When real-life heroes don't cut it, believe in Batman

Claire Burke is a senior majoring in journalism.

Here we are again. Summer is officially over and we are all back on campus, pretending to pay attention in class while actually secretly competing with our neighbor to see who can finish the crossword first. Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, between the clues of 14 across and 2 down, my mind sometimes wanders to the events of the summer. There were economic worries and politics aplenty, but the entertainment world was more abuzz than ever. Between the Lohan family single-handedly keeping the gossip bloggers in business and the birth of Gwen Stefani's second tiny fashion icon, there were some pretty amazing movies released this summer. Carrie & Co. kept the women happy, while Robert Downey Jr. had perhaps the most controversial role of the summer, donning blackface to spoof a once-serious white actor playing a black man. But no one could forget Christopher Nolan's second installment of the Batman saga, "The Dark Knight," easily the most popular and talked-about movie of the summer.

Sure, it would be easy to say Heath Ledger's death in January was the biggest reason the film has so far grossed nearly $600 million, and I'm not even going to try to argue with that. But I also think there might be some underlying, maybe even subconscious, reasons the film continues to rake in the dough.

The movie tells the story of a maverick billionaire trying to save his beloved hometown from the grips of near-epidemic levels of crime while still remaining true to himself and the woman he loves. Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman is a hero for the ages. He is someone we can all relate to and believe in, even when he doubts himself and almost loses faith in his most precious ideals. He never gives up and never loses his faith in the belief that, underneath it all, people are mostly good.

Like all great heroes, however, Batman isn't perfect. Despite this, I think people see in him a hero and a role model that we sometimes need. At this especially controversial and tumultuous point in our country's history, we want a hero like Batman to cheer for. The entertainment industry has always been a pretty good barometer of what is going on in society, and the film reflects our need to believe in the good guy, our need to remember that things will get better soon.

So before I get too deep and philosophical on you all, keep in mind that sometimes a pretend someone to believe in is exactly what we crave. When our real-life heroes don't quite cut it and things just don't seem to be going so well, it doesn't hurt to take a two-hour respite and possibly get a little bit of our faith in humanity restored by a make-believe hero. Or maybe you just want to watch a crazed Heath Ledger for a few hours. Either way, I'm right there with you. (Oh, and the answer to 65 across, five letters, "Folklore creature" is "gnome.")