This film will also be a part of a separate review of Christopher Nolan's complete Dark Knight Trilogy
INTRODUCTION
The fourth film in my comprehensive examination of The films of Christopher Nolan is Batman Begins. This film marks Christopher Nolan's entrance into the superhero film genre and a reimagining of the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman that had never been seen before on screen. Nolan and company (i.e. David Goyer and Wally Pfister) gave us a Batman that was several steps closer to the dark, brooding character fans of the comics are familiar with. Nolan's decision to ground Bruce Wayne in (what is now being called) hyper-realism, (thus making the character of Bruce Wayne and the idea of Batman as plausible as possible) was the key to resurrecting the character from the campy popcorn hell that he was condemned to by Joel Schumacher in Batman and Robin.
HISTORY
From a mainstream perspective, prior to 1989 the image of Batman had always been the 1966 Adam West Batman. Full of colorful costumes with equally colorful villains this movie and subsequent T.V. series "Biff", "Bamed" and "Powed" its way into the hearts of the public. Regardless of only airing for two years, this image of Batman had invaded the public consciousness that solidified the image of Batman as an icon to the people.
Growing up in the 80's and early 90's, comic book fans had a different image of Batman: a dark brooding, violent, merciless and vicious character that was born out of tragedy. This image of Batman was solidified in the 1980's with four seminal graphic novels: Batman: Year One, and The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and The Killing Joke by Alan Moore. To the comics community they had not seen Batman on screen until Tim Burton's Batman; affectionately referred to by fans as "Batman 89".
Batman 89 was a smashing success; this was in part due to Jack Nicolson's Jack Naper/Joker and a soundtrack by the immensely popular Prince. Fans of the Comic book iterations of Batman in the mid-to late 80's were so thirsty for a darker Batman that they looked past all of the character missteps, continuity problems and lack of themes that Batman 89 and its sequel produced. Regardless, this darker Batman was soon compromised as a wacky caricature the more creative control Burton was given (ala Batman Returns). The result of which was half the revenue of the previous film, while having double the budget.
After Burton's departure during the development of the third film, Warner Bros, wanting to increase merchandising and capturing a wider appeal (than they could get with a Burton film) hired Joel Schumacher to re-tool and direct the third film that would be called Batman Forever. Even though the events of the two previous films were still in continuity, Batman Forever saw Gotham and Batman taking on a lighter tone ( Batman joking to Alfred about getting drive thru for dinner) both in color and scope. There were more jokes, fewer stakes and both Jim Carrey's Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face aped Nicholson's Joker. It was a shift back into embracing the 1966 aesthetic. While it was commercially successful ( both a the box office and merchandising), it was not true to the Batman character of the comics or one that they had previously established. The image of Batman on film had been mortally wounded.
On June 20th 1997 the fourth Batman film (in Batman 89 continuity)titled Batman and Robin was released. By July, Batman on film was dead. The film was widely panned by critics and fansalike, labeled as too silly, wacky and campy. Any plans for future Batman installments were shelved or scrapped.
Finally in late 2002 Warner Bros approached relatively unknown independent filmmaker Christopher Nolan (who had just completed the Insomnia remake for the WB) to direct the next Batman film. Nolan, wanting to reinvent the character making it different than any other iteration audiences had seen, pitched his idea for a "realistic" Batman; going back to tell the training of Bruce Wayne and the origin of Batman. Influenced by the aforementioned Year One, the comic "The Man who Falls" and Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Holloween; Nolan tells the very human story of fear, loss, will and determination against the backdrop of a superhero origin story. In 2005, Nolan gave us Batman Begins
PLOT
After being unable to avenge the death of his parents (when he was a boy) due to police corruption and Mob control, Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) forsakes his fortune to travel the world penniless and alone to understand the criminal fraternity. Five years later, he is approached in a Bhutanese prison by Henry Ducard (Liam Neeson) who offers to train Bruce in the ways of combat, stealth and fear to become a member of the League of Shadows. He accepts.
For two years, Bruce embraces the harsh but focused mentorship of Ducard under the watchful eye of the League of Shadows leader Ra's al Gul ( Ken Wantanabe). But when faced with his final test of murder, Bruce refuses leading to the destruction of the League of Shadows base and the death of Ra's. During the fray, Bruce is barely able to escape saving Ducard in the process.
Returning to Gotham City, Bruce uses his families wealth (and his training with the League) to make himself a symbol in order to eliminate crime and corruption in the city. Inspired by a childhood trauma, he becomes "The Batman". Aided by the one good cop in Gotham, Sargent James Gordon( Gary Oldman), District Attorney and childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Kate Holmes), Tech Genius Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Cane) Bruce begins a one man assault on crime. Yet, as he begins to uncover just how deep the corruption goes he discovers plot to destroy Gotham city by Psychologist Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) and The League of Shadows lead by Ducard; who reveals himself to be the real Ra's al Gul.
