The rise of digital cinema has scrambled our old notions of artifice and realism, and filmmakers and audiences are still feeling their way through the conundrum. The current spate of jittery action sequences—including the fights in the previous Batman film (like this rough-and-tumble brawl, which starts about a minute into the clip)—could be seen as a reaction to the patently computer-assisted whimsies ushered in by The Matrix. (The comprehensively doctored set pieces in the Matrix sequels and the Spider-Man movies might as well be animated.) "We wanted a realistic underpinning to the fist fight," Christopher Nolan said three years ago of Batman Begins. "We wanted the fights to have quite a gritty edge to them and not be too fanciful."

Nolan's avowed concern is realism, but his slice-and-dice method, in a sense, robs his fights of authenticity. Unlike Bruce Lee, or even Bruce Willis, the fighters here are glimpsed piecemeal and in smudges. A jerky camera and fast cutting may signify grit, but they're also longstanding camouflage techniques—the substance of the action matters less when the frenzy itself is the scene's raison d'être. Like the chopped-up dances in Chicago and Moulin Rouge, chopped-up battles obscure matters of technique and talent. (Given the importance of choreography, craft, and even chemistry, there are obvious affinities between fight scenes and dance numbers, not to mention sex scenes.)