The Dark Knight

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Many people think of comic books and the characters included in them to be superficial and child-oriented. However, there are some very complicated and intricate heroes and villains in traditional comic books, the most interesting being Batman and the Joker. The Dark Knight explores these characters with more depth and intensity than we have seen before. This film flips between good and evil, morality and immorality, being selfless vs being selfish, and a multitude of other dichotomies.

The Joker is the most twisted, psychotic character in this film. He creates chaos for the sole reason of seeing how people react when they are in life or death situations. The joker assists in creating the tone of the film, with his horrific stories and his cunning plots, or with his agitated mannerisms and his completely alien nature.

Dialogue is tremendously important in this film. The way the Joker provokes Batman in the interrogation scene drives Batman into a rage that we haven't seen in this movie. There are many phrases used as motifs in the film that are very meaningful and have multiple meanings that extend past the film and into the real world; phrases which discuss the true nature of people, how society reacts when everything is going according to plan, and what individual's true nature is in the most dire of circumstances.

The character progression Bruce Wayne (or Batman) experiences is an amazing thing to experience. First we have a confident, even arrogant billionaire that thinks he has criminals all figured out. Not every aspect of his life is perfect, but at the beginning of the movie everything is manageable. Then along comes the Joker, and Batman's world is thrown into chaos. He starts making more risky choices, putting more people in danger, and having internal conflicts about whether he should show his face. Towards the end of the film, he morphs from the slightly honorable but mostly mysterious superhero to the scapegoat for the city and its corruption and crime. His morality wins the internal battle, even if it isn't in the way that the Joker intended.

This movie is an excellent portrayal of the internal conflicts that lie in all of us and of the power of emotional relationships. Some scenes make us doubtful of the good that humanity is capable of, but others restore our faith in the people around us.