New on DVD: Batman, swingers, silents and cute shirtless boys

Hoping to leap from box-office domination to Oscar contention, the summer smash The Dark Knight makes its way to video this week as one of several new releases of note.

Find out more after the jump!

There's no question that the big release of the day is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, the international smash hit that examines Batman's relationship with domestic wiretapping and offers a tragically brilliant final performance from Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger (top) as the Joker.

With Ledger posthumously winning Best Supporting Actor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association — and with that group naming The Dark Knight runner-up in both the Best Picture and Best Director categories — don't be surprised if this well-reviewed superhero flick (check out our positive review here) defies the odds and makes it to Oscar's red carpet. The challenge is deciding which version of the DVD you want; Amazon.com currently offers five different editions, from single-disc to double-disc to Blu-Ray and beyond.

If you're looking for a DVD gift that offers heft both literally and aesthetically, check out the Murnau, Borzage and Fox box set. F.W. Murnau was one of early cinema's greatest directors — who also happened to be gay — and this box features not only the acclaimed City Girl but also Sunrise, considered by many critics to be one of the most beautiful movies in the history of film. Sunrise stars George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor as a couple who rediscover their love for each other after ... er, well, he tries to kill her and run off with another woman. But trust me, it's gorgeous and heartfelt.

One of the year's best TV shows never got the chance to build the audience it deserved, probably because it was way too smart and sexy to be airing on the fuddy-duddy CBS network. The release of the Swingtown: The First Season DVD will hopefully let more people check out this terrific series about swinging suburbanites in the summer of 1976.

Swingtown did a great job of subtly including the notion of bisexuality in its portrayal of swinging; in one memorable episode, Trina (played by Lana Parilla, center) runs into an old boyfriend, but when the time comes for them to go to bed together, she tells him that she and her macho husband Tom (Grant Show, left) are a package deal. And the ex accepts! (And to the reader who pointed out that Grant Show's Swingtown flavor-saver should have been included on the recent list of great celebrity mustaches: Absolutely!)

If you've got a taste for twink, two new releases will be right up your vaseline alley. The naughty Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild takes what was already an insanely raunchy attitude and takes it even further.

The mostly-new cast is uninhibited in finding humor in every bodily function imaginable, and they do all look awfully cute in their swimwear. (That's reality TV star Will Wikle dancing barefoot for Lady Bunny.)

A Silver Bear winner at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival, the German film Teenage Angst pretty much tells it all in the title. It's a look at repressed desires and sadistic games in a boarding school — just in time for the holidays!