AfterBatman & Robin (1997) was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office, Warner Bros. Pictures cancelled futureBatman films, includingJoel Schumacher's plannedBatman Unchained. Between 1998 and 2003, several filmmakers collaborated with Warner Bros. in attempting toreboot the franchise. After the studio rejected aBatman origin story rebootJoss Whedon pitched in December 2002, Warner Bros. hired Nolan in January 2003 to direct a new film. Nolan and Goyer began development on the film in early 2003. Aiming for a darker, more realistic tone compared to the previous films, a primary goal for their vision was to engage the audience's emotional investment in both the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities of the lead character. The film, which was principally shot in the United Kingdom, Iceland and Chicago, relied heavily on traditionalstunts andminiature effects, withcomputer-generated imagery being used in a minimal capacity compared to other action films. Comic book storylines such asThe Man Who Falls,Batman: Year One, andBatman: The Long Halloween served as inspiration.
Expectations forBatman Begins ranged from moderate to low, which originated from the poor reception ofBatman & Robin that was credited with stalling theBatman film series in 1997. After premiering in Tokyo on May 31, 2005, the film was released in the United States on June 15. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $371.9 million worldwide against a $150 million budget, becomingthe ninth highest-grossing film of 2005, and was the second highest grossingBatman film at the time of its release, behindTim Burton'sBatman (1989). Receiving a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Cinematography, the film elevated Bale to leading man status while it made Nolan a high-profile director.
Since its release,Batman Begins has often been cited as one of the most influential films of the 2000s. The film helped popularize the term reboot in Hollywood, inspiring studios and filmmakers to revive franchises with realistic and serious tones. It was followed byThe Dark Knight (2008) andThe Dark Knight Rises (2012), with the three films constitutingThe Dark Knight trilogy.
Plot
InGotham City, a youngBruce Wayne falls down a well and develops a fear of bats. At theopera with his parents, Bruce is unsettled by performers masquerading as bats and asks to leave. Outside, a mugger,Joe Chill, shoots his parents dead. Bruce is raised by the family butler,Alfred Pennyworth.
Fourteen years later, Chill testifies against mafia crime bossCarmine Falcone, and is paroled. Bruce intends to murder Chill to avenge his parents, but an assassin in Falcone's employ kills him first. After confronting Falcone, who says real power comes from being feared, Bruce spends the next seven years traveling the world, training in combat, and immersing himself in the criminal underworld.
In aBhutan prison, Bruce is approached byHenri Ducard, who recruits him into theLeague of Shadows, led byRa's al Ghul. After completing his training, he rejects the League's mandate that all criminals should be killed. He burns down the temple and escapes after learning that the League believes Gotham is corrupted beyond saving and intends to destroy the city. Ra's is killed by falling debris, while Bruce saves Ducard.
Intent on fighting crime and redeeming Gotham, Bruce returns to Gotham and to his family's company,Wayne Enterprises, which is being taken public by businessman William Earle. Company archivistLucius Fox, a friend of Bruce's father, allows him access to prototype defense technologies, including a protective bodysuit and theTumbler, an armored vehicle. Bruce poses publicly as a shallowplayboy while setting up base in thecaves beneathWayne Manor and taking up the vigilante identity of "Batman", inspired by his childhood fear, which he has now conquered.
Intercepting a drug shipment, Batman provides his childhood friend,Rachel Dawes, an Assistant District Attorney, with evidence against Falcone and enlists SergeantJames Gordon, one of Gotham's few honest police officers, to arrest him. In prison, Falcone meetsDr. Jonathan Crane, a corrupt psychologist who smuggles drugs into Gotham with his help. Donning a scarecrow mask, Crane sprays Falcone with afear-inducing hallucinogen, driving him insane and having him transferred toArkham Asylum under his care. While investigating Crane, Batman is sprayed with the hallucinogen. He is saved by Alfred and Fox, who develop an antidote for it.
