THE TWO PERFORMANCES OF TWO-FACE
- By Jeremy Smith
- Published 03/7/2008
- News
We don't know much about Aaron Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, do we? Let's change that.Forget Tommy Lee Jones's one-note butchering of the character in Batman Forever, Christopher Nolan is experimenting with a fascinatingly schizophrenic depiction of Two-Face that will blend sane and insane line readings from Eckhart. Basically, Nolan shot complementary takes of Eckhart in Two-Face makeup so he could visually represent the duality of Dent in a less cartoony fashion. What Nolan's doing doesn't sound all that far removed from the Gollum/Smeagol model, though the obvious difference here is that Dent isn't motion-capture; he's a fifty-fifty split of the same actor giving two wildly divergent performances in the same shot. And because he has two takes of each scene, Nolan has the luxury of shaping Eckhart's performance in post; it's just a matter of switching the dial between normal Harvey and bug-fuck Two-Face. Again, both will be present in the shot, but only one will dominate the poor bastard's conflicted consciousness at any given moment. The technical audacity required in pulling this off may be the reason Two-Face was held back in the trailer.
This is just one of many creative decisions that's got folks over at the Warner Brothers lot giddy about July 18th. Given the... er, informed speculation I've heard regarding The Joker's more sinister actions in the film, I'll be shocked if this film doesn't encounter some trouble with the ratings board. Still, the dark tone doesn't surprise me nearly as much as Dent's prominent role in the narrative; it sounds like it's his vanity (pre-Two-Face) that brings The Joker's wrath down on Batman.
Everything I'm getting on Nolan's film is coming in piecemeal, but trust me on this: The Dark Knight is going to play rough. There may be more to come, but I may sit on it for fear of spoiling the film any further.
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by Hare)
The angle they're approaching for Harvey sounds fucking genius. I hope it turns into something special.
Comment #2 (Posted by Ash Talon)
Two-Face is barely in the movie. He really doesn't show up until the near end of the film. I have it from good sources at WB. Don't go into this expecting a lot of Two-Face.
Comment #3 (Posted by Lar Molta)
So in Lord of the Rings, where it cuts back and forth between Harvey and Two-Face? Or is it like Fight Club, where as both are physically interacting with each other, with Harvey being the subconcious version?
Comment #4 (Posted by stelios)
This approach is ... ambitious, to say the least. Let's hope for the best, because if it doesn't work it will be awful.
Comment #5 (Posted by kahkah)
Yeah I'm with #3 - not sure if I quite get it either - can we get some clarification on exactly how this will work pls?
Comment #6 (Posted by Quolet)
However it works, I'm glad to see some optimism about the film. The cynicism about the project was really getting to me.
Comment #7 (Posted by patrick)
Sounds awesome, I never would have thought of it but that technique could work very well for Dent's descent. I get more excited about TDK everyday 'cause of news like this.
Comment #8 (Posted by Big Jim Slade)
I'm guessing they had to carefully block out each scene Two-Face is in, and shot two takes with him in the same poses and movements to facilitate cutting them together, so he'll appear to morph from one performance to the other within a shot. That's just my guess from that description though.
Comment #9 (Posted by Matt Packer)
I'd like some clarification, too - does this mean that in Dent's pre-acid scenes, his future identity will be lurking like some kind of haunting portent, hinted through subtle facial morphs? If so, that would be a brave touch of the surreal, but I wonder how that would blend with the 'plausibility' framework set up in Begins.
Comment #10 (Posted by Rabid "Batman Forever" Apologist)
Tommy Lee Jones's one-note butchering of the character!?! The man who rocked ROLLING THUNDER, THE PARK IS MINE, & COAL MINER'S FUCKING DAUGHTER!?! You better step back and think again, Clarence. For shame!!!!!!
Comment #11 (Posted by an unknown user)
Eckhart's Ford Manouever is really improving, but he really needs to step it up on The Grimace.
Comment #12 (Posted by Patrick)
Rabid Batman Forever Apologist: I love Jones as an actor as well, but I have to agree that his Two-Face was pretty craptacular. It's the director's fault as much as anyone's, but the truth is that they never even attempted to get into the complicated psychology of the character. Not even close.
Comment #13 (Posted by Jack Rabbit)
Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face plus this news on how they're handling the character sounds good to me. I don't care, really. I'm still more interested in the Joker aspect of it. As long as the film doesn't suck as bad as Begins, that'll be good enough.
