The Dark Knight (2008, Movie)

This Joker Holds All the Cards

Heath Ledger's Clown Gives 'The Dark Knight' Its Power

The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie.

This is not because Heath Ledger died in January, though that event does perhaps add some otherwise unearned melancholy to the film. It's because Ledger's performance is so intense and so lasting. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me."

Still, the movie is a bit too long, at two and a half hours.