When Rachel confronts Crane, he reveals that he has introduced his drug into Gotham's water supply and drugs her. When Crane is captured, he claims to work for Ra's al Ghul. Batman saves Rachel and administers the antidote. At Bruce's birthday party, Ducard reveals himself to be the true Ra's al Ghul. Having stolen a powerful microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he plans to vaporize Gotham's water supply, rendering Crane's drug airborne and causing mass hysteria that will destroy the city. He sets Wayne Manor aflame but Alfred rescues Bruce. The League of Shadows frees Crane and the other inmates from Arkham, while Ra's loads the emitter onto Gotham'smonorail to release the drug at the city's central water source underWayne Tower. Batman reveals his identity to Rachel before confronting Ra's on the train. Gordon uses the Tumbler's cannons to destroy the train track and Batman leaves Ra's to die as the train crashes.
Rachel now respects Bruce but refuses to be with him, promising they can be together when Gotham no longer needs Batman. Batman becomes a public hero. After purchasing a controlling stake in Wayne Enterprises, Bruce fires Earle and replaces him with Fox. Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant, shows Batman theBat-Signal, and tells him about a criminal who leaves behindJoker playing cards.[a]
Cast
Christian Bale asBruce Wayne / Batman: A billionaire socialite who, after witnessing his parents' death in a mugging at age 8, travels around the world seven years before returning home to inherit his family companyWayne Enterprises whilst operating at night as abat-maskedvigilante bringingjustice upon the criminal underworld ofGotham City. Bale was relatively unknown when cast.[5] Before he was confirmed on September 11, 2003,[6] having expressed interest in the role sinceDarren Aronofsky was planning his own film adaptation,[7]Eion Bailey,Henry Cavill, who would later be cast asSuperman,Billy Crudup,Hugh Dancy,Jake Gyllenhaal,Joshua Jackson,David Boreanaz,Heath Ledger, who later played theJoker inThe Dark Knight, andCillian Murphy, who would later be cast asDr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow, took interest in it as well.[6][8][9] While still attached to the project, Aronofsky revealed in a 2020 interview forEmpire magazine that he wantedJoaquin Phoenix for the role, but the studio wantedFreddie Prinze Jr. instead.[10]Josh Hartnett met with Nolan about the role, but decided against pursuing it.[11][12][13] Bale, Bailey and Murphy auditioned using theBatman Forever sonar suit donated byVal Kilmer, but the cape was lost,[14][15][16][17][18] andAmy Adams served as the casting reader for the casting of Bruce Wayne / Batman in a favor to the casting director.[19] Though his friends doubted him stating it was not going to work, Bale was convinced by Nolan's approach and he felt that the previous films underused Batman's character, overplaying the villains instead.[20][21] To best pose as Batman, Bale studied graphic novels and illustrations of the superhero.[22] Director Nolan said of Bale, "He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for."[23] Goyer stated that while some actors could play a great Bruce Wayne or a great Batman, Bale could portray both radically different personalities.[24] Since he had lost a great deal of weight in preparation for his role inThe Machinist, Bale hired a personal trainer to help him gain 100 pounds (45 kg) of muscle in the span of only a couple of months to help him physically prepare for the role. After realizing he went over by 30 pounds (14 kg), he lost the excess weight by the time filming began.[24] Bale trained inWing Chun Kung Fu underEric Oram in preparation for the movie.[25][26][27][28]
Michael Caine asAlfred Pennyworth: A trusted butler to Bruce's parents, who continues his loyal service to their son after their deaths as his closest confidant. Nolan offered the role toAnthony Hopkins but he declined.[30][31] Nolan went to Caine's country home to personally deliver him the script, telling what his role would be and describing Alfred as "Batman's godfather".[32] Nolan felt Caine would effectively portray the foster father element of the character.[24] Although Alfred is depicted in the film as having served the Wayne family for generations, Caine created his own backstory, in that before becoming the Waynes' butler, Alfred served in theSpecial Air Service. After being wounded, he was invited to the position of the Wayne family butler by Thomas Wayne because, "He wanted a butler, but someone a bit tougher than that, you know?"[33]
