Batman Begins
- Dec 1, 2013
- 3 min read
When Batman Begins was first announced and released I had little to no interest in the film. Although in my youth I was a huge fan of Batman over the years I had lost interest in him and the Justice League. The X-Men and Spider-Man were far more interesting. The first being a group of mutants with the goal of protecting people who both hated and feared them. The second being a teenager with problems that I could relate to in a world where justice was not revenge, but a complicated feeling of guilt. Batman on the other hand existed in a realm where to defeat darkness he first needed to embrace the darkness he held within. Such a concept was far to complicated for me having also embraced Star Wars at a young age and seeing the world as good vs evil without any blurring of the lines.
That being said, it was not until The Dark Knight was released that I went back and watched Batman Begins with a new more mature perspective. Batman Begins does a brilliant job intertwining the fall of a child’s’ innocence with the rise to justice in a man. Bruce Wane himself explains to Ra’s al Ghul that in his own search for justice he learned that what goes into breaking a law is not always as simple as it seems. The same is true for upholding the law. The question of is it just for a person who has committed an egregious crime to have his own life taken is one that has history going back to the Bible. Comparing Batman to Jesus is far out of the question, but the way Batman decides to take the more difficult path of letting criminals live instead of doing as Ra’s al Ghul requests does mirror Jesus saving the prostitute in the Bible for none are without sin.
This conflict of what is true justice leaves Batman in a strange space between the law and being a criminal himself. Although it is clear that he does not intend to kill, he does act without the authority of the law. This issue of his relationship with the police is not a specifically addressed until the following movies, but as Batman woks with Jim Gordon before he is Commissioner there is a clear foreshadowing.
In terms of theatrics this is my favorite Batman movie. When reading the comics or watching the cartoons Gotham is a city with infinite heights. Batman Begins portrays this far better than its sequels. As Batman travels around the city is is clear that the Gotham itself is a character with a part to play in the story. This is seen in the Batmobile needing to jump the water surrounding the city and that it is that poisoned water that Ra’s targets with the evaporating device.
The two villains are also perfectly picked out. Ra’s provides Batman with a different view of what justice can be and widens the angry man’s perspective to see that his anger for his parents death is minor compared to the pain that the city has felt. Scarecrow on the other hand is a more simple villain who is a clear evil that must be taken out. This dynamic eases Batman into the future challenge of the Joker that is introduced at the end of the movie.
Overall this is my favorite Batman movie because of Ra’s al Ghul. The villains of the other movies, although well done and engaging, are not on the same level as Ra’s. A character that sees himself to be lawfully just while also playing the villain is far more interesting than the chaotic evil of the Joker or lawful evil of Bane.
8.5/10
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