When I was younger, I collected comic books. My daughter has been having fun browsing my old collection of Avengers and Iron Man. Comic books have often been derided as a lesser art form. To a degree, that description is accurate. The art work certainly doesn't rival Picasso, nor is the writing going to win a Pulitzer prize. At its best, however, comic books can tell important stories on a larger-than-life canvas. I was always a fan of the Marvel universe because I felt it did a better job telling those kinds of stories. To a lesser degree, movies have also been painted with the same broad brush, as a lesser art form with no real power to communicate honestly about the human condition. Christopher Nolan's new movie, The Dark Knight, destroys any such notions about both. In his book Epic, John Eldredge riffs on the ancient idea that all truly great stories are really just the same story because we are retelling the very story we find ourselves in. This idea was never more true than it is in The Dark Knight.
NOTE: If you haven't seen the movie and don't want any plot points spoiled, stop reading now.
The primary antagonist of the film, the Joker (played with terrifying brilliance by the late Heath Ledger), is a self-described "agent of chaos". He longs for a world with no authority and no rules. He believes that every man is evil at the core, that basic goodness is a facade created by societal structures. He seeks to prove his thesis by creating situations that corrupt good people and he is quite successful. Even the squeaky-clean District Attorney is driven to selfish madness by the Joker's schemes. Eventually, all of Gotham City seems on the brink of pure anarchistic madness.
On a larger scale, Nolan's vision is intended to draw analogies to our current world situation, with the Joker representing the threat of terrorism. Some fairly obvious parallels are drawn in the methods Batman uses to deal with the threat of the Joker. In fact, every "good guy" in this movie including Batman compromises their morality in one way or another in their attempt to do good. That is the real and certainly unintended theme of the movie: the universality of sin. The idea that we are all, at our core, selfish people who will do evil to protect the things we love. As Jim Gordon (portrayed by the always brilliant Gary Oldman) states in the film, the Joker "was able to corrupt the best of us". While Nolan softens that conclusion by allowing the humanistic ideal to win out, I think most people would admit that in the real world humans would not be so altruistic. The chilling truth of The Dark Knight is that the Joker is right. All human beings are selfish by nature and prone to evil, both great and small.
The true hero of this movie is a character billed only as "Tattooed Prisoner" played by ministering Christian Tommy 'Tiny' Lister. When he and his fellow prisoners are given the opportunity to save their own lives by murdering a group of civilians who have the same choice, Tiny's character ensures that none of his fellow prisoners will take advantage of that opportunity. Then he gathers together with other prisoners and begins to pray. I suspect the faith of Lister's character was his own private contribution to the film and that he improvised this final, quiet gesture. Whatever the source, Nolan kept it in the film and it's my favorite moment in the movie.
The Dark Knight is a phenomenon. It is posed to become one of the highest grossing films in years. For the thoughtful Christian, it also provides an open door to discuss human nature and the reality of sin.