This is, above all, a political film, although unlike the conga-line of box-office disasters that characterizes the Hollywood left’s attempts to tell us what to think about Iraq, this one is a story rather than a lecture.

It deals with some pretty compelling and important questions—is civilization merely a veneer that can be stripped away with just a little sanding? Is corruption the inevitable and debilitating corrosive that undermines all civic institutions and dooms them to irrelevancy and destruction?

I won’t give up the story line, but ultimately I was deeply disturbed by the overtly fascist conclusions arrived at by the good guys—the making of a religious icon of state “for the good of the city”.

Seig Heil.

Nevertheless, the real star of this show is the late Heath Ledger who absolutely blows the doors off the part. He’s being discussed as a posthumous Academy Award winner, and while one might be tempted to think its merely a matter of maudlin sentimentalism, he really does deserve it.

The Joker is Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, Beelzebub, whatever and what makes the characterization so compelling is that Ledger plays him not as a raging maniac, but as an unkempt college professor. He doesn’t raise his voice, he has all sorts of interesting ticks like licking his lips and he’s not physically intimidating at all. His violence is casual, incidental but what he really wants is to get inside your head, and above all, he has a plan.

He’s a damn scary guy because you don’t see him coming, and the film makes a subtle but powerful statement about the nature of evil in how the Joker exploits people’s own flaws to achieve the larger evil—small compromises push down all the dominos.

Ledger manages to pull of that very difficult trick throughout the film with absolute brilliance. When he died, I thought another spoiled brat actor immolates himself in personal excess, but after seeing this film, I sincerely regret the loss of a remarkable talent.

Batman: The Dark Knight rated PG-13 is a horror movie for smart people. Everyone else will simply enjoy the explosions and the car chases.