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Chaos Theory

If you haven’t seen The Dark Knight and intend to, don’t read any further. Couple spoilers below.

Ok, look - it’s not just because of the well-deserved buzz surrounding Heath Ledger’s unsettling performance as the Joker. It’s not just because Batman is the ultimate fanboy’s fantasy superhero. And it’s not just because the hype about this film has been cranked up to 11 for well over a year now. Christopher Nolan’s moody instant classic works, yet again, for the same reason every great action/adventure movie works - its villain is awesome.

Yes, Ledger knocks it out of the park. But it’s more than his performance alone that makes this version of the Joker the definitive model by which all Jokers should be judged. This Joker was written from a completely different starting point. He isn’t like Nicholson’s erstwhile mafia wannabe who inexplicably transforms into a demented buffoon following an acid bath. Nor is he the campy comic version made famous by Cesar Romero in the old tv show.

This Joker is an enigma from the get go. His origins are a mystery. His true identity is unknown. Even his wardrobe has no trail of receipts to track. Most importantly, the motivation for his madness has no apparent explanation other than this - the guy’s just amoral and he likes to wreak havoc. Problem is, that means murder - and a lot of it. We’re talkin’ terrorism al-Qaeda would be proud of here. Maybe that’s what makes him so scary. There’s no reasoning with this Joker, because there’s no sense of any goodness or rational logic buried anywhere inside that warped psyche of his. He just wants mayhem, nothing more. He steals millions from organized crime, then burns it all. He theatrically kills strangers in order to force Batman into revealing his identity. He uses the bodies of his minions - quite literally - to blast his way out of jail.

I guess the closest film villain to which I could compare Nolan’s Joker would be the serial killer in Seven. Both use human flesh as raw material in creating their twisted statements on the world. Both play psychological games with their opposition, ever tempting them to go one step beyond that oh-so-faint moral line. At the end of the day, The Dark Knight is a fantastic tale of good vs. evil, tempered by the very real shades of grey which complicate that very conflict outside the fictional universe of comic books.

Oh - and a bunch of stuff blows up, which is cool.