REVIEW: Retelling the American Myth
The Greeks have their Hercules, the Norwegians have the lightening-throwing Thor, and the English have King Arthur.
Then there’s America and we have, well…we have Batman.
Just like the legends and myths of the ‘old world,’ the DC Comics inspired tale of the Black Knight twists and takes the shape of whichever storyteller happens to have our attention at the moment. From the inventive, ultra-gothic world of Tim Burton to the flashy, seizure-inducing world of Monsieur Jerry Bruckheimer, Hollywood has gotten its fair share of money from the pockets of this myth-loving public.
So, why would they expect us to begin again and re-envision the story through the eyes of yet another camera-toting mercenary?
Because, this time, they made it real.
Based on the grim and violent comic imaginings of Frank Miller (the man behind “Sin City”), “Batman Begins” is exactly what all the trailers made it out to be – the recreation of the man behind the bat. It’s almost as if Burton and Bruckheimer had spent the last few decades in Tahiti drinking Mai Tais instead of making movies.
Directed by Christopher Nolan (“Memento” 2001), the story opens with the young Bruce Wayne and his rich, loving parents. Making use of his vast fortune, Wayne the Elder is the perfect, loving, corporate, crime-fighting father. We must assume his mother (who, to the best of my knowledge, says nary a word) is also angelic, but we don’t find out because they both die 20 minutes into the show.
Wayne, torn apart by the violent loss of his parents, has squandered the majority of his young life until, prompted by the scathing words of childhood-playmate turned DA Assistant Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) and an unsuccessful tussle with Gotham crime-boss Carmon Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), he takes to the streets to understand the criminal mind.
Not wanting to reveal too much, just let me say that this film explains in detail how Bruce came by his phenomenal, crime-fighting prowess and exactly why he took on the bat (a creature he had feared since a childhood fall into a batcave) as his symbol:
Alfred: Why bats, sir?
Bruce Wayne: Bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies share my dread.
One of the main departures from the earlier Batman epics is that, this time round, the focus of the story is almost exclusively on Bruce himself. The villains (which include the Scarecrow and an Eastern martial arts syndicate known as “the League of Shadows”), while twisted enough, are subsidiary to our interest in Batman. Christian Bale pulls off just the right balance between pretty-boy charm and macho, demi-god strength and makes the film worthy of a summer blockbuster.
Though on the whole enjoyable, the film does has a few notable weaknesses. For instance, the fighting scenes are shot a little too close, without enough light and edited too quickly to really know who’s punching who. Part of this technique does add to the theme of fear that permeates the film, but sometimes you just want to see the clear, hard, crime-fighting punch and the ensuing fall. The supporting cast is superb (especially Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy), though Katie Holmes really does have a tough time making us believe she is an actual adult, and not just a renegade teenager playing at law and order.
But, in spite of its flaws, the movie succeeds at breathing new life into one of the greatest American myths ever told. Though nothing in it is spectacular and not a single actor/actress is liable to find an Oscar for his/her part in the show, this film is exactly what summer cinema is all about and deserves to be seen on the big screen.