Why so serious? 'Dark' indeed

"The Dark Knight," opening today, is the darkest Batman movie to date. And this isn't just slightly darker than the 2005 "Batman Begins": It's leave-the-light-on kind of dark. The serious nature of the movie stems from four factors: an examination of vigilante justice, the masks people wear, the true nature of evil, and at what point can personal rights be ignored in favor of community safety?

The dark tone reflects the 21st century comic-book Batman. Gone are the colorfully bright panels in which Batman and Robin would take on space aliens or bad guys with comical names like Killer Moth and the Rainbow Creature. The new comic-book Batman lives in a world where one of his Robins was killed, Batgirl was tortured and left paralyzed and the Caped Crusader's very existence has been questioned.

All of which is enough to turn anyone serious.

Christopher Nolan, scriptwriter and director of "Batman Begins," wanted to make sure he reflected the seriousness of the comic-book character when he stepped back into his dual roles for "The Dark Knight."

"What was important for me was the action of the story derived from interesting dilemmas for the character. The central dilemma for Batman is that he is someone driven by very dark impulses," Nolan says during an interview. "He is driven by anger and rage. But he attempts to channel that into something positive.

"His central dilemma is: How far can he go using intimidation and violence to achieve good? And I think that is a very human dilemma. It is something society deals with. That is what is going to make this film more exciting and frightening for an audience."

Even its name suggests the serious tone of "The Dark Knight." This is the first Batman movie that does not include the word "Batman" in the title.

Aaron Eckhart, who gets to play both good and bad as Dent, agrees that "The Dark Knight" reflects some serious matters that are happening in the real world.

"There are people standing up who are unpopular for the decisions they have made. This is a heavy movie in a lot of ways," Eckhart says. "The thing that struck me right away was the mirror of our times, the things Chris was tackling. I think people will appreciate this as more than a comic-book movie."

"The Dark Knight" is dramatically different from previous Batman feature films. The last series of "Batman" movies, which started with Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" and ran through 1997's "Batman & Robin," were a throwback to those more fanciful comic-book times. The Penguin (Danny DeVito) directed a gang of penguins with rockets on their backs in "Batman Returns." Arnold Schwarzenegger, before he became governor of California, tried to send Gotham City back to the ice age with a superweapon as the chilly Mr. Freeze.

Neither of those would be considered serious threats in the today's world.

"The Dark Knight's" script moves the action into the realm of reality. The anarchistic Joker is not to be feared because of his ghoulish makeup or fanciful weapons. He is the worst kind of evil: a terrorist who does horrific things for no reason at all.

Christian Bale's theory as to why Nolan was allowed to make an even more serious movie than "Batman Begins" is that the director no longer had to prove himself.

"The first time people were having faith in Chris' idea and what he had spoken of, what he was going to do. After 'Batman Begins' he did not have to convince people. They could see what he meant. So he was given much more the freedom with 'The Dark Knight' to make the movie he wished it to be," Bale says.