After the critically acclaimed Batman Begins ran its course to fairly tepid box office returns, I had always looked forward to what a new Batman flick would be with Nolan at the helm. In my opinion, Batman Begins is pretty difficult to top, where every minute is important and every decision made, whether that is cinematography, to effects has some reason behind it. It is refreshing to see a movie that treats you as a person with a brain and that movie engages you very well.
Fast forward to a few months back, The Dark Knight came as Nolan's second entry into his opus, and while it is definitely a hefty follow up, I have always come to think that Batman Begins was a better movie overall. We have seen so many articles that deal with The Dark Knight as a movie and how it has been the best of 2008, but this article is not about that.
Having watched Batman Begins numerous times, (and making it a point to watch it a day before seeing The Dark Knight in the theater), it is interesting how Nolan's vision of making that film every part linked to Batman Begins without really telegraphing it.
The first striking theme is how Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent are similar but due to different circumstances turn out differently. Harvey Dent was driven to madness when he saw how he had lost Rachel and everything else. Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins was also driven by similar circumstances, with the loss of his parents and the hunger for vengeance. It is thereby an interesting quote in Batman Begins that I think echoes very much what Dent lacked.
Henri Ducard tells Bruce during his time in the mountains, "Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you." Who would have thought that such a line could ever ring so true in The Dark Knight when Harvey Dent feeds into his anger and ultimately let it control his course of downfall. Dent had no social support structure Bruce had during such a pivotal time. If Bruce had not met Ducard and had not been redirected from that path in the prison cells, Bruce would have been truly lost as Ducard said and as Harvey became. Harvey rejected what little help mentally he could have had and found himself directed only by madness, a perverted sense of fairness and the barrel of a gun.
In its definition of villainy, the League of Shadows and the Joker seemingly operate with similar means. The Joker often mentions how man's morality is a joke and that at the end of the day, every man is at heart evil. While the League of Shadows operated under a different rationale, Ras Al Ghul in the final act of Batman Begins mentions "Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal." The League of Shadows had always been in a moral check in society and they have thereby noted how easy it is to fall into criminality. Like the Joker, they intend to create destruction and chaos because of man's evil, although they have different intensions in mind whilst serving that function.
It is also interesting to see Bruce's evolution from the creation of Batman to the man who now has that power and presence in Gotham. In the beginning, Bruce is a troubled soul, guided by his own morals as well as the tutelage of Henri Ducard. As Batman, Bruce channels all that rage and negative energy towards combating and defeating criminality. By the time The Dark Knight unfolds, you sense how Bruce has moved on from the brooding and incredibly hurtful place into one where he now sits more comfortably in his place as an experienced crime fighter. Gone is the psychological pain although he still remembers what drove him to be where he is, and in its place, the yearning to move on from that. The journey from Batman Begins to The Dark Knight that Bruce takes creates that natural progression that Bruce knows why he does it and he also now knows why it has to end at some point for him.
In the final act of The Dark Knight, Bruce realizes the sacrifice he is needed to take to help rid crime in Gotham as the same sacrifice he has done when he embarked on that journey to be Batman. He knows that because of the path he chose, there will not be the path for him to come back to normalcy. That is how Batman Begins ends, and that is, apparently, also how The Dark Knight closes.
Quite a fit for the two movies and I have no doubt that both will create such a strong connection when viewed side-by-side.
Fast forward to a few months back, The Dark Knight came as Nolan's second entry into his opus, and while it is definitely a hefty follow up, I have always come to think that Batman Begins was a better movie overall. We have seen so many articles that deal with The Dark Knight as a movie and how it has been the best of 2008, but this article is not about that.
Having watched Batman Begins numerous times, (and making it a point to watch it a day before seeing The Dark Knight in the theater), it is interesting how Nolan's vision of making that film every part linked to Batman Begins without really telegraphing it.
The first striking theme is how Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent are similar but due to different circumstances turn out differently. Harvey Dent was driven to madness when he saw how he had lost Rachel and everything else. Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins was also driven by similar circumstances, with the loss of his parents and the hunger for vengeance. It is thereby an interesting quote in Batman Begins that I think echoes very much what Dent lacked.
Henri Ducard tells Bruce during his time in the mountains, "Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you." Who would have thought that such a line could ever ring so true in The Dark Knight when Harvey Dent feeds into his anger and ultimately let it control his course of downfall. Dent had no social support structure Bruce had during such a pivotal time. If Bruce had not met Ducard and had not been redirected from that path in the prison cells, Bruce would have been truly lost as Ducard said and as Harvey became. Harvey rejected what little help mentally he could have had and found himself directed only by madness, a perverted sense of fairness and the barrel of a gun.
In its definition of villainy, the League of Shadows and the Joker seemingly operate with similar means. The Joker often mentions how man's morality is a joke and that at the end of the day, every man is at heart evil. While the League of Shadows operated under a different rationale, Ras Al Ghul in the final act of Batman Begins mentions "Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal." The League of Shadows had always been in a moral check in society and they have thereby noted how easy it is to fall into criminality. Like the Joker, they intend to create destruction and chaos because of man's evil, although they have different intensions in mind whilst serving that function.
It is also interesting to see Bruce's evolution from the creation of Batman to the man who now has that power and presence in Gotham. In the beginning, Bruce is a troubled soul, guided by his own morals as well as the tutelage of Henri Ducard. As Batman, Bruce channels all that rage and negative energy towards combating and defeating criminality. By the time The Dark Knight unfolds, you sense how Bruce has moved on from the brooding and incredibly hurtful place into one where he now sits more comfortably in his place as an experienced crime fighter. Gone is the psychological pain although he still remembers what drove him to be where he is, and in its place, the yearning to move on from that. The journey from Batman Begins to The Dark Knight that Bruce takes creates that natural progression that Bruce knows why he does it and he also now knows why it has to end at some point for him.
In the final act of The Dark Knight, Bruce realizes the sacrifice he is needed to take to help rid crime in Gotham as the same sacrifice he has done when he embarked on that journey to be Batman. He knows that because of the path he chose, there will not be the path for him to come back to normalcy. That is how Batman Begins ends, and that is, apparently, also how The Dark Knight closes.
Quite a fit for the two movies and I have no doubt that both will create such a strong connection when viewed side-by-side.
1 comment:
After the critically acclaimed Batman Begins ran its course to fairly tepid box office returns, I had always looked forward to what a new Batman flick would be with Nolan at the helm.
Tepid box office returns?? You've got to be joking. It made three times the amount it cost.
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