British actor Michael Caine has observed that Superman is how America sees itself, and Batman is how the rest of the world sees America.

Caine was part of the heavily British ensemble that produced The Dark Knight, which may help to explain the film’s toughminded portrayal of Batman as Gotham’s self-appointed vigilante (and, by inference, of the U.S. as the world’s vigilante).

Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan, a dual citizen of Great Britain and the U.S., has denied that he intended The Dark Knight as a critique of post-911 America, insisting the old Batman comics also explored the dark side of vigilantism.

That may be so, but no Batman film to date has so thoroughly mined those ambiguities.

In The Dark Knight, Batman as reprised by Christian Bale, spends most of this movie being led in circles. Despite Bruce Wayne’s deep pockets and technological prowess, he can’t comprehend the Joker, who uses terror not to amass money or power, but for the sheer thrill of watching people suffer and die.

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