Screenhead

Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2008. For previous years, click to visit the article: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.

The Year of the Dark Knight

As mentioned in the look back on 2007, there seemed to be a dissonance between talent and money in Hollywood, with big budget movies getting critically hammered by critics and public alike. But all that changed in 2008. No one can argue that the biggest and most important film of the year was The Dark Knight. In 2005 Christopher Nolan had won back audiences, after the awful Batman and Robin, with the dark and grittier reboot Batman Begins. Many analysts claimed that while the film performed well ($370 million worldwide), it only didn’t do better due to backlash against the previous Batman film. So by the time the teaser trailers appeared in late 2007 there was already a salivating fanbase counting the days. Rumours were circulating that Heath Ledger’s performance as Batman’s nemesis Joker was one of cinema’s finest. When Ledger died in January 2008 (see below) the incident created a sense of foreboding relating to the character, although some felt that the death would be an incentive not to watch the film. By the time the film was released in July, it instantly started breaking box-office records left, right, and centre.

The film may have been two and a half hours long, but its popularity was due to Christopher Nolan’s unrelentingly bleak vision. Ledger’s Joker is a grotesque character, relishing in chaos and quite successfully destroying the hopes of a peace that Batman fought so long to achieve. On the opposite side of Joker is Harvey Dent, the “white knight” district attorney set to fight corruption and put the bad guy away. It’s no spoiler that Dent becomes disturbed criminal Two-Face. The film was one of the most intense blockbusters ever made, injecting a sense of violence without fetishising it. In fact, one can label The Dark Knight as the real post 9/11 film, in which Batman and the city of Gotham must deal with the embodiment of Terrorism, Joker, a character that has no apparent motive, and no apparent history (in the film he tells contradicting stories about the origins of his facial scars), just the desire to corrupt. It’s also worth noting that the film ends on an interesting note: on a lie. Is Nolan trying to saw that our society can only function when based on an illusion?

The film ended up making a billion dollars worldwide, and is now the 2nd highest-earning film in the US. While it isn’t without flaws (the shakey-cam action can be unnecessarily confusing, Morgan Freeman’s character is largely superfluous, and of course Christian Bale’s performance as Batman is completely overshadowed by the brilliant Ledger) The Dark Knight was a breath of fresh air for the blockbuster. It proved that a high-budget film could be dark and thematically dense and not just make money, but have audiences returning to the same film several times over. It was perhaps a sign of the Academy’s snootiness to not even nominate the film for Best Picture in the 2009 Oscars. However, it will be fascinating to see the impact the film will have on future blockbusters, and whether we’ll be seeing more “dark reboots” during the summer months.

Vampires Return

Mythical figures will always be recycled by cinema, but this decade had seemed to lose interest in vampires. Perhaps we all had our fill after the largely entertaining TV shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. Most of the vampire films that came out were throw-away action flicks aimed at teenage boys brimming with blood-lust. But in 2008 we saw a change in vampires, largely due to three important examples.

On TV master of dark-humour Alan Ball (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) created a HBO TV series called True Blood. Based on a series of novels, it follows a sleepy Louisiana town that finds the vampire community (not to mention a few other mythical entities) suddenly more active than before. It was a witty and interesting portrayal of vampires (who have recently made their existence public, and are attempting to achieve a sort of ethnic minority status). Ball called it Popcorn TV, but there was more to it than its salacious and bloody nature, appealing to the Buffy fans who are now adults, that proved the show’s popularity (Season 3 begins next summer). Ball and his writers displayed a flair for the disturbing yet witty elements of gothic stories, and moulded some truly enjoyable characters.

In mainstream cinema experts weren’t sure if Twilight would be a success. An adaptation of a popular teen vampire romance novel, it seemed too childish for adults, yet too dark for tweens. Those analysts were wrong, with the film opening to $69 million in its first weekend alone (it made almost $400 million worldwide in total). Suddenly everyone knew Twilight, and the majority of women young and old had a copy in their hands over the Christmas holidays. Interestingly, Twlight seems to be glorifying abstinence in its portrayal of a human/vamp romance in which the latter is noble for resisting his “natural” urges (across history the vampire character has largely been associated with sexuality), adding a tween element to Buffy’s nemeses (who lost their “souls” after sex). Twilight is now a phenomenon, and adaptations of the other novels in their series went immediately underway. Last month saw the film version of New Moon open to $140 million in the US alone, making one of the fastest selling films of all time.

Finally, in the art-house circuit, the Swedish film Let the Right One in was getting vast amounts of critical praise. It’s a twisted (and rather over-rated) story of growing up, as a young boy in school, who is being ritually bullied, befriends a strange girl who happens to be a vampire. It was a minor hit, but made enough impact to guarantee a mainstream Hollywood remake, ensuring that the vampire “genre” is here to stay.

The HD Format War is Won. For Now.

