People look to popular culture for entertainment, but they also look to it for moral instruction — for ideas on how to live. A case in point is a new movie, "Eragon," about a righteous boy and his dragon fighting an evil empire.

Many movies and television shows offer lessons in behaving badly. But much of pop culture appeals to the better angels of our nature. The recent film "Akeelah and the Bee," for example, tells of a black girl struggling to succeed in a spelling contest.

Indeed, pop culture, however trashy and violent, tends to reaffirm the moral order. The good guys almost always win; the killer is invariably discovered.

Yet, the moral import of a story is often best presented when the tale is stripped to allegory. By taking the Big Questions out of the here and now — by removing them to some distant past or to a fantasmagorical universe — it's easier to drill home the moral of the story.

And so mega-movies such as "Star Wars," "Gladiator," "Lord of the Rings" and "Chronicles of Narnia" were hits, in part because they transported audiences to a place where good and evil could be stated visually.

The moral message of such films is simple yet profound: Do right by others, don't be evil. And, yes, be willing to fight — even die — for what you believe in.

Other moral messages can be found in pop culture. But the idea of fighting for a noble cause is one of the most steady and deeply rooted themes in our civilization, and it's no surprise that movies keep coming back to it.

In these movies, we can see chivalry — the knightly ideal of service and sacrifice — presented and exalted in various ways. And so we also can see in these movies sources of future chivalric action, because some percentage of the young and tilting audience is going to be inspired to join the military, the police or some other honor-bound institution.

And now comes yet another entry in the chivalry-and-special-effects genre. "Eragon," based on the popular novels, can best be described as a pastiche of familiar cliches: one part "Lord of the Rings," one part "Star Wars" and one part "The Karate Kid." Here's a prediction: Out there in the multiplexes, kids will be looking up at the screen and saying to themselves, "That's the way I want to live my life." And so back in the real world, where duty, honor — and violence — are real, the saga of chivalry will be renewed again.

James P. Pinkerton is a columnist for Newsday.