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The Dark Knight Essay
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| Great points. I don't know why the plot self destructed female leads the way it did... Although I did like the psychodrama "Life Boat" scenario, there was too little psycho drama in it. Also I thought the Joker and Two Face were very adequately articulated- more than any other characters. | One could argue that every character is flat in this movie outside of The Joker. Where is the old British male contingent to complain about being misrepresented? How are Blacks doing? |
| Token love interest Rachel Dawes is so underdeveloped that her death (the death of one of the main characters) barely produces a blip on the audiences emotional radar. Hear that Nolan? WE DIDN'T CARE. Half of us were still wondering what Batman and Harvey Dent saw in her anyway. | I enjoyed this essay and agreed with it, especially about the Gordon child who ended up in danger... I also hope that the next film introduces Ra Al Ghul's daughter. I had hoped that the use of Ra Al Ghul in the first movie was leading us to her. |
| All this bitching about women's roles and she wants to get rid of the black guy (morgan freeman)? Fuck her! | This essay was poorly researched, but more importantly, dismally one-sided and generalised. As a female fan I don't feel at all short changed by the lack of female characters in The Dark Knight. |
| If anything, this film illustrated one glaring error that has plagued just about every superhero film: killing off villains. Just skip that part for once. In fact, keeping Harvey around for two or three films, with a false start or two on the Two Face character, would have let this film have a better ending and would have given a reason to carry the Dawes character and her effect on both into the next films, too. | When I saw female essay on Dark Knight I thought, "Oh great now some feminist shit to bore the blogosphere! But damnit if this is not an insightful take on the veritable truths of the film. |
| I still think it's unfair to criticize a film for its lack of female attention. Batman Begins did a good job making Rachel Dawes a strong woman willing not to be bought and fight for justice...better than Marry Jane at least. | I don't think Maggie Gyllenhall's character was indeed a damsel in distress as she did stand up to the Joker and hit him. She appeared to truly embody the character as she did interrogate a suspect. In my opinion, she played it a lot better than Katie Holmes. Maggie was more real and it was more dramatic |
| I know you were going after the story it's self, but what about Batman? Bale as "Bruce Wayne" nails it. Bale as "Batman", not so much. The voice is annoying. Batman should never be in a well lit room, and never say more than two lines. He's suppose to a ninja/ super detective. | You were TOO EASY on this film! The incoherent script aside the execution of the action scenes and the slipshod shoehorning of Two Face (Venom style from Spidey 3) is WORSE than a throwaway -- it invalidates the whole movie. It saddens me that rapid fans have lavished such praise and money on this film. |
| I think she is stupid on what she thinks about rachels death, a superhero movie is not just some stupid romantic one, but of how the hero defeats the villan of himself, and the outside ones. There doesnt ALWAYS have to be some nice happy ending between a boy and a girl, but a final satisfication of the audience that he has final beated the two or more villans. | All that being said this movie was one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time, even with its obvious flaws. |
| What I want to know is WHERE ARE ALL THE WOMEN??? BOTH in the movies AND in the industry??? WHY are SO MANY movies told from and/or about the male-only perspective??? I mean, WTF??? | This is a thoughtful and well-considered review. Interesting point about the child; it would have been nice to see a little girl all bug-eyed and excited about seeing the Batman. |
| Well, I have no idea what this bitch is talking about. Apparently you're mad about women not being awarded enough in this movie? I don't know. Sounds like a bunch of feminist bullshit to me. Get over it. | ...When was there time to have a Rachel funeral? I seem to remember a mad-man dressed with clown make-up running rampant who just so happened to load a couple boats with explosives in the Gotham city bay. I don't know if you missed that or not. |
| C'mon, lady- - two things: first, not every piece of art has to appease everyone. DEAL WITH IT. IT'S STILL ART. Second, it's being written from a man's world about a man. There's no reason to demerit someone because they don't round off edges to please cosmopolitan yuppies. Go off and fuck a woman | Oh the humanity! Poor women get duped again!! |
| If (Rachel) was everything she was supposed to be to Bruce - why not a funeral? Those short crocodile tears were pathetic. His rage was misplaced with no build up. but really - this nit picky in comparison to the film as a whole. It was amazing. | Personally I didn't feel that the story arc with Rachel Dawes was accidentally forgotten. One of the main themes of the Batman stories is obsession. Rachel being ignored not only by Batman but Harvey Dent was necessary to show how committed and obsessed these two men were. |
| that female review ? whatever lady !!make your own dam movie so ..Is so easy to critic and so goddam hard to create , people dont realize that ...because of people like that , we have today Mama mia , sex and the city , elecktra , Baby mama , 27 dresses and probably Desesperates House wifes : the movie | Yes it was too long, yes it didn't make enough of the strength of the women available in the story. So what? Since when was either film in this current round of interpretation true in anything but spirit to the original comics? |
| The minority of women who are fans of the Batman MOVIES are into it because of Batman. Not any female side roles or female major roles that may happen to have come or have gone through the Batman film series. Come on. Make a mature and worthwhile point next time. | You want females? Batgirl has her own comic book. There are the Teen Titans with Raven and Starfire. There's Wonderwoman, Hawkgirl. Try some anime - Sailormoon. Fushigi Yugi. CardCaptor Sakura. Calm down. |
| Great essay and review! I couldn't agree more about the lack of strong well rounded females in the superhero genre. My fav's are Ripley in Aliens and Sara Conner in T2. But I believe there's still hope. | Honestly don't read into every detail of the charecters based on thier gender and then write an essay on how the big bad man is keeping women down becuase of thier gender. If you really think women have it bad here in the US then you might want to research the Middle East on thier laws on how they punish women on offenses in those countries. |
| Having read what Mrs. Frankel wrote, I must agree on the fact that The Dark Knight is somewhat absent of the female counter parts. Whilst the only resonating female credit goes to Gyllenhaal, the movie is overcast by the pressence of The Joker, Two-Face, The Dark Knight himself and every other bad guy/good guy in between. | They say in this day and age there are more open to women in the film industry, but from my point of view, having some acting, some stunts, and fight scenes experience right here in Boston, and we all know, Boston is becoming a booming industry for films, all the good action roles have been going towards men. |
| Frankel makes a number of good points in this article. Personally, my take on Batman is that it he is a superhero that has very little to do with women (and romance, and happiness). It is about darkness, and loneliness, and madness, and the Batman I know isn't happily in love etc. | you obviously forgot that batman was created in a misogynistic time. the undertones set in those days have remained in place and haven't really left a lot of room for change without a bunch of eyebrows raised. |
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