Batman: The Dark Knight

Movies exist on multiple levels. They are always a reflection of the society they come from as well as being entertainment. Look at a nation's movies and you see a reflection of its soul.

Thus the Wizard of Oz is a pleasant romp with songs but it also reflects an American world view of the 1930s.

If you doubt that point consider this; Dorothy, a simple American (a child no less), is by accident drawn into the complex world of Oz. By her very arrival she changes the political landscape -- her house crushed a local tyranny -- and despite being innocent and wholesome (and literally a babe in the woods) she exposed the sham regime of the Wizard, crushed the brutal oppression of the Wicked Witch and empowered the otherwise oppressed nations she encountered. And the newly freed nations took their liberation gratefully and exercised their freedom responsibly.

With a movie world like that, is it surprising the difficulties America faced since the 1930's? Iraqis are not munchkins.

Batman: The Dark Knight isn't quite as good a film as the Wizard of Oz but it is pretty well done. It's long -- 2 1/2 hours -- but no audience fidgeting is apparent and one scene follows another in a seamless progression. Technically the film works very well. The acting is solid and the tension quite real. Heath Ledger is especially good as the Joker.

The plot is filled with twists. Suffice it to say the Joker acts as a brutal, insane but astonishing efficient terrorist. The critical point is how this amazingly evil monster is stopped.

Not by the police, who are rotting from the inside. Not by the DA, who has, shall we say, issues. Not by the people, who are in fact noble and worthy but who are quite hopeless at self protection. Rather the monster is stopped by a secretive, hidden force, which works outside the law and, although in fact being incoruptible, is seen as being flawed and corrupt. And this perception is assumed by the hidden force (Batman) as part of its mission.

So, in this fantasy tale terrorists are insane and stopped by a misunderstood secret force working outside the law.

Hmmn, maybe there's something deeper going on here than just summer movie fun.

Batman is a metaphor for CSIS, NSA, MI5; secret powerful organs that are doing work too important to be constrained by law. I don't believe the metaphor is intended (the film was made for money and not indoctrination) but it reflects the inner views of its society.

Know a nation's films and you will know its soul.