Liam Neeson asHenri Ducard /Ra's al Ghul: The leader of theLeague of Shadows, an ancient society that uses chaos to punish the corrupt and decadent, who goes undercover as an associate of the League and trains Bruce in martial arts, later revealing himself in the film's climax. Writer David Goyer said he felt he was the most complex of all the Batman villains, comparing him toOsama bin Laden; "He's not crazy in the way that all the other Batman villains are. He's not bent on revenge; he's actually trying to heal the world. He's just doing it by verydraconian means."[34]Gary Oldman was the first choice for the part, but ended up playingJames Gordon instead.[35]Guy Pearce, who collaborated with Christopher Nolan onMemento (2000), reported that the pair had discussions about him playing the role, but both of them decided that he was too young for the part.[36]Viggo Mortensen was also considered for the role.[37] Neeson is commonly cast as a mentor, so the revelation that his character was the main villain was intended to shock viewers.[24]
Katie Holmes asRachel Dawes: Bruce's childhood friend and love interest who serves as Gotham City's assistantdistrict attorney and fights against corruption in the city of Gotham. Nolan found a "tremendous warmth and great emotional appeal" in Holmes, and also felt "she has a maturity beyond her years that comes across in the film and is essential to the idea that Rachel is something of a moral conscience for Bruce".[38]
Gary Oldman asJames "Jim" Gordon: One of the few uncorruptedGotham City police officers, who is on duty the night of the murder of Bruce's parents and, in this way, shares a special bond with the adult Bruce and thus with Batman. Oldman was Nolan's first choice for Ra's al Ghul,[35] but whenChris Cooper turned down the part of Gordon to spend time with his family,[39] Nolan decided that it would be refreshing for Oldman, who is renowned for his portrayals of villains, to play the role instead.[40] Speaking of his role as Gordon, Oldman explained, "I embody the themes of the movie which are the values of family, courage and compassion and a sense of right and wrong, good and bad and justice”. He filmed most of his scenes in Britain.[41] Goyer said Oldman heavily resembled Gordon as drawn byDavid Mazzucchelli inBatman: Year One.[24]
Cillian Murphy asDr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow: A corruptpsychopharmacologist working as Chief Administrator ofArkham Asylum. A specialist in the psychology of fear, he has secretly created afear-inducing toxin and plots with Ra's al Ghul to expose the entire Gotham population. Nolan decided against casting an Irish actor like Murphy for Batman, before casting him as Scarecrow.[42] Murphy read numerous comics featuring the Scarecrow and discussed making the character look less theatrical with Nolan. Murphy explained, "I wanted to avoid theWorzel Gummidge look, because he's not a very physically imposing man – he's more interested in the manipulation of the mind and what that can do."[43]Robert Downey Jr. was considered for the role.[44]
Tom Wilkinson asCarmine Falcone: The most powerfulMafia boss in Gotham, who shares a prison cell with Joe Chill after he murdered Bruce's parents. Later, after having Chill murdered for his decision to testify against their relationship, he goes into business with Dr. Jonathan Crane and Ra's al Ghul by smuggling in Crane's fear toxins through his drug shipments over the course of several months so that they can be mixed in with the city's water supply.
Rutger Hauer as William Earle: TheCEO of Wayne Enterprises, who takes the company public in Bruce's long-term absence.
Ken Watanabe as decoy Ra's al Ghul: A member of the League of Shadows assigned to impersonate Ra's al Ghul during Bruce's training.
Morgan Freeman asLucius Fox:[24] A high-ranking Wayne Enterprises employee demoted to working in the company's Applied Science Division, where he conducts advanced studies inbiochemistry andmechanical engineering and supplies Bruce with much of the gear necessary to carry out Batman's mission. He is promoted to CEO when Bruce takes control of the company by the end of the film.
