and he, a mere boy, was called upon to become the redeemer of a sinful city. Caine admired Nolan’s revisionist take on the Bob Kane characters, writing that “I based [Alfred’s] voice on the voice of my original sergeant when I joined the British army: it’s a very sharp, staccato, military delivery. It’s a great role, because I think I get to represent the audience’s point of view, to be a point of normality for them, if you like. So just when you’re thinking, What’s going on? There’s a man dressed in a batsuit? I come along and I ask, ‘What’s going on? You’re dressing in a batsuit?’ It was a very clever move by Chris to keep the audience on its toes but also in the loop.”