Batman Begins
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Plot Summary:
The Batman franchise is reborn as Bruce Wayne fights inner demons and outer criminals in an attempt to make a difference in the world. Much battiness ensures...Opinion:
Choosing to completely ‘reboot’ and start over the Batman franchise may seem like a curious decision, considering the original Batman only came out in 1989, and the fourth installment “Batman & Robin” came out less than eight years ago. Even going beyond just making a ‘prequel’, the filmmakers in this case have chosen to completely abandon any and all story elements from the Batman universe created by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher in those four earlier movies, and instead start again with a clean slate. While I missed "Batman & Robin" due to my missionary service (a fact that, from what I've heard, falls several steps short of a tragedy), I saw and enjoyed both Burton movies (“Batman” and “Batman Returns” from 1992) and didn't feel a need for a replacement Batman. Having now seen the finished product of the 2005 Batman, though, I’m more than willing to admit it was worth the effort. This is the definitive Batman movie, and—justified or not—it will likely soon condemn the earlier films to cinema obscurity.There are many areas where "Batman Begins" improves upon its predecessors. Like the others, the atmosphere is appropriately dark (shot almost completely at night), befitting a character modeled after a bat. The main difference between the two incarnations of Batman is in the tone. Whereas the earlier movies devolved into camp and silliness at the end, here the movie treats a man dressing up as a bat with a straight face, as if this is a story that could happen in the real world. Batman, of course, is one of the more ‘realistic’ comic book superheroes (if that isn’t inherently a contradiction in terms) this side of “The Punisher”. He doesn’t have any real ‘superpowers’, either from birth (like Superman or the X-Men) or through circumstance (Spiderman or Daredevil). All of his crime-fighting abilities were either gained through training, technology, or perhaps a subtle psychology edge. (Most of the enemies Batman faces in the comics--and this movie--are similarly based in reality...) “Batman Begins” treats the universe of Batman with as much reality as can be reasonably be obtained—showing, IF someone were to dress up like a bat and fight crime, how and why it would be done. The seriousness of the tone gives the film such gravity--and credibility--that you wonder why it didn't occur to anyone to do it the first time...
The true triumph of “Batman Begins”, though, isn’t through the dark atmosphere, serious tone, or gritty realism, but because it carefully sidesteps one of obvious pitfalls of making a dark, serious, gritty comic book movie—it does not make Batman into a vigilante. From the setup—boy has his parents murdered in front of him, vows vengeance on the criminals of the world—you could understand if Batman turned out to be a ‘Death Wish’ style enforcer, dispensing lethal ‘street justice’ to those who avoided recriminations through the legal system (not unlike "The Punisher", in fact). And yet, director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer refuse to allow Batman to become an amoral ‘anti-hero’—Bruce Wayne’s sense of fairness and compassion become an essential part to his character, and to the plot. “Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share” says his shadowy teacher in the beginning. “That’s why it’s important,” comes Bruce’s reply, “It provides the difference between them and us…”
Indeed, in an echo of a key plot point from “Spiderman” (ironically reversed), near the beginning Bruce saves someone from death who perhaps should not have been saved, and who later proves the axiom that “No good deed goes unpunished.” Bruce, however, unlike some of the enemies he faces, will not give in to evil methods to accomplish ostensibly good aims. He will be the face of Good against those who serve Evil…and he will do so by being good, not by returning evil to evil. Batman is a true hero in “Batman Begins”, and that is what makes his character one of the strongest comic book figures to appear in the movies, ever...
The value of the “Spiderman” movies is that we get to know Peter Parker—who he is, and what he stands for—and the Spiderman persona is just an extension of himself. Bruce Wayne in the earlier movies was an enigma--no one knew who he was...and I'm not sure anyone cared. The filmmakers avoided this pitfall, too, and--like "Spiderman", we get to know Bruce the person—who he is, and why he would want to wear a bat suit in the first place—long before the bat suit makes its first appearance. “Batman Begins”, in fact, has not a little in common with 2003’s “Hulk” in this regard—it’s not content with being an all-out action pic. It wants to get underneath the character’s skin and understand the psychology of what makes him tick. (It remains to be seen whether the ‘talking’ and ‘psychological’ parts of “Batman Begins” will condemn it to the same box-office fate as “Hulk”, spurned by that core teenage audience who are looking for less talking and more butt-kicking). Even when the bat-suit did make its first appearance, I never thought I was watching “Batman”—I was watching Bruce Wayne, the character, who just happened to be wearing a bat suit.
This is the real deal, as they say. Put the appropriate atmosphere
and tone together, add in meaningful character arcs and moral
principles, great acting performances...and a few thrilling action scenes, and you have one of the best
comic book movies to appear on the big screen since, well,
last year anyway...