Comment #14 (Posted by BurmaShave)
Jone's 'I"m sorry Bruce" was a very good moment. The rest of the performance was all over the place. I am almost in the apologist camp on FOREVER. Kilmer was perfect and compared to BATMAN AND ROBIN it's a fucking masterpiece.
Comment #15 (Posted by bam(dead))
two-face and the joker are my favorite villians so ill be glad to see more movies with them
Comment #16 (Posted by CC)
I love it when people claim to have "sources" in talkback comments. The best part is that they have no clue how stupid it makes them look.
And honestly, anyone who thought Batman Begins sucked, just stay home in July. Seriously, you don't know a good movie when you see it, so just don't bother.
Comment #17 (Posted by TzuDohNihm)
I thought TLJ just phoned in a crappy imitation of Nicholsons Joker. Not even a butchering. Just outright thievery.
Comment #18 (Posted by Whiskey A-Go-Go)
RE comment 14.... Compared to Batman and Robin, even The Bratz Movie is a fucking masterpiece...
Comment #19 (Posted by Bill)
My own friend at Warner Bros says Ash Talon (comment #2) is an idiot. There's going to be plenty of Two-Face in the last half of the film.
Comment #20 (Posted by ME)
"I'll be shocked if this film doesn't encounter some trouble with the ratings board"
you sound like a dumb ass
Comment #21 (Posted by rudewordsmith)
My friend at WB could kick your friend at WB's ass. Just sayin'.
But in all seriousness, this flick sounds better all the time. I think the direction for Two-Face (IF I understand it...probably not, though...) sounds pretty ambitious. Here's hoping it works.
Comment #22 (Posted by Telecaster Workman)
MY source is actually my future self, who contacts me via Jack Daniels and sugar cookie induced visions, and is conveniently a film historian in the year 2025.
And he says The Dark Knight actually never gets released, because after Hillary appoints herself as "Her Majesty" in Jan of 2009, movies really aren't that important anymore.
Comment #23 (Posted by Josh)
The problem with Batman Begins isn't at all that it sucks. It's that it decides it is going to start out with an almost pitch-perfect rendition of the Batman character only to completely fall apart in the end. I've watched it 3 times now, well more like 2.5. It always starts out with me wondering why I don't watch it more often. It is so solid for the first hour and a half. Then it just dips into an ocean of shittiness. Everything I hear about TDK sounds awesome, but man I just can't get that rancid BB third-act taste out of my mouth. I almost pray TDK has no action in it. Apparently Nolan, an otherwise fine director, gets really confused in those situations and just craps his diaper.
Comment #24 (Posted by Rob)
er... that's nonsense. Utter nonsense. What are you going to have, two copies of the same person in the same shot? They aren't going line uop, obviously, so you can't switch between them. You're talking through your hat. And there's plenty of him in the film.
Comment #25 (Posted by an unknown user)
You know jack shit about this project! Get a life and do something useful.
Comment #26 (Posted by Warner Brothers)
your friends have been fired so shut the fuck up.
Comment #27 (Posted by Rabid "Batman And Robin" Apologist)
I dare to dream Joel Schumacher will one day be reappraised; his genius appreciated. Someday, a revered master alongside Douglas Sirk. Also, wasn't Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze just a brilliant send-up of his own cine persona?
Comment #28 (Posted by an unknown user)
The real question is if Devin and his big brain will like the movie.
Comment #29 (Posted by Rick)
Coolness it sounds like they are finally getting the 2Face character right. Look at the great 2Face material in the Miller DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and the Timm/Dini Animated BATMAN series. It sounds like Nolan gets it. Tommy Lee Jones is a great actor, but his 2 Face was robbed by a bad script/direction!
Comment #30 (Posted by Wesley)
Yeah, I think we've got something special here, from everyone involved.
Comment #31 (Posted by sean dailey)
my first thought after reading this is something along the lines of the skeletal effects in pirates of the carribean: curse of the black pearl.
Comment #32 (Posted by an unknown user)
how do you guys not get the description? aaron eckart in two face make up, shot two styles of takes for each scene, one harvey style take, one two face style take, then chris nolan in post is going to put them together, sure it'll probably be challenging but probably pretty cool
Comment #33 (Posted by Brad_Lohan)
I used to work at Warner Bros., but I never knew shit about anything they were doing.
Comment #34 (Posted by Valsadie)
It's ALL stuff and nonsense! Two-Face was SUPPOSED to be played by Billy Dee Williams! Yeh, I'm still ticked about THAT.
