The Dark Knight indeed

If you're looking for something to do this weekend, you could do a lot worse than spending eight bucks at your local cineplex on the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight. Director Christopher Nolan has truly surpassed himself with this amazing film, a deeply felt and deeply allegorical work that examines the concept of terrorism perhaps more deeply than has been done since this country experienced it first hand on 9/11.

This may seem like hyperbole - after all, we are only talking about a superhero movie here. But Nolan's story is more than just Saturday morning bravado made dark and brooding for Saturday night audiences. Nolan has managed to combine two deeply felt concepts in a single work - an examination of the infinitesimal distance that defines the difference between good and evil, and the often equally subtle difference between terrorists and those who fight against them. Admittedly, one of the movies most frequently used tropes is hardly new - the idea that 'you die a hero or live to see yourself become a villain' was expressed just as succinctly in Billy Joel's Only the Good Die Young. Nevertheless, Nolan's take on these concepts is worth your time. And the performance by Heath Ledger - an actor I had never much felt strongly about one way or another before this role - is absolutely breathtaking in its calculated lunacy.