Content Analysis: (PG-13, 1-0-3-1 on the Baron's scale)
Let us discuss, once again, the inherent difference between the R and PG-13 ratings. Many critics, upon seeing “Batman Begins”, have made the statement that it straddles--if not crosses outright-- the line between an R and a PG-13. That’s interesting when you consider that “Batman Begins” has:- A grand total of two swear words
- No sex, nudity, nor any sexually suggestive dialogue
- Very little blood, a small body-count, and very little in terms of action that would be considered ‘brutal’.
What it does have is many scary images, and a pervading atmosphere of darkness and dread. You’re darn right I wouldn’t let a seven-year-old see this. But,
from a content standpoint, what exactly could you complain about? It
certainly passes the proverbial ‘If a General Authority came over to your
house and found you watching it...” test. The moral lessons are
obvious, there’s little in terms of violence that’s particularly egregious,
and nothing even remotely sex related… I can't imagine exactly what
objection you could raise over this movie, other than it would scare the
kids...
In-depth Analysis:
In most comic book worlds, the lines between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ guys are clearly drawn. In the real world, the lines aren’t quite so clearly demarcated (although sometimes we like to pretend otherwise). It’s hard to divide the people of the world into ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ camps, since on any morality scale, any one person can find someone better and someone worse in just about every area. Where to draw the line, then?The tendency to generalize and stick people into neat little categories is one of the dangers of "relative morality"—where for just about anyone, they themselves are Good from their personal perspective, but anyone who has different opinions about what should and should not be done is therefore Bad. Interesting, isn’t it, how many people will simultaneously criticize the actions of those further down any morality scale from them, and feel offended when those higher on the scale criticize them, without reflecting on the irony between the two…
From an eternal perspective, God has the same problem: where to draw the line between ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’? He obviously can’t (via the Beard Principle) draw an arbitrary line on the list of sins and say those here are 'acceptable' sins and those there are not. The standard is that “no unclean thing may enter the kingdom of heaven”—the magnitude of the sin doesn’t matter in the end. It’s easy to think, “Sure I’m not perfect, but I’m not THAT bad…it’s not like I killed someone or something…” when you have no way of determining where exactly “Good” ends and “THAT bad” begins. (If your only defense while standing before the judgment bar of God is that “I wasn’t as bad as I could have been”, where does that leave you? The automatic response will probably be, “Yeah, but you weren’t as good as you could have been, either… What’s your point?”)
This is where the fundamental conflict between justice and mercy arises. Since you can’t arbitrarily divide mankind into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ groups…and using an absolute standard excludes everyone, some compromise must be reached. The plan of salvation doesn’t excuse sin, but allows for the possibility of change and progression. Men cannot inherently be classified as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but instead have elements of both, and learn to become ‘more good’ and ‘less bad’.
Within “Batman Begins”, both Bruce Wayne and the members of the League of Shadows have a common background—they were ostensibly Good people who were victimized in some way by Bad people, who therefore need to be punished. Yet, the two philosophies of how to deal with the problem differ. The League passes absolute judgment on Gotham City as “Bad”—deserving the ultimate punishment without the possibility of redemption. Wayne, on the other hand, believes Gotham can be saved. He's not naive--he knows firsthand the corruption and the wickedness within the city, but he does not subscribe to the notion that nothing can change. His is the face of mercy, while the League represents cold and unforgiving ‘justice’ (albeit in an inexact and twisted way…obviously they haven’t analyzed each and every citizen that would be affected by their plan to see if they are truly worthy of death. How do they claim to judge absolutely who is ‘good’ and who is ‘bad’?)
After his parents’ death, it was easy for Bruce to lean toward the simplistic view of society. The Good people in the world could lead perfectly happy and peaceful lives if it weren't for all the Bad people who get in the way. His encounter with the League of Shadows, though, provides the lens by which to view the extreme to which his narrow view of revenge was taking him. Their way would have allowed Bruce to realize his revenge against the Bad people of the world, but at what cost? The key scene where Bruce almost kills his parents’ killer himself, and then realizes later how little it would have accomplished, is an essential scene (unique to this movie) towards forming his resolve. Like God, he realizes that vengeance is empty, and that only by providing justice and mercy together—showing compassion instead of acting out of blind anger--can any significant change be accomplished.
Random Notes & Comments:
(1) "Gotham City" is usually interpreted to be a stand-in for New York City, although "Batman Begins" was filmed in Chicago, using Chicago landmarks. You can still see some tie-in to the NYC idea with Gotham's island boroughs, visible in parts of the movie.
