The Dark Knight

Christian Nolan's premise for the Batman movies is what would Batman and Joker be like in the real world. Taking the campiness of the previous Batman movies and treating the genre with respect revived the franchise. Nolan didn't just make a great super hero movie. The director made a great film that touches on terrorism. The parallels between Osama bin Laden and the Joker are not a coincidence.

District Attorney Harvey Dent cites the Roman Empire suspending democracy to justify maintaining order. Rachel Dawes points out that the last man that suspended democracy was Julius Ceasar "and he never gave it up." Dent has no problem forcing a confession at gunpoint. The Batman stops Dent and tells him people would lose faith if they found out the District Attorney was willing to kill. Dent later becomes Two Face and he is willing to kill a child for his perserve sense of justice.

Batman's mission is to restore order to Gotham. The Joker is an anarchist "that wants to see the world burn." The Joker even burns millions of dollars of his own dirty money. "It's not about money," the Joker says to himself. "It's about sending a message." The Joker wants to prove that civilized culture is a sham and people will kill each other to save themselves.

The Joker ultimate goal is to push Batman into killing him. The Joker has no desire to kill Batman. The Joker views Batman has a plaything.

A major theme of the movie is that Batman breaks laws in his crusade. The man that wishes to bring order does not obey the rules of society. Batman's only rule is he won't kill. Lucius Fox resigns when Bruce Wayne illegally taps into every cell phone in Gotham. Fox tells Wayne, as the Batman, that no man should have that much power. Batman becomes Gotham's Big Brother.

The movie has three leads in Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. Bale is pitch perfect as both Bruce Wayne and Batman. Bale's Batman has grown more confident. Batman is has sent criminals into hiding.

Eckhart gives his best performance since In the Company of Men. The dark side to Harvey Dent is always near the surface. Eckhart makes Two Face's bloody murder spree believable.

Heath Ledger's performance lives up to the hype. The moment when Ledger makes the role his is when the Joker performs his magic trick. Ledger's voice, hidious make-up and body mannerisms make him disappear into the role. It's the kind of performance fellow TDK star Gary Oldman has given.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is a vast improvement over Katie Holmes. Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman give strong supporting work.

The true star is director Nolan. The Dark Knight is one of the best movies of 2008. Nolan is a director to watch.