By now, many people have already seen “The Dark Knight,” or heard much about it.

In this light, I will go beyond plot points and reflect on why I feel “The Dark Knight” deserves this attention.

Batman and The Joker have always been arch-nemeses, and I was delighted to see director Christopher Nolan play up the psychological and philosophical dualism between the two.

Though the other actors offer excellent performances, Heath Ledger’s depiction of The Joker propelled the film into the company of classics.

I was so captivated by Ledger’s performance that I couldn’t wait until his next scene arrived.

Everything else seemed of secondary importance. Sure, there are nice action sequences, but the film is most compelling when The Joker is present.

Ledger’s Joker is not a typical blockbuster villain. We don’t know about his past, even though he offers several details. But his stories contradict each other, and most likely he would have told a different story to each new person.

Perhaps he understands how others view him, and carefully crafts stories to play into their expectations without revealing anything about himself.

These are the types of games The Joker plays, even though his other “games” are much deadlier and maniacal.

Though I doubt if the filmmakers overtly intended such a connection, I see a connection to Job here and the contest between Batman and the Joker.

Just as Satan confronts God in the Book of Job, The Joker exists to obstruct Batman.

But he doesn’t come to kill him, or simply taunt him. Instead, The Joker represents random evil that exists for the sake of being evil, roaming freely to cause chaos and disrupt Batman’s heroics. Specifically, The Joker wants to test Batman to see how far he will go to stop such evil.

Here the film blurs lines, because the typically sharp distinction between good and evil that is easily discernable in comic books and Hollywood films is a bit more ambiguous this time around.

Certainly, The Joker is unforgivably evil, but when he forces others to make undesirable choices.

Here I see the greatest link between Job and this film. Satan confronts God to undermine his authority and creation. Likewise, The Joker confronts Batman in order to undo his identity, and ultimately what his existence stands for.

But what is the test?  Satan and God make a wager on righteous Job. The Joker and Batman more subtly lay their cards on District Attorney Harvey Dent, who is also dubbed the White Knight (in contrast to the Dark Knight, or Batman).

Batman sees in Dent the hope for the city and humanity, and believes Dent has a chance to put a face on piety, something Batman cannot do because of his concealed identity.

But The Joker sees Dent as a vehicle in which to drive his ultimate scheme: to show that even those seemingly upstanding individuals like Dent have breaking points, and are inevitably corruptible.

The Joker wants to prove to Batman—and to the world—that the hero may not be so heroic after all, and perhaps that humanity in general is only corrupt and unredeemable.

Batman fans know Dent as the character who tragically turns into Two Face, and the film explores this degradation. Thus as viewers we have a sense of fatalism, that perhaps The Joker could actually claim victory in this battle.

And it is this fatalistic engine that at once lays the foundation for the film’s dark, unsettling tone, and elevates the film to a level most blockbuster films cannot reach.

In this sense, “The Dark Knight” is as fearless as it is fearful with its presentation of human beings and our many nuances, and how each decision we make may not be as clear cut as we think.