Year of Release: 2005
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Katie Holmes, Tom Wilkinson, Ken Watanabe, Linus Roache, Rutger Hauer, Mark Boone Junior, Gerard Murphy, Richard Brake
Genre: Action/Adventure
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
When Warner Brothers assigned "Batman Begins" to Christopher Nolan, the writer/producer/director was still a rather neophyte navigating big budget films. He had created a name for himself with "Following", "Memento" (his big calling card at the time), and the remake of "Insomnia", which featured Al Pacino and Robin Williams. Working with David S. Goyer, who at the time was mostly well known for the scripts of "Blade" and "Dark City" (from director Alex Proyas), Christopher Nolan had the arduous task of recapturing the public's attention following the previous and disastrous Joel Schumacher Batman entries ("Batman Forever" and the rotten "Batman and Robin"). The film focuses on the narrative of Bruce Wayne, whom we once again encounter in Gotham City, who is infested with crime. His parents get brutally murdered in front of him as a child, and the young boy gets sent to a private school while a trust is set in order to manage all the interests of his family, across all the businesses they own. Bruce returns as a young man, once the murderer of his parents is up for parole. He has bitterness towards the whole ordeal, which he shares with his loyal caregiver, Alfred. The criminal is killed by one of Carmine Falcone's hired killers, and when attempting to get his revenge, Bruce is humiliated and tossed aside by Falcone. Attempting to better understand the underworld, Bruce ditches his identity and goes to Asia, where he eventually ends in prison, but also captures the attention of a man by the name of Ducard, who is working for a sinister group led by Ra's Al Ghul. While Bruce is trained in that group's ways, he's horrified by their approach to punishment, urban order, and revenge. He violently distances himself from them, and returns to Gotham, where he and Alfred start a plan to clean up the crime infection destroying the city, and they both decide to use a masked alter ego to protect themselves, which they name Batman.
Ironically of the Batman trilogy Christopher Nolan tackled, this first film is the one that is closest to the comic book aesthetic from where Batman originates. The co-writer/director is successful in creating a Gotham City that is divided by social-economic imbalances, where crime is indeed rampant, but one where the wealthy, also get to enjoy their beautiful art-deco buildings and social events. Into this world that seems ready to crack, he drops Batman, a catalyst of change, one that aims to restore more balance (or even peace) to the urban war taking place, but who finds himself battling more than he expected. The film manages to successfully illustrate Batman's first steps, his inexperience, and also his fears on what he's attempting to do (with a considerable amount of self doubt). Mr. Nolan is able to map out an intricate and diverse array of characters, some with more dimension than others, but all of them with a clear motivation expressed throughout their actions. The film is economical in their description, but robust in the manner it sets the different pieces together with all these characters. It's not Batman seen through the eyes of someone like Tim Burton, who was interested in the whole concept of outsider/freak of nature aspect the character had. Christopher Nolan goes more in the direction of a sleuthing/detective story, something he pushed even further with the following features, and that Matt Reeves also explored on his take with this character (a la "French Connection" but distilled into comic books). The cast is solid, particularly Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman, though Liam Neeson could have benefited from a slightly better written part, the same going for Katie Holmes (who has little to do). The production team is impeccable, with highlights going for Wally Pfister's cinematography, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer's score, Nathan Crowley's production design, and Lindy Hemming's costume design. It's an entertaining film and interpretation of this iconic character.
0 comments:
Post a Comment