Seth Lamey
Batman has had many peaks and valleys on the Hollywood big screen throughout film history. The famous 1960s TV serial had its own movie release in 1966. Tim Burton added his own noir-gothic style to the cape crusader with mega hits Batman and Batman Returns in 1989 and 1992. By the time Joel Schumacher added his camp-soaked style to Batman Forever and Batman & Robin in the mid to late 1990s, audiences and critics alike had become over-saturated to the Dark Knight. In the early 2000s, as the superhero film genre started taking flight with auteur film makers like Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi leading the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises, Warner Bros. studio was looking for their own wunderkind director to revive Batman. Christopher Nolan was just the man for the job with Batman Begins. With three films under his belt including the impressive 2000 mind-bender Memento, Nolan combined his love for Batman as a character with his ability to craft a serious stand alone Batman film with an accomplished cast and crew. The film celebrates its 20th anniversary this month and has quite an interesting legacy.
Christopher Nolan and co-writer David Goyer wanted to return Bruce Wayne and Batman to a more grounded roots which shows in production design, cast and crew choices, and story adaptations. Begins takes elements of Batman graphic novels The Man Who Fell, Year One, and The Long Halloween to flesh out the origin story for what turns Bruce Wayne into Batman, and the growing pains that comes with such a burden. Nolan and Goyer employ what became a Nolan narrative staple in his career: non-linear storytelling. They jump the audience into the fray in the first act, with a shaggy and lost Bruce Wayne on the far side of the world looking for purpose and understanding in the criminal underworld. After meeting a mysterious leader of the “League of Shadows,” flashbacks show key details in Bruce’s past traumas. Falling down a well and being scared by swarming bats instills fear in the young man, triggering him during the darker moments of the opera later that night, leading to the early exit and death of his parents by a desperate mugger.
While taking Bruce Wayne through a spiritual and physical transformation into the ninja stylings that would later be used with theatrics to create “Batman,” Nolan again shows Bruce Wayne futile attempt at murdering his parents’ killer and his brush with the criminally corrupt Carmine Falcone, before he flees Gotham City to avoid his rich privilege and name. After a moral dispute with Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), Ra’s al Ghul (Ken Watanabe), and the League of Shadows, Bruce refuses to be an executioner for a criminal man, symbolism for the extremism they wish to inflict on Gotham soon to come. He escapes and returns to Gotham City.
With the wise guidance of his trusty butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and wise-cracking weapons/gadgets guru Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), he transforms into the manifestation of “Batman” a symbol of fear he wants to strike into Gothams criminals and corrupt. Fear is a common theme in Begins, as its used to influence and drive Bruce Wayne but also its villains Ra’s al Ghul and Dr. Jonathan “Scarecrow” Crane (Cillian Murphy). While Bruce Wayne takes his first steps as Batman, he needs to overcome in the second and third acts a plot by the villains to release a weaponize “fear toxin” into Gotham designed to rip its citizens apart.
The casting of Batman Begins is one of its strong suits, and reasons why the reboot of the Batman franchise went well in 2005. Christian Bale had just enough a nice balance of acting chops without too much over exposure for the public, with his work in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and breakthrough performance in Mary Harron’s horror/satire American Psycho showing Nolan he was capable of the brooding intensity that comes with a duality hardened role like Bruce Wayne/Batman. Bale accurately portrays the grieving and angry side of Bruce Wayne, while bringing athleticism and intensity needed to make his Batman persona larger than life while, aside, some don’t like his groveling voice as Batman.
Veteran actors filled out the ensemble cast to added stability and credibility to the reboot. Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, Ken Watanabe as Ra’s al Ghul, Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone all lend their experience to the supporting cast. Katie Holmes as long-time friend and fleeting love interest of Bruce Wayne, Rachel Dawes, ultimately didn’t impress with Nolan and Warner Bros., as she was recast in The Dark Knight. Cillian Murphy would impress in his small role as Dr. Jonathan Crane’s “Scarecrow,” earning cameo appearances in the next two Batman sequels and a long time collaboration with Christopher Nolan culminating in his Oscar-winning performance in 2023’s Oppenheimer. As of now, five Oscar winners appeared in Begins: Bale, Murphy, Caine, Oldman, and Freeman.
