'Knight' looks into a heart of darkness, pulling no punches

"Come nightfall... anyone who's left plays by my rules."

That's The Joker talking, and through an amazingly scary performance by the late Heath Ledger, we are forced to listen. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

We had thought Batman ruled the night. Now, we aren't so sure. In fact, nothing about "The Dark Knight" can be taken for granted. Christopher Nolan, stepping up to the plate in a more serious way than any comic-book film interpreter before him, has directed a morally complex crime epic.

His film demands attention as a serious work of art - the adult alternative to what has become a summer of comic book flicks. Providing the required explosive action but sparked by a center of moral ambiguity, this dark, dark film takes no prisoners.

"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain," says Harvey Dent, the crime-fighting D.A.

The Joker would agree. And he sears into our brain with a cynical, paranoid mania that threatens us with a world that is rotten to the core. "The only morality in a cruel world is chance," he spurts out of the side of his knife-inflicted smile. He even threatens Batman's psyche, suggesting that even the ultra-wealthy Bruce Wayne, the incurable moralist, may be loath to live the life of goodness.

"The Dark Knight" is a good deal closer to "The Godfather" than it is to "Spider-Man" (although that treatise, too, had a flawed hero). Nolan revived the sagging Batman franchise three years ago with his ana-lytical origins drama "Batman Begins," but that film gave a nod to commercial necessity with comic book villainy.

"Knight," on the other hand, has no schizophrenic mood swings. It gets in your face and stays there. This is a memorable piece of crime fiction within the comic book realm.

Here, we have a fight for the very soul of Gotham. Batman is being blamed for a crime rampage that has brought out a flurry of imitators. The Joker defies the criminal element, as well as Batman, by threatening to kill a person a day until Batman unmasks himself. This kind of "Sophie's Choice" moral dilemma is repeated, perhaps too often, in various guises.

If the movie has a fault, which might be a shock to the early cheerleaders who are calling it a "masterpiece," it is that Nolan drives home his moral dilemmas too persistently and even repetitively. We get the idea long before he finally has The Joker create a crisis that forces even regular citizens to kill or be killed.

It's a bit overstated and heavy-handed, but the 2-1/2-hour running time is not a strain. The pacing is perfect. It seems like 15 minutes.

Christian Bale, as Batman/Wayne, has to take a back seat to Ledger in the acting category, but he gets to be more than a straight man to his villains and develop some character. This Wayne is noticeably vain and arrogant, even taking for granted his longtime sweetheart, Rachel Dawes. A strident and intelligent Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces a vapid Katie Holmes for this role.

Bale has served his time in "real" roles. Dating back to Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" (1987), he has shown he wants to be an actor rather than a movie star, and he shows it again here, even in a role this stellar. He makes no effort to step out of the stiff, somber part assigned him.

Leading up to the film, we were suspicious of Ledger's showcase alternative to the clowning of Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's admirable, but very different, version of the Batman-Joker conflict.

Did Ledger's tragic death in January resulting from a drug overdose, coupled with the obviously extroverted nature of the role, launch a stampede of undeserved praise? As expected, the stampede is under way, but the Academy Award for supporting actor this year will not be the result of a sympathy vote. Ledger's performance is as complex as it is frightening. He created a psychopath who believes in himself.

By the time The Joker has explained his scarred visage three times in three different ways, we know, and believe, that he is authentically insane - insane in a scary, not a showy, way.

I interviewed Ledger just two weeks before his death and now can understand what he meant when he said it was difficult to walk away from The Joker. The Oscar race for supporting acting ends here. It will be only the second posthumous award for an actor. The first was to Peter Finch for the 1976 film "Network."

Another standout performance, and a more surprising one, is turned in by Aaron Eckhart, who has been hovering on the edge of a breakthrough for years. As Harvey Dent, the crusading D.A., he is asked to suggest the epitome of goodness - an alternative to Wayne's version. Gary Oldman, as police Lt. Jim Gordon, is the third side of the crime-fighting triangle. There is a contrast. The good falter.

Michael Caine, as the faithful butler, and Morgan Freeman, as Lucius Fox, have strong scenes to justify the fact they are more than just cameos.

Gadgets are there for those who need visual crutches, including a new Batpod, a wide-tired cycle that is a break-off from the crippled Batmobile.

But as dark as this version is, it has more daylight scenes than previous ventures into the night. Gotham is no longer a mystic comic book monstrosity in need of saving. It is now a modern metropolis with disillusioned and frightened real citizens.

There is no Batcave. In its place is a bare, real-life studio that serves as the headquarters for nocturnal planning.

The towering skyscraper scenes were filmed in the huge, six-story IMAX process. The area's two IMAX screens are likely to draw capacity crowds.

I would have liked a bit more expansive music score than the ominous hum we get, but it sets, and keeps, the mood.

Does "The Dark Knight" take itself too seriously? Should pop entertainment be content with the status quo and not try to be literary? Those of us who have sampled this summer's commercial fare likely will be grateful for this serious venture into moral ambiguity. Besides, there is enough bombast to satisfy the thrill seekers.

This is a memorable "Knight."

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com