Credit: impawards.com
Director
Christopher Nolan
Cast:
Christian Bale …. Bruce Wayne/Batman
Michael Caine …. Alfred
Liam Neeson …. Ducard
Katie Holmes …. Rachel Dawes
Gary Oldman …. Jim Gordon
Cillian Murphy …. Dr. Jonathan Crane
Tom Wilkinson …. Carmine Falcone
Rutger Hauer …. Earle
Ken Watanabe …. Ra’s Al Ghul
Mark Boone Junior …. Flass
Linus Roache …. Thomas Wayne
Morgan Freeman …. Lucius Fox
It’s really incredible when you think about the track record of casting in Comic Book films. When adapting a literary source, more often than not an actor won’t be able measure up to what a character should look and act like in your mind. Comic Books do have the advantage of a visual template with which to go by, but sometimes that can also work against a character. If an actor doesn’t look remotely right for a part, that can be an automatic strike against them before the picture even starts. With that, it’s wonderful to report that Christian Bale can join the ranks of Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Mickey Rourke’s Marv, Wesley Snipes’ Blade and Ron Pearlman’s Hellboy as being a perfect fit for a character.
Bale’s Batman/Bruce Wayne is the definition of perfect casting. Never before has there been an actor that has really been able to correctly illustrate that Bruce Wayne isn’t just Batman with his mask off. Bruce Wayne has to be another person entirely. He has to be a playboy, a sexist, a coward, and he has to work to keep up that public persona. It is Bruce Wayne that has to be the mask, not Batman. Batman is who the character really is, and for the first time a film a able to show how difficult it is to keep that personality down. Peter Parker is smart aleck Peter Parker whether or not he has Spiderman’s mask on. Batman does not have that luxury.
But for this wonderful casting to work, the film around its main character would still have to meet expectations. To say that it does would be an understatement. Director Christopher Nolan has crafted a smart, riveting tale of DC Comics’ most complex character. Beginning in a Chinese prison, Nolan brilliantly tells the odyssey of Bruce Wayne’s quest for justice. Showing the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents is only half the origin of the character. Never before has there been a cinematic adaptation of Bruce’s extensive training to become The Dark Knight. Batman has just always appeared in full costume in the first five minutes of each film he has been in. Nolan makes you wait for it.
The film shows Bruce’s training with The League of Shadows, a subversive force of ninjas and spies lead by Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). It also tells of how far Bruce has gone to learn the criminal mind and how it works. This is so important in the Batman mythos because so much of the character relies on how much criminals fear him. His journey then leads him back to a corrupt Gotham City, where official and Police officers are as dirty as the streets he lives in.
It is here that the tale becomes a bit more conventional superhero tale. A sadistic psychologist, Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) plans to poison Gotham City with his fear gas to throw the city into a deadly panic. Finding out about the plot, Batman must stop him. Really going into the story further would lead to telling too much, but suffices to say the plot is very, very well constructed.
Director Christopher Nolan and Screenwriter David S. Goyer have constructed a wonderful plot, taking portions from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and writing their own brilliant story around that template. The entire world they’ve constructed feels as real any the genre has ever committed to celluloid. The problem with some of the picture’s cinematic brethren is a tendency to break in tone. The films want to live in a world where they feel as real as possible and then will have moments that are utterly cartoonish. Batman Begins never has that moment. Gotham City is not the gothic nightmare of Tim Burton’s films or the excessive Art Nuevo of Joel Schumacher’s atrocities (they will not be called films in this review). Batman Begins’ Gotham City is an authentic urban setting. The film never feels as if it is taking place on a set, which has been a problem with the franchise since Batman Returns.
Helping Nolan and Bale is the tremendous cast. From top to bottom, no supporting cast can touch this one for getting the right tone for each of its characters. At the forefront is Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon. Gordon is the only honest cop in the most corrupt city in the world. He’s fighting the good fight every day, but feeling the wear and tear when hope comes to the streets of Gotham with a big black cape. There’s a crucial relationship between Gordon and Batman that has never been explored on screen until now. Before this Gordon was almost a non entity, taking more queues from the Batman television series than what the man is actually like in the DC Comics’ continuity.
Kudos also goes out to Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Alfred has always been a father figure to Bruce in the comics, but in the past the relationship has only been slightly touched upon. Here, the bond between Alfred and Wayne is as solid as it should be. The scenes with Caine and Christian Bale are marvelous as we finally get to see how hard Alfred has worked to take care of his young master. Also the sparring wordplay between the characters has never been translated from the Comics and it’s refreshing to see it here. There’s a real heart to Alfred that is finally getting the right cinematic treatment. The same goes for Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox. The character’s first time on screen is a wonderful portrayal by Freeman. The Oscar winner effortlessly makes Fox one of the film’s most endearing characters. The actor is completely believable as Bruce’s “go-to” man technologically, and once again the chemistry with Bale is excellent.
As for the villains, everyone here works well without taking the focus away from Batman. Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow is subtly creepy. The character is a wonderful incarnation of the character to screen. Scarecrow is not in a spandex leotard or an over the top clown. He is a smart, calculating villain and a great choice for the first new representative from the Batman rogues gallery. Also good is Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone. The most important gangster from the Batman mythos is represented with class from Wilkinson here. He doesn’t chew up scenery like Jack Palance’s Carl Grissom in Burton’s Batman, he just commands your attention while he’s on screen because of his own screen presence.
If there is any criticism that can be leveled on the film it is the movie’s fight scenes. All fights in the film are too choppy and shot too close to see what is going on. This works with the misdirection-type scenes in which Batman takes out Falcone’s gangsters one at a time, but in the straight out fight scenes with Ra’s Al Ghul and other ninjas, the fights could be shot much better. Borderline is the love subplot with Katie Holmes’ Rachel Dawes, but it is handled well enough that it doesn’t take away from the story at all.
