By Derek Miles

Movies are much more than images you see unfolding on a screen in front of you. Movies have always and will always serve not only as entertainment, but also as an effective medium of getting messages across to the masses.

Whether it is protest or politics, a call to attention or a scold for inaction, movies have always been able to convey powerful messages and stirring lessons in the form of appealing, story-driven film, which will be conveniently seen by millions of people.

So, it should surprise no one that this decade’s biggest movie, “The Dark Knight,” was pumped full of political and social issues, right? As it turns out, not only did “The Dark Knight” turn out to be an incredibly well made and crazy successful film, it also turned out to be one that carried some pretty heavy messages with it.

We’ll start with how the film drew the uncanny parallels between the anarchy happening throughout Gotham City with that of the chaos occurring on the streets of Baghdad. Then there is the scene where the Caped Crusader stands with his spirits broken on a pile of rubble which looked remarkably similar to that at Ground Zero. Do I even need to mention the not-so-subtle incorporation of the use of unethical invasion of privacy used reluctantly by Batman to bring justice?

Like I said, movies intertwined with messages are as old as movies themselves. So the incorporation in “The Dark Knight” with things like this is to be expected right? Not really.

Sure, countless movies have tended to carry pretty heavy messages with them, so why is this is big deal? Its simple: this is Batman. This is a superhero franchise. This was a summer blockbuster. It was supposed entertain us and thrill us. Of course, it was all of these things and more. But it was also a commentary on the day that raised many moral questions surrounding our nation.

No, it’s not the blockbuster, superhero-type film to do this. But with a total budget coming in at over $200 million it has to be the biggest.

“The Dark Knight” will almost certainly settle behind “Titanic” as the second highest grossing film in history. It has broken most box-office records that there are to break. Do you know anyone who has not seen it? It has become as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a piece of cinematic work. A movie that does all this no doubt has to be great, and huge in scale. But does it have to be socially and politically relevant? “The Dark Knight” is.

As much as I love Leonardo DiCaprio, I didn’t see pertinent issues of the day streaming out of “Titanic.” The massive budget that was behind “Waterworld” didn’t exactly make it a movie chock-full of the harmful effects of humans on the environment. “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” wasn’t really a commentary on the sophisticated relationships between humans and machines.

And while “Star Wars” was as much about the struggle of good versus evil as it is anything else, it didn’t really touch on any social upheaval occurring in the world at the time it was made.

“The Dark Knight” will almost certainly settle behind “Titanic” as the second highest grossing film in history. It has broken most box-office records that there are to break. Do you know anyone who has not seen it? It has become as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a piece of cinematic work. A movie that does all this no doubt has to be great, and huge in scale. But does it have to be socially and politically relevant? “The Dark Knight” is.

Don’t think that the rest of Hollywood hasn’t taken notice either. The success of “The Dark Knight” immediately began to ripple through the movie-making world. It is now not only quite possible, but fairly likely, that the formula which made “The Dark Knight” great will be turning up in other big budget, big marketed, widely seen films, with hopes by film studios and filmmakers that its achievement in every area can be matched.

Yes, it is clear that Batman has already started changing the way movies are going to be made. What is not clear is if it will change the way we all tend to see the world around us.