In the climatic battle Bruce's skills and ideology are tested, and he emerges victorious, crippling the League of Shadows after the death of Ra's al Gul. In the aftermath, Gordon, now a Lieutenant, fears the escalation Batman's presence will cause in Gotham. He eludes to a recent gruesome and more "theatrical" crime whose perpetrator leaves Joker playing cards. With a few inspiring words Batman and Gordon solidify their partnership in the coming struggles ahead.
THEMES
"Why do we fall Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."
Thomas Wayne
Fear
Christopher Nolan has said in many interviews (both before and after the film was released) that the main theme in Batman Begins is fear. One does not have to look at the film too closely to see all of the fear related imagery. On the surface, young Bruce Wayne get a lesson about fear and its inherent power by Carmine Falcone:
"Look around ya, kid. You'll see a councilmen, a union official, a couple off duty cops and a judge. Now I would have a moment's hesitation to blow your head off in front of them. That's power you can't buy. That's the power of fear."
Secondly, the character of Jonathan Crane/ Scarecrow is the embodiment of fear. He personifies the power of fear and how it can take a hold of you. This is played out through his use of a weaponized fear toxin that has the potential to have its victims tear each other apart trying to battle their own worst nightmares.
Looking a little bit deeper, however we see that Bruce Wayne is motivated by and uses fear. Initially he is traumatized by an experience with bats as a child. Later, when his trauma is triggered during a night at the Opera, his desire to leave precedes the mugging and murder of his parents. The resulting guilt causes an inconsolable rage mostly directed at himself. That rage is bottled for 14 years, and when his chance for vengeance is stolen from him, the fear induced guilt and rage is almost too much to bare. He decides to bury it, and suppress it and replace it with anger rather than overcome it. Eventually, he becomes an empty shell, lost in his own pain. It is only when he meets Ducard does he start to face his fear. He learns to channel his fear into the criminals he seeks, (seeing them as uncomplicated, cowardly and superstitious) going so far as to don the image of the thing he fears the most.
"Bats frighten me...it's time my enemies shared my dread."
Bruce Wayne
Catharsis and Therapy
When Bruce dons the cape and cowl he is transformed once again that angry, scared little boy in that alley. However, rather than freeze with fear and confusion, he now has the skills and the training to make a difference in both himself and others. To that end, being Batman is cathartic for Bruce. He is able to finally release a lot of the pain and rage that he has been feeling for most of his life. Thus, being Batman is in some way an extreme form of exposure therapy. To help get over the fear and guilt of his parents murder, he continually puts himself in the same or similar situation with the same type of criminal that killed his parents. Thus, every person he saves, he is saving the little boy inside him. It needs to be understood, that in this film at least, the symbol and persona of Batman is a coping mechanism for Bruce Wayne to understand and move on from his parents death.
"Training is nothing. WILL, IS EVERYTHING..."
Ra's al Gul
Will
It is commonly understood that Batman is a superhero without superpowers. I do not hold that to be true. Batman has the super power of unwavering will and determination to complete his goals. In the face of insurmountable odds, and unbelievable circumstances, Batman in the comics has always soldiered on. In a place like Gotham City a person has to. In the DC comics universe, Gotham is the worst place on earth. Some of the best writers see Gotham as a Black Mirror reflecting the worst parts of its protectors* Nolan's Batman shares that will and determination, but unlike the comic books, Nolan's Gotham has the possibility to become a better place.*
*This will be expanded upon in a future post about Nolan's complete Dark Knight Trilogy
SOCIAL ANALYISIS
Outside of being a cinephile and a comic geek, I am a Sociologist. Thus, I would be remiss if I did not talk about some of the social themes in Batman Begins. It is in looking at this film (and a lot of Christopher Nolan films save Inception and The Dark Knight Rises) sociologically, that I have to be more critical toward Nolan than I usually am.
One of the initial problems with Batman Begins is in its source material. Bruce Wayne in the comics and in Nolan's film has a lot of privilege. He has class privilege, racial privilege, sexual privilege and male privilege. It is the advantages visible and invisible that is awarded to him that allows him to become Batman in the first place. While this can be easily explained away as a product of the social context in which Batman was created; this same image with the same privileges gets continually perpetuated in monthly comics leading to issues of not only body shame and colorblindness among the readers, but also their internalization of these messages shape their expectations. This will inevitably have an effect on the media portrayal of the character, especially in
our world of social media dominance.
I am happy to say that Nolan attempts to subvert Bruce Wayne's class privilege (at least) in a number of different ways. First, he paints Thomas and Martha as social crusaders, nearly bankrupting Wayne Enterprises combating poverty, creating cheap public transportation for everyone in the city...and using it themselves, even going so far as to not feel threated by going out a side exit in an alley.
