Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is anti Vigiliantes (as are most citizens)

10 Ways of Looking at The Dark Knight

Annalee Newitz — Widely recognized as one of the best superhero movies of the past decade, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is also much more than an action movie. It's a brooding allegory about power, personal responsibility, and the politics of urban life.

Here are ten ways you can look at The Dark Knight.

1. Vigilante justice is not justice.
One of the recurring questions in Dark Knight is whether Batman can truly dispense justice to a city of millions, based entirely on his personal ideas of right and wrong. Bruce Wayne constantly questions whether he should be playing the role of Batman, especially when he's not acting on behalf of the people he's trying to save.

2. Sometimes we need to believe in a lie.
Dark Knight ends with Batman taking responsibility for the crimes Harvey Dent committed when he became Two-Face. Batman decides that Gotham City needs a "hero with a face" more than the truth. It needs Harvey Dent to remain pure, and for Batman to become a tarnished hero. Partly, he reasons, the city needs this because vigilante justice is not justice (see 1). But partly it's because people need hope more than truth. Whether or not you agree with his assertion, it makes for an interesting philosophical debate.

3. A hero who has not been chosen by the people, no matter how good, can function exactly like a villain.
Joker haunts Batman because, as he might say, freaks attract freaks. Dark Knight teases the idea that Joker is in some sense Batman's dark double: Joker isn't corruptible (he has goals loftier than getting rich, or even taking control), and he's fighting back against the same criminal elements that Batman targets. Joker's a vigilante for chaos, while Batman is a vigilante for law and order. Joker tells Batman that they need each other, and that Batman can't exist without Joker - and it's strongly implied that Batman agrees. Power that's exerted secretly, like Batman's, always seems to spawn a form of uncontrollable anti-power represented by Joker.

Read the full work including 4-10 at IO9

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(Confession: One hacked the article up to get the part you see. Removing pictures, but not text. The full article is much more worth your time and can be better enjoyed at the IO9 links above.)