Roger Ebert raves about it. There's talk of a posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger. My oldest bought advanced tickets and saw it @ 12:45am Friday morning. The middle child saw it late last night. They were both gobsmacked.
But.
In the midst of the hype/excitement, cultural maven Brant Hansen has a very strong...and appropriate response.
"The Dark Knight" is cultural rigormortis. It's what happens when we are done, and we are done. Jacques Barzun had it right, when he wrote a history of western culture up through the 1990s, and said, certainly, that our age is defined by boredom. We are excited by nothing, really, but maybe for a moment here, or a moment there, we can try to be turned on. Sex can do it (or fake sex, much more likely) but brutal violence can work, too, if for a short time.
Our culture is lying on the table, and "The Dark Knight" is just another jolt before the flatline resumes.
Please make a point of reading the whole thing. And watch this satirical response. [HT: Waving or Drowning.]
