ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN gave the Caped Crusader back his self-respect. Three years ago in Batman Begins, Nolan took the comic book legend back to basics, charting his journey from privileged playboy to ruthless crime fighter.

Now, he goes one step further in The Dark Knight, transforming an epic Summer blockbuster into a brooding examination of the blurred boundaries between good and evil in a world where the moral certainties have all but disappeared. The Dark Knight has all the action and razzle dazzle you would expect from Hollywood but allied to the kind of complexity you would expect in a novel.

The story begins a year after the previous film. Batman (Christian Bale) has pledged himself to fight the crime syndicates that have a stranglehold on Gotham City. He seems to have found a powerful new ally in district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) who is using the full force of the law to clean up the city. If the law can do its job what role is there for the vigilante acts of the caped crusader?

The fly in the ointment is The Joker, played with grim, manic menace by the late Heath Ledger. The Joker would happily kill Batman if the price was right and his fiendish games include the threat to kill innocent individuals unless Batman reveals his true identity. How can you fight someone who doesn’t play by any of the rules?

Full of moral dilemmas and cliff-hanging action, The Dark Knight is an intelligent, weighty film with Christian Bale continuing to impress in his dual duties as Bruce Wayne and Batman, and Heath Ledger’s Joker underlining just what the screen lost with his tragic early death this year.

Selected national release

Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 152 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2008