ABSTRACT Christoper Nolan's 2005 Batman Begins and the subsequent Dark Knight films (2008, 2012) represent a critical juncture in the history of twenty‐first century film, helping to inaugurate a twenty‐first neo‐noir and gritty realist trend. The films also deal with the thorny issue of Orientalism. Bruce Wayne receives a lot of his martial arts and philosophical training in the “Eurasian” East. However, this use of “Old World” ideas must be tamed by Western technology and Anglo‐American liberal humanism. Ultimately, the film series is a celebration of Anglo‐American thought over the allegedly threatening, reactionary East.