If we go back before the huge success of THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) and the media-hyped excitement of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012), there lives an exquisite piece of work from Christopher Nolan with the gloriously individual BATMAN BEGINS (2005).
Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989) and BATMAN RETURNS (1992) brought our cave and mansion dwelling hero to the big screen in a way no-one had ever expected and those two movies, very specifically, still stand up to the endlessly changeable tests of time. When Joel Schumacher took up the reigns for the likes of BATMAN FOREVER (1995) and BATMAN & ROBIN (1997), none of us ever thought that the Bat-man would make such an ambitious return some years later when Christopher Nolan turned up with an absolute game-changer for both his back catalogue and the superhero film industry.
BATMAN BEGINS remains one of the best of the last 11 years with a truly tremendous origin story that’s swathed in truth, agony and that classic; hope. Opening with a young Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes playing around Wayne Mansion, Bruce accidentally falls down an old hidden well and is introduced to his first real element of fear, a swarm of bats that surround him deep from underground. As his Father hoists him out, we get our first iconic line that will stay with the young Wayne for the rest of his life which is ‘‘Why do we fall down, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” It’s a modest line but hugely affecting in both a fatherly sense and an inspiration for what’s to come.
Saying this, the joyfulness doesn’t last long and those of us who know Bruce Wayne’s history, know what comes next will scar him emotionally and psychologically for the rest of his life. Bruce’s parents take him to the Opera and during a rather freaky ‘Bat’ sequence, the young man can’t cope with the recent reminder and so they leave as a family through the back door of the theatre. Down an empty alley, they encounter a mugger with a gun who wants their valuables; it’ll turn out to be Joe Chill who steals his Mother’s pearls and their money but then shoots both Bruce’s parents before running off into the murky Gotham darkness. Bruce Wayne is left all alone, with his dead parents, down a deserted alley and his horrifically dark, yet brilliant, iconic superhero roots are embedded.
What makes BATMAN BEGINS stand out for me is the sheer reinvention of both the genre and the process that puts it all together. Not only do we have one of DC’s biggest stars delving back into darkness, it manages to give us a whole refreshed insight into the world of one of the fascinating fictional characters of modern times. Co-written with David S. Goyer, who at that point had also written DARK CITY (1998) and the BLADE (1998 – 2004) trilogy, Christopher Nolan took all the basics but found a whole new gap in the market. His gritty reality would eventually come to prove that even in the most unlikely of situations; Bruce’s life on-screen would actually make sense. As he re-discovers himself and the legacy that his parents left him, he retrains and ‘picks himself back up again’ and with it creates a symbol in his psyche – that of the Batman. A figure who will come back to the corrupt city, live outside the law and fight as a vigilant to strike fear into the evil elements of Gotham and help the light strike through the darkness.
Nolan also succeeded because of an astonishing cast and the intelligence to believe in his vision and that audiences would as well. Even though Christian Bale had been a regular film star for the majority of his life when this came around, he’d only shown glimpses of being a true A-List actor. In the likes of AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000) and also THE MACHINIST (2004), Bale showed the essence of that underlying darkness and that would be exactly what he needed for Bruce’s tortured soul and, boy, did he prove his worth.
The real moment that brings the Bat back is on the dock, there’s no doubt that sequence made everything amazing again. As a dodgy drugs deal goes down, our Batman silently and suddenly takes out the bad guys one by one and to top it all off, he gets the big boss and hangs him across a huge search light and looking up, it looks a little like the silhouette of a bat and so it truly begins.
What’s even more impressive with the casting is the sheer level of talent involved, this didn’t just include already classic names but also up and coming British talent mixed in with the brilliance. There’s so much to say about every actor that we could go on for a very long time about their contribution and how valuable every asset is. Heck, even Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes gives one of her best on-screen performances since GO (1999) and one, I believe, is quite undeservedly vilified time and time.
When you’ve got Michael Caine (as Alfred Pennyworth), Liam Neeson (Ducard), Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon), Cillian Murphy (who’s absolutely astonishing as Dr Crane aka Scarecrow), Tom Wilkinson (Carmine Falcone), Rutger Hauer (Earle), Ken Watanabe (Ra’s Al Ghul), and Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox) all together in one movie, you see how much faith the actors had in Nolan as a director after his previous critical success with INSOMNIA (2002) and MEMENTO (2000). He was the director that actors wanted to work with then and now ten years later remains at the very top. Nolan has always prided himself on trying to reach as many people as he can with his movies and although some might seem somewhat complex, it’s because he believes his audience are intelligent and want to learn and be involved. His incredible success today says everything that needs to be said.
BATMAN BEGINS is cemented in cinema history as a fine example of film-making and also represents a brave leap for film producers and a positive one for audiences. There’s endless elements to this movie that remain burnt in the memory and these include the fear toxin that creates that amazingly evil Batman, the fun nature of Freeman’s Lucius Fox and his inventions, the undeniably important role of Michael Caine’s Alfred and Bale’s sheer encapsulation of the two-sided role. They put together a wonderful narrative that’s still a pleasure to watch 10 years later and when they finally get to that concluding scene and the discovery of that Joker card, well, they changed everything and utterly for the better.
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