Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Bob Kane, David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan
Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe
Synopsis: After witnessing his parents’ death, billionaire Bruce Wayne learns the art of fighting to confront injustice. When he returns to Gotham as Batman, he must stop a secret society that intends to destroy the city.
“Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
When he was a boy, Bruce Wayne fell down a well and while looking for a way to get out, he was swarmed by bats, terrifying him and leaving him helpless, until he was brought out. His greatest fear was then realized, and the very sight of bats gave him the shivers. Soon after, he watched his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, be gunned down in an alley by a robber looking to make a quick score. He stood frozen as the people who raised him breathed their last and released to the care of his butler Alfred, having to come to terms with the realization that he is now an orphan. It is also the night that for all intents and purposes, Bruce Wayne became the Batman.
20 years ago, it is this tragic story that was brought to life by Christopher Nolan in Batman Begins, the epic start to what became The Dark Knight Trilogy and formed what is now considered one of the greatest trilogies of all time, while also revitalizing the image of Batman in film. The previous live-action entry, Batman and Robin, was universally panned by both critics and audiences, with many people showing their dissatisfaction, and it brought the previous saga of movies set in motion by Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989 to a grinding halt. That movie brought a more cheesy, lighthearted and even cornier version of Batman to life, and many felt that the dialogue and storytelling went against the darker, more somber nature of the character. With Batman Begins, Nolan went back to exactly that, crafting a more gothic noir version of Batman, and one that embraced fear more than any previous iteration.
As the adult Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale embodies that fear and tension that exists within the character perfectly and devoting himself to the ideals of who Batman should be, but also balancing the dichotomy of Bruce and Batman effectively. When outside the suit, he is the billionaire CEO of Wayne Enterprises and a playboy who makes the tabloids just by showing his face, and it is this facade that keeps him in the public eye as the celebrity he is regarded as. When gliding across the city or driving in the Batmobile in the Batsuit, he is a symbol of fear that hides in the shadows, often using them to trick and capture anyone who aims to harm the people of Gotham, people who can often feel defenseless like he did in that alley, and the two versions of the man are brilliantly realized. When it comes to the people closest to him like his butler, Alfred (a wonderful Michael Caine), a man who is a parent to Bruce when he didn’t have one to talk to, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a brilliant employee at Wayne Enterprises running the Applied Sciences division and gearing up Bruce for his more vigilante-related activities, and his old friend/love interest Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), all of them provide emotional anchors for Bruce that ground him and keep in mind what he is fighting for.
Where Batman Begins also succeeds is in making Gotham a character, a trait that Nolan maintains even in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Lensed beautifully by Wally Pfister, whose work in this garnered him an Oscar nomination, the brownish-golden filter over the often polluted, smoky skyline, while exposing the corruption and grimy underbelly that is seeped into the workings of the city through The Narrows, portrays a bleak image of its people and the few honest souls who peer out of the woodwork and want to make a difference, like Rachel and Sergeant James Gordon (Gary Oldman). Years later, Batman Begins looks incredible, and the 35mm photography ranks as some of the finest in the comic book genre.
When the action does kick in, Batman Begins soars. From the intense first act with the League of Shadows and Bruce’s training with Ra’s al Ghul (Ken Watanabe, at first) and Ducard (Liam Neeson), to the League’s temple being burned down so they cannot bring harm to Gotham, to the first appearance of Batman as he takes on Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and his thugs, the stunning Batmobile chase across the city and the final act on the train line, Nolan directs these sequences brilliantly, with well-utilized practical effects and even some terrifying imagery, and all scored to perfection by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, and containing a plethora of more incredible shots from Pfister, such as Batman walking through wards at Arkham Asylum as bats swarm around him.
Batman’s world is full of fascinating villains and antiheroes, and Batman Begins does a good job with Falcone and Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), whose Scarecrow persona and fear toxin releases offers up some imagery not quite suitable for young kids, from a flaming demon horse to a demonic appearance of Batman interrogating Crane about who he works for, eventually leading to the real Ra’s (formerly Ducard) reemerging and bringing Crane’s toxin to the entire city, and plunging it into chaos. As course corrections go from something more lighthearted like Poison Ivy’s vines and hypnotizing others with her mutant plants and Mister Freeze’s antics, Batman Begins couldn’t be more of a pendulum swing to the other side if it tried. As the final act commences and the full force of Gotham’s rundown infrastructure and societal collapse comes to a head through the fear toxin, watching Batman work with Rachel and Gordon to prevent Ra’s from spiking the city’s entire water supply and fighting him on the train about to collide into Wayne Tower, it’s a tense series of events that makes its threat feel palpable.
By the end, Batman Begins pulls off a terrific origin story about a man learning to embrace his fears and anxieties by helping others, while also paving the way forward for more troubles to come his way and his story to continue in fascinating and epic ways. Nolan’s trilogy set the benchmark for what the comic book genre is capable of being, with many comic book movies later trying hard to replicate its formula and its writing, but few succeeding in understanding its strengths. The selflessness of Batman and his singular goal of just wanting to be a beacon of hope for people who believed there was none is captured in spades with Batman Begins, and even when Gordon mentions that he hadn’t yet thanked him for that feeling and everything Batman had done so far, the answer is one that is directed to both him and everyone watching the movie: “And you’ll never have to.”
