How I Fell in Love with the Bat-Man

I am not a big fan of the action flick.  (SHOCK!  HORRORS!  I know, I know.  I'm such a cliché - a girl who doesn't like action films.  I bet your world is turned upside down.)  It's not the genre itself to which I'm opposed.  I like to watch cars explode and people shoot their guns sideways as much as the next girl.  It's a thrilling escape from the everyday.  No.  It's what people have done to the genre to which I object.  Or, more specifically, not done.  There's no storyline.  There's no depth of character.  Just two hours of back to back explosions.  So, it may surprise you that I have spent the past few months eagerly anticipating the opening of the latest Batman installment, The Dark Knight.

I remember watching reruns of the television series starring Adam West, and I wasn't particularly impressed.  My brother liked it, though, and he was bigger than me and therefore in charge of the remote.  Being young, I liked the parade of strangely costumed villains (especially Catwoman and Poison Ivy), and I was terribly amused by the fight scenes.  To this day, I still use the words "BIFF!", "BLAM!" and "KAPOW!" whenever I'm in a fistfight.

I enjoyed Tim Burton's 1989 Batman.  It was a complete departure from the campy tv show, and strangely fascinating.  Trust Burton to cast the highly-skilled and oft-undervalued Michael Keaton as the lead.  Keaton's blend of solid citizen and absurd humour took the character to a different place, and brought the movie-going public with him.  For me, though, it was oppressively dark.  So, while I thought it was good, I had no real desire to see the sequels.

Several years go by, directors and leading men change, and we come to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.  It was the year that my first son was born, so we didn't get out to the theatre, but we did end up renting it one night.  I wasn't keen to see it, but the husband convinced me.  We both like the part in superhero movies when the ordinary person becomes extraordinary and this movie was supposedly all about the back story.

Well, I was blown away.  The movie was still dark, but instead of following Burton's eccentric path that made the movie Batman just shy of inaccessible, Nolan chose a more down-to-earth route.  His bleakness was more along the lines of a world gone awry, and his Batman reflected that.  I've never been terribly impressed with Christian Bale's acting abilities (with the notable exception of American Psycho), but the re-invented Batman fit him like a well-tailored suit.  With Bale, we had an angst-ridden hero who walks a dangerous line between darkness and light.  All that Batman Begins lacked was a truly impressive villain.

Enter Heath Ledger as The Joker.  I was all set to be especially critical of Ledger's supposed tour-de-force, thinking that most people are being influenced by the tragedy surrounding his recent death.  I was wrong.  His performance is nothing short of breathtaking.  Complex and multi-layered, his presence is so electric that the screen practically sizzled.  I couldn't take my eyes off him.  I spent a large portion of the movie trying to see something of Ledger in the Joker, and only caught a momentary glimpse in the interrogation scene.  He simply became the role.  As an actor, there is no higher compliment.  If any performance deserves a posthumous Oscar, this is the one.

It is so good, in fact, that he almost eclipses Batman entirely.  However, Nolan and the writers managed to create a Batman film that was not entirely focused on Batman.  It is more of a collective with strong supporting characters, and lucky for him, he has a cast that includes the likes of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman.  And, since actors feed off each other, Bale's Batman is buffeted to new heights on the breath of fresh air that is (was) Ledger.  Gone is the comically evil jokester portrayed by Jack Nicholson, and in it's place is a sinister, unpredictable agent of chaos.  And in turn, Bale is simultaneously stronger, and more vulnerable.

While watching the film, though, I realized what I like most about Batman.  He is a superhero with no superpowers.  Yes, he has a stunning intellect, physical prowess and limitless wealth at his disposal, but when it comes right down to it he is just a man.  Imperfect.  Fallible.  Human.  And it's this humanity, playing like variations on a theme, that makes this film so engrossing.  The audience watches with bated breath as people choose between justice and mercy, life and death, love and..obsession.  It's life.  Seamy, seedy, sordid, and simply spellbinding.  Batman is right in it with the rest of the city, battling to keep his head above water, fighting to do the right thing. To "make the choice that no one else can make".  Love him as the people's saviour, or hate him as a violent vigilante, he's not one to be ignored.

And yes, rest assured, a lot of things get blown up.

Photo credit: IMDB

Comments

[kittenpie]

Not even a huge Batman fan in general, I totlly want to see this. Everything I here just says it's a can't-miss.

[crazymumma]

And what a character to tap into. Why is it always the twisted and dark becomes so compelling. That combined with how physically beautiful Ledger was, it is such a perverse inversion.

I am going soooon!

[bea]

What I liked best about the Joker was how my feelings towards him evolved throughout the movie. At first he was so creepy and disturbing, and then somehow I began liking him - there's a kind of plausibility to him when says, "Do I LOOK like a guy with a plan?"

And I love this part of your review: "We both like the part in superhero movies when the ordinary person becomes extraordinary..." This is precisely the appeal of the Twilight series, which everyone is having fun slamming this week now that the fourth book is out.

[Woman in a window]

And Gary Oldman is in it! He is briliant! I'm sure sooner or later we'll see this one but mostly I'm cheap. The theatre is 2 hours away so that would mean 2 hours for the movie and 4 for travel. It always has to be one hell of a movie to draw us out! And usually rated G so we can skip the sitter.

[bren j.]

I'm still not convinced I want to see the movie; I may be one of the few who actually prefers the cheesiness that was Burt Ward and Adam West, but you hit the nail on the head about why Batman is the greatest superhero - no superpowers; just an ordinary - but filthy rich - guy.