"You've never tasted desperate; you're Bruce Wayne, the prince of Gotham. You'd have to go a thousand miles to meet someone who didn't know your name. So don't come down here with your anger. People from your world will never understand; and you always fear, what you don't understand." Carmine Falcone
Secondly, after confronting Falcone, Bruce realizes that his class privilege has blinded him to the suffering of people and the social causes of crime. As a result, he gives away his money and destroys his IDs in order to see the world as it is. It is with this action that Nolan's Bruce Wayne becomes a cultural Anthropologist using participant observation to understand culture and the nature of criminality.
The other glaring issue that I see in this film is the damsel in distress trope. This trope is represented in the character of Rachel Dawes played by Katie Holmes. While Nolan and Goyer give her the trappings of a smart, confident, independent women she is constantly being stalked, and or being rescued by the hero. There were several scenes where her presence was not crucial to the plot other than motivating the hero into action. To be fair, the entire superhero genre has this problem and it is a problem that Nolan works through/out by The Dark Knight Rises.
FIGHT COREOGRPHY*
"In many films today I find that violence has lost its threat. It has become more dance like and the audience has become comfortable watching it. I wanted to take [the fighting] back to a grungier place where people will once again be concerned with the violence they are seeing on screen."
Director Christopher Nolan
In the comics, Batman has Mastered 127 different styles of Martial arts. He consistently uses an idiosyncratic mixture of Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Muay Thai, Dragon style Kung Fu, Boxing, Jujitsu, Ninjitsu and Capoeira. He is one of the greatest martial artists on the planet. If he hasn't trained with the other greats they have been trained by him. Since showing this level of mastery is not possible in a two hour film, Nolan and Company, even though they show him being adept at panther and tiger Kung-fu, Jujitsu and ninjitsu early in the film, decided to create a fighting style for Batman that was organic and able to adapt to any situation. To that end, they chose a new, evolving style called Keysi Fighting Method (KFM). as the pinnacle of Batman's fighting art and prowess in the film. The style of KFM is all about intension, organic movement of how a person's body reacts, and close quarter techniques designed to end the fight quickly.
Here is a video from the Batman Begins special features
Nolan made an active choice to film the fight choreography from the criminals/victims perspective. This is why you get a lot of quick cuts and glimpses of Batman fighting especially when Batman first takes out the guys at the docks. In their fear and confusion, these criminals don't know what they're seeing. As we approach the final fight between Ra's and Batman, there are longer shots of action where we can see the fight a bit clearer.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND DIRECTION
This film continues the collaboration between Christopher Nolan and Wally Pfister (previously working on both Memento and Insomnia. It is well known that Christopher Nolan does not use a second unit. All of the scenes shot in this film (and all of his films) are constructed and framed by Nolan and Pfister themselves. This is a well crafted and beautifully shot film. Before there is a discussion on specifics, it should be noted that this is the first Batman film (since 1966) that was shot on multiple locations for major set pieces (and it would not be the last).
Wally Pfister consistently tries to outdo himself. He took what he learned shooting in the fog on Insomnia and applied it to shooting in the Himalayan mountains. His critical eye to scout and shoot a location is unparalleled. A perfect example of this is the swordfight between Bruce and Ducard on a frozen lake. In a interview Pfister gave he revealed that they shot this in one day over a few hours. The creeks cracks and "groans" of the ice were not sound effects but they were picked up by the boom mics on the day. After they got their final shot, a huge chunk of the glacier behind them broke off and slammed into the frozen lake destroying the location they had just shot never to be used again. A lesser DP wouldn't have found that place or not be brave enough to shoot on it.
This film has some classic Nolan techniques. It has a nonlinear story structure which, at the time was unheard of in Superhero cinema. Before this film, you can count beat for beat the structure of the "classic" superhero origin story narrative. It became boring and stale. Nolan's chronological fluidity, while not as free as some of his other films, made the audience have to pay attention and be present in the film. He assumes the intelligence of the audience and does not spoon feed you information. This is to undoubtedly make the film a singular experience for each person who watches it; while allowing for interpretation enough to get something different out of the film the more times you watch it.
Some other Nolan traits we see here are quick cuts, to the point of cutting of dialogue abruptly or dramatic effect, and a unique color scheme that fits the tone of the film. Because the film centers around the notion of fear, Nolan uses dark, metallic color with a hint of rust to evoke the macabre. However, in thinking about it more, the color scheme also reminds me of dusk and considering this is "Batman Begins" it would not surprise me that the notion of dusk was on Nolan's mind signifying that "Night" has yet to fall; and Bruce has yet to be named "The Dark Knight".
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is the best superhero origin story. In 2005, this was the Batman film I had been waiting for. The only person that could top Nolan in this arena is himself twice over; first in 2008, then again in 2012. But it was Batman Begins that introduced me to the brilliance of Christopher Nolan and beyond my love for the character of Batman, I will be forever grateful to this film for that and for that reason it always has a special place in my heart.
