The Long Halloween

"The Long Halloween"-Batman in a gangster noir story.But it rocked all the same.Here is a relatively young Batman who is introduced to Harvey Dent for the first time,and it also shows some serial killer who likes to kill on National Holidays,hence him/her being christened "Holiday".

It also shows Batman to be naive,if that is at all possible-he keeps reminding himself of the promise he made his parents at their grave that he would rid Gotham of all evil,and from what you read,he actually thinks it can happen!

Far more attention worthy is the young D.A,idealistic to a fault,and deeply passionate about his convictions. The accident that threw him over the edge is more or less the same,but his pre accident psyche is not well described.In fact,it's not gone into at all.The Animated Series Batman showed Dent to have a volcanic temper and one who would snap at anybody if his threshold is broken(which is not all that much anyway).But in The Long Halloween,that aspect is not gone into at all,only the fact that he is almost as focussed as Batman in trying to stop the plague of crime and corruption.Maybe more.

Hopefully The Dark Knight will show Dent to have a bit of a temper before he becomes Two Face.The casting of Aaron Eckhart took me by surprise.What was even more surprising was that Ed Norton and Matt Damon were offered the role initially and they turned it down.

Norton is perhaps the most talented and gifted actor of his generation,but he isn't physically right for the part of Dent.But the intense personality and volcanic temper that I hope will be Dent's character profile is almost too easy for Norton to pull off.Which is why he chose to instead play the most volcanic character of the Marvel Universe-The Incredible Hulk!!

Damon I would have had grave misgivings about.Not that he's a bad actor or anything,you just can't see him playing a character like that.

My choice would have been Josh Lucas.He has the charisma that Dent exudes,and he can be quite mean as well,as he showed in The Hulk.Plus he can get quite angry too(The Hulk again).

Eckhart is a good actor.He single handedly made Thank You for Smoking a memorable film to watch.Hopefully the goody goody movies he has been in recently(No Reservations) will provide the contrast needed for The Dark Knight.And hopefully we see more of a Suspect Zero type perfprmance from him.