This summer, MovieJawn is counting down our 25 favorite action movies of all time! We will be posting a new entry each day! See the whole list so far here.

by Matthew Crump, Staff Writer

Action movies aren’t my gig. I’ll own that. I almost didn’t even weigh in on this Summer Countdown series because I felt so out of my depth. I mean, the closest I’ve ever come to Michael Bay’s filmography is his cameo in Coyote Ugly, and, honestly? I’m just fine with that. Considering how hard I avoid the genre to prevent affronting my delicate (homosexual) tastes, it feels like fate that this series would lead me on a prodigal return to The Dark Knight.

Let's talk about 2008. Tornadoes, recessions, and political campaigns were tearing across our little corner of the world. Meanwhile, I, alone in my bedroom watching Ellen after school, was having my sexuality awoken by the underwear models being ironically paraded around stage by their lesbian talk show host employer. It was a difficult time for all of us. Much like every realtor in America, I knew I needed to act quick. If I was going to have any chance of extending my stay in the closet, I would need to find something that straight boys liked to keep my peers’ suspicions at bay.

When the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight flashed across the screen of my TV (probably during Ellen’s commercial break) I latched on tight. This could be my buoy to heterosexuality for at least the next four years while we all waited for the trilogy to conclude. I drew the logo on my binder, bought a shirt, and convinced my parents to rent Batman Begins so I could do my due diligence. The only hiccup in my plan arrived when I saw Christian Bale’s shirtless training sequence for The League of Shadows, but it was simply too late. I had committed to the Batman brand.

By the time the premiere rolled around that July, I had been completely swept up in the dramatics of it all. Not only were there extensive advertisements and interactive viral campaigns being employed, but Heath Ledger DIED! He died!!! And this is the role that killed him?!?!?!?!?! …Okay, obviously we now know that was just some yellow journalism claim to capitalize on the tragic death of an A-lister, but for my 12-year-old brain it really worked its magic.

Considering that The Dark Knight ended up being the first superhero movie to surpass $1 billion at the box office, it seems like that magic worked for others too. However much of that is attributed to the marketing hullabaloo surrounding it or the high quality of the film itself, I look back at that summer flocking to the theater with all the other boys with a surprising sense of nostalgia (surprising because normally boys are what taint all my good memories). It felt like a real event— a proper blockbuster. Certainly, it was the first in my lifetime.

In this way, The Dark Knight represents more to me than a means to an end for surviving my fraught adolescence. It also lives at the root of my love for movies. Even so, revisiting the film for this article, I was afraid it might bring me back to a pretty toxic place in my life. Instead, I realized that it just kinda rocks? Like, it’s gritty and real and everything that superhero movies should be. This isn’t a newsflash by any means; it’s the same argument that me and everyone else who saw it or any other diluted version of a superhero movie from the last 15 years makes endlessly.

Batman works so well, particularly in this iteration, because he’s a traumatized child trapped in an unbelievably buff man’s body. The loneliness his vigilante life has left him makes it impossible to maintain societal safety while also being open about his identity and who he loves. Beneath all of the gadgets and decked-out vehicles, there’s a conflicted soul who loathes the person life has forced him to become. Basically, Batman is gay.

Ok, Batman isn’t gay, but I really had ya going there for a second didn’t I? Almost believed it myself. What my strange little delusion above really illustrates is just how universal the storytelling is here. If I—a puny, poor, poof who’s too preoccupied with alliteration—can relate to Bruce Wayne, then anything is possible. If Batman’s struggle is what brings universality to The Dark Knight, its main villain is what makes it unique. And there’s no one quite as unique as the Joker.

When Christopher and Jonathan Nolan set out to write the sequel, they decided to try and deviate as much as possible from Jack Nicholson’s Joker (is there anything gayer?). The choice to give the Big Bad in their movie no discernible origin story made him much darker and more attuned to the idea of anarchism that he’s supposed to represent (who doesn’t love a gay anarchist?). And as much as Ledger’s casting was debated leading up to the film’s release, the stellar performance he delivered ended up defining his career, and not just because it was his last. He was so committed to the role, that he even insisted on applying his own lipstick (do I even need to say it? GAY).

Instead of sitting here rehashing the entire “Themes and Analysis” section of the wikipedia page for you, let’s connect some of the film’s iconic quotes to its messaging:

• “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” = escalation of lawlessness

• “Sometimes the truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.” = noble lies & utalitarianism

• “This is too much power for one person.” = invasive technological surveillance

• “Madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!” = fears of terrorism 

• “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.” = a counter to American idealism

• “Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” = protecting civil liberties

• “Is that a bazooka?” = big gun go boom and I like it

So many of these lines have been rehashed in everything from movies to memes that I’d honestly forgotten The Dark Knight was where they originated. The film’s impact doesn’t stop at white incel men wearing “why so serious?” graphic tees though. Its snub at the Academy Awards also led to “The Dark Knight Rule” which increased the number of Best Picture noms each year from 5 to 10; so now I know who to thank for being perpetually behind on my Oscars watchlist every year.

Beyond that, the film’s larger cultural legacy lies in the way its crime drama approach garnered more respect in the industry for the superhero genre… which was then systemically undone by the cascading pit of silliness that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even so, the filmic schism between Marvel and DC seems to trace back to The Dark Knight’s success: Marvel leans more into the colorful dime-store comic pages its stories sprung from while DC keeps trying to replicate the gritty cash cow without any real commitment to narrative substance.

The Dark Knight is by no means a perfect film. Its lack of visual storytelling, incoherent plot transitions, and dull action direction shows Nolan’s unfamiliarly with the source material—

Woops! Looks like this article almost slipped into a straight guy’s diatribe against comic film adaptations. Let’s reign it back in. 

The Dark Knight rules. And it’s gay— do NOT question it. Just trust me on this. With his take on the caped crusader, Nolan achieved a fresh take that moved the industry forward during an era filled with Hollywood schlock. The film manages to take all the best elements of a crime drama and combines them with the hopeful heroism that the comics are known for. That strand of hope stays alive even amidst the grim decision Batman makes in the film’s final moments when his break of the established norms sends him on the run.

Not to be emo like Mr. Wayne, but I went on the run for much the same reasons. Maybe that’s why, despite my years of ducking and weaving around the genre, this is the one action movie that still packs a punch for me. Batman protected me at a time when I needed him, but did not deserve him… Just kidding, all the little gaybies deserve to be protected. Somebody should make a searchlight signal for that.