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It's better than at least half the top 20. When you get into that top 10, it's hard to pick an order anyway.
It's not just the story of crime and corruption, it's the look into the darkness of the soul, and what desperation and fear and grief can make a person do. And what limits there should be in fighting such evil. Batman Begins had a criminal so bent on fighting evil that he was willing to slaughter an entire city to kill its criminals. Perfect commentary on Iraq and Afghanistan, but so well done it could equally apply to what our enemies do to us.
"The Dark Knight" shows a city so gripped in fear that it turns on itself, and a hero so troubled that he is on the verge of becoming the enemy he fought in the last battle. The villain is a true terrorist, unconcerned with any goals or outcomes, including his own life. He is only interested in destruction. Perfect commentary on someone like Bin Laden, which makes the moral struggles of the three heroes equivalent to America's reaction to catch him. What limits are there? Torture? Vigilante killing? Revenge? Does the hero have the right to violate everyone else to save them?
And the climactic battle with the victims on the boat... I don't want to give even a hint of spoiler. But that was powerful.
And Christopher Nolan gave no firm answers. He let the questions be the answers, and left all answers with some validity. It wasn't a sermon, it was an exploration of chaos and extremes, and of order. And of the human soul. And there was no moral ambigity, just an ambiguity of action.
Like the Godfather movies, really, only more relevant to now. Amazing film.
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