Dark Night

So I saw The Dark Knight on Friday, and I will try not to give away any plot points, but will just say what everyone else is saying, which is that Heath Ledger's acting is very, very good in it.

What I found very interesting about the Joker's character was that he liked to put people in situations of kill or be killed, and then see if their self-protective, animal side would come out. At one point, he literally calls it a sociology experiment.

I don't know if the movie was going in this direction, but it's interesting how much power the Joker was able to amass by framing problems as ones in which only one person or group could win. Since people accepted his framing, there was very little room for creativity in collectively addressing the real problem - him. And the result: chaos.

By contrast, it's very rare that someone has set us up completely in conflict situations that if one person wins, the other has to lose. The Joker is wrong; peace is possible.