In the Dark Knight, when Batman chooses not to run over the Joker when he can, we are supposedly offered a number of valuable messages--the caped hero has not quite descended into the jungle of the vigilante; the rule of law and due process are upheld; saving the Joker ensures Batman is not the Joker; and even perhaps the misunderstood crime fighter senses a sick affinity with the similarly outcast crime perpetrator. But lost among the director’s messages is the simple fact that had Batman splattered the psychopathic mass murderer, dozens still alive in the remaining minutes of the film would not have been slaughtered. Or was that the director’s message--that Batman’s inflated sense of justice, his inability to terminate evil, ensures that evil will terminate others good but weaker than he?

via Works and Days » The Demons of the Modern Rampage Killer.