It was like the war of VHS and Betamax all over again. Rather than reach an agreement in advance, rival movie studios took sides on the battlefield once again, this time over which HD format would prevail. In 2002 the seeds of these formats were sown, but disagreements over the technical specs led to the two formats once again competing. Initially the major movie studios were split 50-50, but then gradually many of the HDDVD studios decided to release films in both formats. Many predicted that HDDVD would win the war as it was cheaper and initially could hold more information, not to mention that it was selling more early on. Some even predicted that the porn industry would decide the winner, and the winner would be HDDVD as it was a cheaper format to produce.

But the war ended in 2008. Warner Brothers decided to stop backing HDDVD. Sony’s Playstation 3 game console came equipped with a Blu-Ray player (its rival, the X-Box, only had a HDDVD add-on that had to be purchased separately). In February Toshiba, the principle producers of HDDVD players, conceded defeat and movie studios and stores began plans to phase out the format.

But unlike the era or VHS, or even the last decade or so of DVD, the life-span of Blue-Ray may not last very long. Not only are we “going digital” through downloading movies, but experts are already developing holo-discs (that store as much as 100 DVDs and last for a century). Some are even predicting that China’s HD format, the CBHD, which is already outselling Blu Ray in China, may expand to the Western market and take over in the next year, making Blu Ray’s victory rather hollow.

Mickey Rourke Gets Back in the Ring

You only have to watch The Motorcycle Boy’s entrance in Rumble Fish to see the potential of newcomer Mickey Rourke. He oozed the kind of charisma not seen in cinema since an early Brando. He had a promising start in films such as Diner, 9 ½ Weeks, and Angel Heart. His intensity bled into real life as he was known to be difficult at times. But in the 90’s Rourke decided to return to boxing, testing himself by going up against tough competition. He won every match, but became facially disfigured from the pummelling. His reconstructive surgery was a proclaimed “mess”, and it didn’t help that for the next decade or so Rourke only appeared in indie films or outright bombs.

But his comeback wasn’t far away. In 2005 he starred in Sin City as the tough guy Marv, beating his way through a corrupt city to punish the man who murdered his one-night lover. His performance was lauded by critics. But it was in 2008 that Rourke delivered his best and most personal performance of his career. Darren Aronofsky’s gritty The Wrestler followed a down-and-out wrestler trying to make it big again, while also attempting to reunite with his estranged daughter and establish a link to an aging stripper. Rouke’s performance is touching to say the least, his manliness giving way to a life of sorrow and regret, knowing full well that his attempts to continue wrestling will only lead to his health worsening. Rourke apparently rewrote his dialogue to make it more natural, and it worked. Rourke deservedly won many award for his performance, and just missed out on an Oscar, losing out to Sean Penn’s brilliant role in Milk. However, Rourke’s career appears to be on the up again. Not only is Rourke set to appear in Sly Stallone’s retro action flick The Expendables, but he’s also the lead villain in the blockbuster sequel Iron Man 2. The inevitable success of both films would only lead to a flood of offers to an actor who is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

We Said Goodbye to: Heath Ledger

While many of these brief obituaries are dedicated to cinema’s legends, the biggest tragedy of 2008 was the untimely death of a rising star. Heath Ledger (named after the Wuthering Heights character) spent his teens acting in TV shows and small movies made in his homeland of Australia. He even appeared in popular soap Home and Away for a brief stint, following the same route Naomi Watts and Julian McMahon took. His Hollywood debut was as the hunk in teen romance 10 Things I Hate About You.

Ledger’s rising career often cast him as the attractive hero type, starring in many films that were more bombast that substance. He had support roles in The Patriot and Monster’s Ball, and lead roles in period adventures such as Ned Kelly and A Knight’s Tale. It didn’t help that most of them failed to make a mark at the box-office. But the perception of Ledger changed dramatically when he starred in the indie hit Brokeback Mountain. Turned down by the likes of Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Walhberg, Ledger shined as the role of Ennis, the tough ranch hand that is seduced by rodeo worker Jack, the pair forming an illicit bond for the rest of their lives. Ennis has the tougher deal: already a father and not as aware of his sexuality as Jack. Ledger played the role perfectly, and received much praise.

It seemed that Ledger’s career was on the up. He delivered a strong performance as a junkie in the Australian drama Candy, and appeared as one of Bob Dylan’s personas in I’m Not There. He rejected the lead role in Baz Lurhmann’s overblown Australia to appear as the Joker in The Dark Knight. He surprised fans, comic-book-reading cynics, and critics alike with his twisted portrayal of the anonymous nemesis, even moulding his voice into something bizarre and sinister. Sadly, Ledger died in January 2008 of an overdose of sedatives. While many speculated that it was suicide due to the disturbing role as Joker, it was eventually revealed that the overdose was accidental. Ledger was taking the pills to sleep better. His death was a tragedy, as it seemed as if the actor was destined for even greater roles. He even displayed a flair for directing in his music videos (songs by N’fa and Ben Harper, and King Rat by Modest Mouse). It is no wonder Ledger won several awards for his role in The Dark Knight, including an Oscar. His final role, in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, can be seen in the US from late December onwards.

Films of the Year

The Dark Knight
The Wrestler
Milk
Waltz with Bashir
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Future Years: 2009

By Eoin O’Faolain

Anything you think we’ve missed? Anything you disagree with? Let us know on the comments below!

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