Batman Begins is my favourite standalone Batman movie. It set a precedent for the kind of grounded serious superhero movie that I would love going forward. So let's dig in an talk about it. Over the next three episodes, I'll be covering the Dark Knight Trilogy, but it all begins here with Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.
Remember Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s? Our local TV station did their own Saturday morning show, and amongst all the cartoons, they always showed one live action show. At one point they showed the Beverly Hillbillies. At another point, it was Adam West Batman.
And this time, they really were taking it seriously. Batman Begins was a more serious grounded Batman. This was a movie that took the character as seriously as I did. It treated him like a person and really fleshed out Bruce Wayne as much as it did Batman.
In this scene, we get our first glimpse of Michael Caine as Alfred. Superhero movies are usually cast with unknowns. That makes a lot of sense, especially for the titular heroes. But Christopher Nolan deliberately cast a lot of big name stars in this movie. Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes.
But ultimately, the blame for his crime, in my opinion, has to fall on the mugger. He made the moral choice to steal from these people, and he made the moral choice to kill them. The responsibility for that crime rests on him.
This is hard one. I understand why the justice system needs to make deals like this. You reward the small fish for helping you catch the big fish. The truth is, Carmine Falcone is a much greater threat to the safety of the people of Gotham than Chill is. If they can bring down Falcone, then a lot of lives can be saved. A lot of crime can be prevented.
When the judge announces that a member of the Wayne family is present, and invites Bruce to speak, the actor playing Chill does some great stuff with his face, showing the emotion that the character is feeling in that moment. The shame and guilt. The regret. How do you face the living victim of your murder?
Bruce and Rachel talk about the difference between justice and revenge. Bruce posits that sometimes they are the same thing. Rachel says that justice is about harmony. Revenge is about making you feel better.
I like how the first half of this movie uses Falcone as its primary antagonist. In the grand scheme of things, he turns out to be a minor foe for Batman, but at this point in his life, Falcone is an untouchable, insurmountable foe to Bruce.
So back in the present, Ducard is using drugs to teach Bruce a lesson. He must become more than a man. He must become an idea. He must use fear against his enemies. The drug is from that purple flower that grows on the mountain. It has hallucinogenic properties.
Interestingly, Rachel seems to be taking on something of the role that Jim Gordon generally fills in the comics. The one brave good person who is willing to stand up when everyone else just looks away, either for money, or out of fear.
We see in the board meeting, that they are wrestling with the idea of going against the kinds of business practices that Thomas Wayne believed in. One of them argues that after 20 years they should be able to stop thinking about what Thomas Wayne would have done.
Now as I understand it, this character was created for the movie, and he became so beloved, that they actually added him into the comics. This kind of thing has happened before. Batgirl was first created by the Adam West TV show, and later became part of the comics. Harley Quinn, as well. I think it was an animated series for her.
Fox is surprised Bruce would want to be here. This division is a dead end, to keep Fox from causing any trouble for the board. A whole bunch of prototype technologies, not in production. Exactly what a young Billionaire needs when he wants to come a superhero vigilante.
The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. They sacked rome, released plague rats, and burned London to the ground. When a civilisation reaches the peak of decadence, they come in to return the balance.
Well After speaking to my homie, Joe, who is much more fanboy than me..I was wrong on a few key points. Batman was always hardcore and kills at will. ( I was confusing with Daredevil) And he agrees the executioner line is bogus. Spiderman, never kills anyone. just a nice guy trying to do right. Daredevil, bound by his conviction in the law, rarely if ever kills. batman, apparently since the beginning, cold vigilante.
I have the seen the whole movie again, and in that very scene, they in fact tell him they plan to kill every single person in Gotham City, but still it is a contrived scene. Bruce should at least ask to see the evidence against that guy or see how brutal the murder was.
Batman Begins is a reboot of the Batman Film Franchise, reintroducing the Batman character to the theatrical film market after a absence of nearly a decade. The film is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul, Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow, Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, Gary Oldman as James Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Batman Begins was released June 15, 2005 in the United States.
After the commercial and critical failure of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin in 1997, Begins was conceived as part of initiative at WB to make the franchise more appealing to general audiences once again. The lighter, more comical and family oriented direction Schumacher had taken the franchise was abandoned, and the new film was written to be more adult, concerning the origins of Batman. Specifically drawing inspiration from more modern comic book storylines such as Batman: Year One and The Long Halloween. The film was the first live action film to depict this stage of the character's history.