Comment #35 (Posted by an unknown user)
Sounds insane. Two-Face is such a great character for Nolan to take on considering his cerebral style of storytelling. Schumacher's Two-Face had absolutely no reason to be a maniac. They show him getting splashed with acid and then suddenly he's got split personas? Oh, and he uses a coin for some reason. He really just drew on the common knowledge of the character rather than developing him.
Comment #36 (Posted by matt)
I don't get what you guys don't understand. this is what they did with Willam Dafoe in Spiderman. Remember the scene where he's talking to himself in the mirror? That was two different takes then spliced together. At least, I assume this is what's meant.
Comment #37 (Posted by Sabrina)
Not exactly like Dafoe - If I'm understanding this correctly, it is going to be merged in the SAME shot, not cut back and forth. So yes, Eckhart has differnt readings of the same line, but in the final shot, half of his face will be performing Dent while the other half is two-face.
Comment #38 (Posted by an unknown user)
heres what i dont understand...how so many people dont understand what hes explaining in the article!!! he said like gollum in LOTR. we hear/see his conscience swaying between the "two," with a final decision going either way. they will match the sceene with the route they end up taking for his actions. im sure its not one cut morphing or whatever the fuck u guys are saying. what u guys say is what confuses the shit out of me!!
Comment #39 (Posted by Jenny)
so its gonna be joker AND twoface?
Comment #40 (Posted by Mister Snitch)
I bet Nolan's had a lot of fun with the editing of this part of the film. Probabky takes him back to Memento.
Comment #41 (Posted by brucevain)
Tommy Lee Jones is a great actor, but he was limited to the awful vision in Batman: Forever for his unfortunate performance as Harvey & Two-Face. This time around, you have another great actor who is instead uplifted by brilliant, true-to-the-character guidance for his take on Harvey & Two-Face. The result sounds like it will be more than correct & authentic... it should be the best mix of right place, right time writing, directing & casting. A plus for us - wait & see!
Comment #42 (Posted by Anon)
Sounds a LOT like freaking the Green Goblin mirror scene in Spiderman. BEEN DONE.
Comment #43 (Posted by JMC)
Sounds like its much more than the Green Goblin scene in Spiderman. Sounds 10x better
Comment #44 (Posted by Dave)
The way I understand the article is the scene in LOTR: The Two Towers, where it cuts between a shot of the left side of Gollum's face talking, then cuts the right side of Smeagol's face talking. So the same physical character, talking as two characters.
Another way that I was just thinking of was pre-acid, they could have Harvey talking, but in the background have a shadowy figure (his evil persona) talking to him, trying to coerce him into doing evil things. What I mean is that in Harvey's mind, there was always an evil persona, trying to make him do evil, and the acid sets him free and the way to put this on screen would to physically have like a dark sillhouette behind him talking to him in a gravelly voice. Do you get what I mean?
Anyway, that's just my two cents, I'm no great film maker so don't go getting pissy about my comments.
Comment #45 (Posted by FitShace)
The way I understand it, is that in the scenes after Dent has been scarred and Two-Face has been created, Nolan shot 2 versions of each scene, one with Aaron acting as Dent (good guy), the other with him acting as Two-Face (bad guy), but all as Two-Face. so Nolan has all Two-Face's scenes with 2 different performances from Aaron.
So in the final movie, we might see a scene where Two-Face says a line in a pleasant way (because Nolan chose the Dent performance for that line), but the very next line might be in a vicious style from Aaron, because Nolan chose the Aaron's Two-Face performance. so in a single Two-Face scene, his performance will switch between good and bad guy, depending on how Nolan splices the 2 styles together. (same as post #32)
It has nothing to do with 2 versions of Aaron on-screen at the same time, or morphing between his unscarred and scarred face, or a vision of how he will later become scarred, all those things are too fantastical for a movie made in a realistic style.
Comment #46 (Posted by Ian)
Ah the voice of reason. Thank you FitShace for taking the time i wouldn't to explain.
FACE THE FACE
Comment #47 (Posted by Andrew Vergolina)
F THAT CAKE! Gimme Billy D...or give me nothing!!!!
Comment #48 (Posted by elliot)
it seems Nolan is going to somehow matte eckhart's two performances, each shot simultaneously, one on top of the other so that his face will have a dramatic split that isnt naturally possible to achieve. dope.
