Why so high on the IMDb top?

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2009)

I didn't catch TDK in the theater, and I'm not a connoisseur into the Batman comics. When at first I saw TDK on DVD, I was subject to the hype, expected everything.
I was disappointed. I didn't think the acting was top notch, the sound score didn't catch me, the action I felt I'd seen before. I started wondering if one can still cheat with the IMDb voting system, etc., etc.
Then I noticed that Empire magazine had comprised a recent best-films-ever list, and TDK was also high on this list. What, along with Godfather, Indiana Jones, Fight Club??? I didn't understand. Had all the hype gone nuts because that poor kid died of a medical overdose? I grabbed the film and watched it again. Still didn't quite get it. I let it go.
Then a few days after that, I noticed that I was still thinking about TDK. Something stuck. The themes, the contrasts, the ethical conflicts. I was still reading all I could find about it online. Had I too been devoured by hype? I found a notice that the Nolans had been inspired by "The First Triumvirate" of the Roman Empire (them Americans love to compare themselves to the Romans, don't y'all?). Julius Ceasar, Crassus and Pompey taking power in the empire from the senate in a time of horrible chaos. Seeking to protect the empire, service the Roman people, their actions held accountable only to each other. For the good of Rome.
Apparently, I'm a sucker for a good analogy. Them three old Romans suddenly became the three Gotham City servants, Batman, Commissioner Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two-Face, standing on the roof planning how to get their city out of this Hell. Entering a highly illegal, but nobly intended conspiracy of three. A comic version Triumvirate.
I now wondered as to which is supposed to be which. Batman is the main character, so he aught to be Ceasar. Cesar is the one you always hear about when it comes to Rome. The greatest Roman ever if there ever was one.
But no. Doesn't add up that way. Caesar would be ... Two-Face. As Caesar a white knight, intensely popular, the new hope of Gotham City. Flips a coin to make his choices, as Caesar threw dice. Falls to pieces in corruption, takes the law into his own hands, the hero became the villain. Was assassinated, but his image sought untouched. Because Rome needed its White Knight.
Pompey becomes Commissioner Gordon. An avid civil servant, an excellent general. Found his family threatened when Ceasar fell from grace. Just like Gordon in TDK, when Two-Face puts a gun to the head of his son.
You find out the analogy is wonderful, when Batman then becomes Crassus. Who the hell is Crassus? You never hear about him as you hear about Ceasar, or even Pompey. Crassus was the richest Roman of his time, a personal fortune of 200 million sestertii (that's a lot). Like Bruce Wayne is the richest in Gotham City, but hides his true effort to protect his city. You read that Crassus was the general that defeated Spartacus...
... who suddenly becomes the Joker! The slave rebel becomes Heath Ledger's Joker!? You revisit your opinion on Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus. What did Spartacus really try to achieve, other than catch mayhem on Rome? And even zanier, you wind up drawing comparisons to our contemporary hell of a world. This is where TDK really takes off in your head. 9-11. Afghanistan, Iraq. Who is our biggest hope right now? Will he fail as Two-Face does? Which one joker started this psychotic chaos, seeking only to set the world ablaze? Who is our Gordon? And who is our Batman, the hero the history books will forget? Our Dark Knight? So what's the big hype of The Dark Knight? Well, it's an entertaining, action-packed piece which takes a bunch of well-known comic book icons and reinvents them all anew quite nicely. And then mixes that with a marvelous analogy on the best and worst days of the Roman empire, which is the chief comparison for our modern Western World. While also indicating an analogy of the mess our world is now, like the best of stories told always draws on our own present. Intellectual bla-bla as hell. Don't get me wrong, I love it. Oh, and not to forget, that poor kid died shortly after finishing a great acting performance. It adds to it, whether we like it or not.
Is that enough to put The Dark Night so high on various all-time top lists? Yeah. I do think so. Funny how some films grow on you.
Definitely the best cinema comic I ever saw. And I liked X-men and Superman Returns.