Despite its recent release, The Dark Knight (July 2008) appears near the top of my personal list for all-time favorite superhero/action movies.

The character interaction, cinematography, and of course the late Heath Ledger’s performance as “The Joker” make Hollywood’s latest Batman franchise installment an arguable classic.

No exaggeration, the first time I saw the film in-theater, the following dialogue stood out to me for its deep moral truth. Note that, although I prefer to let you see what I’m talking about, copyright restrictions prevent me from putting the movie sequence online. Here it is in print.

1 hour, 38 minute mark on the DVD

Alfred (Michael Caine) enters the room of a high-rise penthouse suite to deliver breakfast to a distraught Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale). Wayne is seated, still partially garbed in his superhero attire. The mood is somber; the scene is dimly lit, reflective of a recent tragedy.

Alfred: I prepared a little breakfast…

Bruce: Alfred, did I bring this on her? I was meant to inspire good. Not madness; not death.

Alfred: You have inspired good, but you spat in the faces of Gotham’s criminals. Didn’t you think there might be some casualties? Things were always going to get worse before they got better.

[pause]

“Things were always going to get worse before they got better.”

That line, that one snip-it of conversation, speaks deeply to me. Life’s not always a downhill cruise. Sometimes it’s an uphill push. Sometimes there are emotional casualties. Sometimes things get worse before they get better.

Even “Batman” had to learn that.