Dear Chris,

In my moviegoing experience, I’ve only been brought to tears twice.  The first time was when Kunta Kinte refused to answer to Toby, which may be the greatest scene in Roots.  The other time was about 10 minutes into Batman and Robin, when the heroes started ice skating around the frozen over Gotham Museum.

In retrospect, I knew of your work years before I had any idea who you were.  My fellow film geeks were raving about this movie where the story was told backwards.  When I finally saw Momento for myself (and enjoyed it), I remember thinking “How come it took so long for somebody to do that?”

As a well-known Pacino-phile, I was a little relieved when I heard ‘the guy from Momento was directing his new film.  If Insomnia was just another paycheck for him, you got him to earn that paycheck my friend.

When Warner Brothers decided to let you remove the franchise, I was admittedly skeptical.  I knew you were a good director, but this is the Batman…

Even before Schumacher’s take, the Batman has always been on my short list of ‘must do’ projects.  He’s a loner, he’s a good guy who could care less about popularity, he’s completely mortal and has to rely on his intelligence and his training to survive.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, a guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues.  I’m just saying…

To be fair, I can’t say Batman Begins is the best film I’ve ever seen.  What I can say is that there’s been no movie since that’s had me jumping around like a 10 year old boy when I left the theater.  You sir, rescued my favorite fictional character, and portrayed him the way many Batman fans of my generation know him best.

(As an aside, let me also shout out Christian Bale, who’s still probably a little underrated in his portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman.  But it’s the nature of the character in a lot of ways; the villains are much more interesting than the hero.)

When I heard you were making a sequel, I was giddy.  When I heard the title would be The Dark Knight, I was ecstatic.

Then people started saying Heath Ledger was so good, he should win an Oscar.  I started to get a little apprehensive.  Then I started hearing people say, it’s one of the best movies of the year, it’s one of the best crime dramas ever!  At that point, even I had to say to myself, “Why don’t we keep it in our pants until the film comes out at least?”

It’s still hard to believe I’m saying this, but I thought a lot of the hype was right.  As a consolation, let me add that you also made the best Batman film of all time – by far.  The Dark Knight is so good, I agree with many hardcore fans and say you really don’t have to do another Batman film.  There’s a redemption story to be told, but I don’t know how you can top yourself.  If you have one more in you, great.  But let me add my voice to the chorus that says, “Thank you for showing the humanity of the most human of all superheroes.”