The University of Idaho Argonaut

Director Christopher Nolan is not here to play the monster of the week game. He isn’t here to play nice, either. He is playing for real and for keeps.

In “The Dark Knight,” keeps is exactly what Nolan demands and receives. It is a gamble to play a superhero movie so real, so not Joel Schumacher or even Tim Burton. The combination of a risk-taking director, an honest script and a fearless cast places “The Dark Knight” among the pantheon of comic-to-screen successes.

There are tricks and surprises, but Nolan’s script — written with brother Jonathan — never lies or tries to hide its intent.

Gotham City is a brutal place and people will die. People we like will die.

The Joker, acted with a strange mix of utter joy and deep despair by Heath Ledger, kills most of them. Never forget this: The Joker is a stone cold killer, the antithesis of Batman. As he tells Batman, The Joker has no rules. Every resident of Gotham is at risk, from cops to hospital patients.

The hype machine for Ledger started before he died and has grown steadily since. His performance deserves to be iconic and should ensure that no one will ever forget him. He doesn’t steal every scene he is in; he owns them. His Joker is the most demented character to appear in a major Hollywood film since Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter.

Much like Lecter and Buffalo Bill, the active killer in “Silence of the Lambs,” there is a symbiotic relationship between The Joker and Batman. Other villains come and go, but these two need each other, whether Batman can admit it or not.

It is a shame that we will never see the development of this relationship as portrayed by Ledger and Christian Bale.

Bale is a force in this film, but not so much as Batman as he is as Bruce Wayne. Batman will always do the right thing, but Wayne is not so one-dimensional. He must make choices that Batman will never have to. Bale’s eyes are vibrant within the stoic face of Batman/Wayne, reminding us that behind the mask is a tormented man.

While not playing the add-a-villain game that is the curse of so many other comic book movies, Nolan found a way to bring one more tortured soul to the screen with Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent.

It’s true. Blowing someone up can radically change his way of thinking. Eckhart’s Dent gets caught up in the same inescapable cycle of hero-villain that ensnared Wayne and The Joker. While he isn’t as well-known, Eckhart’s screen time should get him bigger roles in the near future.

Dent, Wayne/Batman and The Joker live in a very real world, and it is hard to ignore the multiple references to terrorism throughout the film.

No one is perfect in Gotham. Everyone seems to straddle the line between good and evil, and the choice to go one way or the other is a constant struggle for even the minor characters. Even The Joker can choose not to kill someone.

“The Dark Knight” is the perfect film for our dark times, when allegiances are fragile and those we are supposed to trust to keep us safe often choose our safety at the cost of the lives of others. We don’t have a Batman to save us, and we don’t quite have a Joker to be the ultimate evil that can be caught and dealt with. Instead, we are left with a bunch of Dents that could go either way.

That makes “The Dark Knight” timeless.