Production designer Nathan Crowley (who would be a long collaboration with Nolan) helped create a more grounded look for Gotham City by merging exterior shots of London, Chicago, and New York. This was a change away from the more stylish set design and locations of Burton and Schumacher, and Nolan’s insistence on using practical effects give Begins a realistic and tactical texture. Cinematographer Wally Pfister would work with Nolan for the first half of the director’s career, and the two created distinctive visual styles for each Batman film in their trilogy. Pfister shifts between sweeping landscape vistas and intense close-quarters combat shooting camera movements. The latter puts the audience members at a ground level as Batman deceives and pounds criminals to a pulp. Batman’s escape for Arkham Asylum and subsequent vehicle chase across roof top in his military grade “Tumbler” brings excitement and action intrigue into the third act. Nolan caps it off with Batman and Gordon needing to stop a sabotaged train from releasing the fear toxin into Gotham City’s air via Wayne Towers main waterline hub.
No rebooted blockbuster superhero film would be complete without a robust and triumphant score, and Christopher Nolan employs the talent of two of the best in the business for his first two Batman films: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. While Danny Elfman created an iconic motif for Burtons Batman, I maintain that the Nolan trilogy has composed music that is more soulful and rousing, matching the thrilling action or emotion scene on screen. Batman’s chase through Gotham in his “Tumbler” Batmobile wouldn’t be nearly as effective for the style and tone of the film without the Zimmer/Newton Howard industrial and orchestra booms and clicks. Zimmer would go on to be composer for Nolan for a decade of films. Editor Lee Smith has also collaborated with Nolan since Begins, weaving between non-linear story and cutting fast-action whips giving Nolan’s Batman the grounded feel it aspires for.
Batman Begins was a hit both critically and commercially, taking in overly $373 million at the worldwide box office. Critics noticed the shift to a darker and more serious tone between 1997’s debacle Batman & Robin, and that focusing on the drama and human elements of Bruce Wayne’s origin story was a refreshing reboot for the iconic character. Nolan was credited for an effective transition into bigger studio film making, and his success would not only fund two more Batman films to complete a cohesive trilogy with The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, but also personal projects The Prestige and Inception. Warner Bros. Pictuires and Christopher Nolan would have a successful run into the late 2010s before ultimately splitting after creative differences.
Batman Begins is seen now as one of the best and most influential superhero origin films in the genre. Matt Reeves’ The Batman also tackles the “Year One” era of a coming-of-age Batman tale, and also burrows some of the more brooding visual and narrative cues. It could also be seen to have influenced a darker, grittier change in James Bond, as well, with Casino Royale following the same stern path in 2006.
The film would also have impact on the superhero genre to follow. WB green-lit a “Rebootquel” for Superman the following year with Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, and Nolan even oversaw as producer Zach Snyder’s DC films Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman, and Justice League. Nolan’s trilogy is seen as unique in the fact that each film is created standalone without intentional link to greater cinematic universe and just enough connective tissue to the films within its own “Nolanverse” Batman trilogy. Batman Begins sets the world-building scale up for its mega-successful sequel The Dark Knight, which pits Bale’s Caped Crusader against chaos agent The Joker (Heath Ledger, in his Oscar-winning role) in what many see as the pinnacle of the superhero genre. Iron Man director Jon Favreau would cite Batman Begins as a major influence in getting his 2008 Tony Stark origin story on its feet, leading to dozens of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, many of which that began with origin stories influenced by Nolan’s template. Granted, this also may have lead to the over-saturation of superhero genre, as studio and audiences became hyper-focused on adapting as much superhero IP as possible the last quarter century. While there has been success stories within the genre, there also has been some destructive tendencies with studios bloating massive budgets of CGI shlock at the expense indie film making and mid-budget affair.
Ultimately, Batman Begins is an example of a generational filmmaker seizing the moment to create his own film vision while stepping into a bigger stature with the studio film business. Christopher Nolan used the basics of filmmaking to craft a well-written, solidly acted, and expertly crafted superhero origin film of one of pop culture’s most beloved heroes in a time the branding of Batman could not have been lower. The film tied Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Hans Zimmer, Lee Smith, Nathan Crowley, and Wally Pfister to the emerging Nolan as key collaborators for the next 20 years. It re-positioned Batman as a force to reckoned with in the expanding superhero adaptation boom of the new century, grounding the film in a heightened sense of realism to give key credibility to drama and action seen on film. It led to good-to-excellent sequels that stayed within scope of Nolan as a film maker, and inspired more superhero origin film formulas to come.