Batman Begins was moderately successful during its original theatrical run, slowly earning back enthusiasm for the brand. Positive word of mouth lead to a large number of new consumers to discover the film on home video. A highly anticipated sequel titled The Dark Knight was commissioned for a 2008 release with both Nolan and Bale returning. A third film, The Dark Knight Rises, was released in 2012, forming what has became marketed as The Dark Knight Trilogy.
As a young boy of 8, Bruce Wayne falls down a well, where he is caught in a swarm of bats. Bruce is rescued by his father Thomas, but he is left with a fear of bats. When Bruce and his parents attend the opera Mefistofele, Bruce is frightened by the portrayals of bat-like demons in the performance. He and his parents exit into an alley, where they are confronted by an armed mugger, Joe Chill, who shoots and kills Bruce's parents. Chill is arrested and convicted for the double murder, but Bruce is left traumatized by the incident. The family's butler, Alfred J. Pennyworth, raises Bruce in the absence of his parents.
When Bruce becomes a young man, he returns home to Gotham City from Princeton University, intent on killing Joe Chill, whose prison sentence is being suspended in exchange for testifying against the mob boss Carmine Falcone. Chill is assassinated by one of Falcone's henchmen, depriving Bruce of his opportunity. When Bruce tells his childhood friend Rachel Dawes about his foiled plan, she expresses disgust and gives him a lecture about the difference between justice and revenge. Realizing she is right, Bruce decides to confront Falcone himself, but the mob boss dismisses him as ignorant of nature of the underworld (Saying, "You're Bruce Wayne, the Prince of Gotham--you'd have to go a thousand miles to find someone who doesn't know your name!"), having his thugs rough him up. Realizing that Falcone is right, and that he cannot truly understand what he intends to fight as a wealthy playboy, he abandons his life at home, stowing away on a cargo ship and traveling the world for nearly seven years.
He associates with criminals to learn their ways and is thrown in a Bhutanese prison by police for theft, ironically of Wayne Enterprises property. After a prison brawl, an enigmatic man who identifies himself as Henri Ducard invites Bruce to join an elite vigilante group, the League of Shadows, under the leadership of Ra's al Ghul. Bruce is freed the next day and travels to the top of a Tibetan mountain to begin his combat training with the League. In his training, Bruce overcomes his fear of bats while under the hallucinogenic influence of a mountainside blue flower. However, Bruce soon realises that he will be forced to lead the League in its fight to restore order to Gotham by creating chaos and murdering its population. When Ducard orders Bruce to execute a murderer as a final test, Bruce refuses to obey and destroys the League's headquarters, killing Ra's in the process. However, Bruce rescues an unconscious Ducard from the wreckage and leaves his mentor at a nearby village.
20 years after the Wayne Murders, Bruce returns to a Gotham City that is mostly ruled by Falcone and begins plotting a one-man war against the corrupt system. He seeks the help of Rachel, now an assistant district attorney, and police sergeant Jim Gordon, who consoled him in the aftermath of his parents' murder. Bruce pays a visit to Gordon one night in disguise to establish communication. After reestablishing his connections to his father's company, Wayne Enterprises, Bruce is able to acquire, with the help of former board member Lucius Fox, an armored off-road vehicle and an experimental body armor. He augments the suit with League of Shadows gauntlets, and a special cape that can become a rudimentary hang glider.
During his first night as Batman, he disrupts a drug shipment by Falcone, and leaves the mob boss tied to a searchlight, forming a makeshift Batsignal. He also disrupts an assassination attempt on Dawes, leaving her with evidence against a judge that has gone soft on Falcone in the past. While investigating the "unusual" drugs in the shipment, Batman is stunned by Dr. Jonathan Crane ("The Scarecrow"), who sprays him with a powerful hallucinogen. After being set on fire by the Scarecrow, Batman escapes and puts the fire out off of him. Batman is rescued by Alfred, administered an anti-toxin developed by Fox. Two days later, Bruce awakens on his thirtieth birthday. The Scarecrow later poisons Rachel after showing her that the toxin, which is revealed to only be harmful in vapor form, is being piped into Gotham's water supply. She is saved by Batman. The police enter the asylum, and Batman escapes with Rachel in his tank. After administering the antidote to Rachel in his cave, he gives her two vials of it for Gordon; one for the detective to inoculate himself, and another to mass-produce for the city's population.
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