In January 2003,Memento directorChristopher Nolan was hired byWarner Bros. to direct an untitledBatman film,[45] andDavid S. Goyer signed on to write the script two months later.[46] Nolan stated his intention to reinvent the film franchise ofBatman by "doing the origins story of the character, which is a story that's never been told before". Nolan said that humanity and realism would be the basis of the origin film, and that "the world of Batman is that of grounded reality. [It] will be a recognizable, contemporary reality against which an extraordinary heroic figure arises." Goyer said that the goal of the film was to get the audience to care for both Batman and Bruce Wayne.[47] Nolan felt the previous films were exercises in style rather than drama, and described his inspiration as beingRichard Donner's 1978 filmSuperman, in its focus on depicting the character's growth.[7] Also similar toSuperman, Nolan wanted an all-star supporting cast forBatman Begins to lend a more epic feel and credibility to the story.[24]
Goyer wanted toreboot the franchise; he and Nolan saw Batman as a romantic character, and Nolan envisioned a large, sweeping film likeLawrence of Arabia. Although Warner Bros. required the film not beR-rated, Nolan did not have a problem with this, as he wanted to make the film that he wanted to see when he was 11 years old.[5] His personal "jumping off point" of inspiration was "The Man Who Falls", a short story byDenny O'Neil andDick Giordano about Bruce's travels throughout the world. The early scene inBatman Begins of young Bruce Wayne falling into a well was adapted from "The Man Who Falls".[48]Batman: The Long Halloween, written byJeph Loeb and drawn byTim Sale, influenced Goyer in writing the screenplay, with the villainCarmine Falcone as one of many elements which were drawn fromHalloween's "sober, serious approach".[48] The writers considered havingHarvey Dent in the film, but replaced him with the new characterRachel Dawes when they realized they "couldn't do him justice".[49] Dent was later portrayed byAaron Eckhart in the 2008 sequelThe Dark Knight. The sequel toHalloween,Batman: Dark Victory, also served as a minor influence.[50] Goyer used the vacancy of Bruce Wayne's multi-year absence presented inBatman: Year One to help set up some of the film's events in the transpiring years.[51] In addition, the film's SergeantJames "Jim" Gordon was based on his comic book incarnation as seen inYear One. The writers ofBatman Begins also used Frank Miller'sYear One plot device, which was about a corrupt police force that led to Gordon andGotham City's need for Batman.[48] Due toBatman's extensive rogues gallery over seventy years, Goyer and Nolan decided to use theScarecrow andRa's al Ghul as the film's villains, as both characters had not been featured in previousBatman films nor inAdam West's1960s television series.[52]
A common idea in the comics is that Bruce saw aZorro film with his parents before they were murdered. Nolan explained that by ignoring that idea – which he stated is not found in Batman's first appearances – it emphasized the importance of bats to Bruce and that becoming a superhero is a wholly original idea on his part. It is for this reason Nolan believes other DC characters do not exist in theuniverse of his film; otherwise, Wayne's reasons for taking up costumed vigilantism would have been very different.[53]
Filming
Batman Begins scene where Batman burns
As with all his films, Nolan refused asecond unit; he did this in order to keep his vision consistent.[22] Filming began in March 2004 in theVatnajökull glacier inIceland (standing in forBhutan).[22] The crew built a village and the front doors to Ra's' temple,[54] as well as a road to access the remote area.[22] The weather was problematic, with 75 miles per hour (120 km/h) winds,[22] rain, and a lack of snow. A shot that cinematographerWally Pfister had planned to take using a crane had to be completed with a handheld camera.[54]
Unlike Burton and Schumacher's Gotham City that did not exist in the real world, Nolan shot exteriors in London, New York, and Chicago as he wanted the city to seem recognizable.[5] In seeking inspiration fromSuperman and other blockbuster films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nolan based most of the production in England, specificallyShepperton Studios.[55] ABatcave set was built there and measured 250 feet (76 m) long, 120 feet (37 m) wide, and 40 feet (12 m) high.Production designerNathan Crowley installed twelve pumps to create a waterfall with 12,000 imperial gallons (55,000 L; 14,000 US gal), and built rocks using molds of real caves.[56] Anairship hangar atCardington, Bedfordshire was rented by Warner Bros. during April 2004[57] and, converted into a 900 feet (270 m) sound stage, was where the slum-district of "the Narrows" and the feet of the monorails were filmed.[56]
Despite the film's darkness, Nolan wanted to make the film appeal to a wide age range. "Not the youngest kids obviously, I think what we've done is probably a bit intense for them but I certainly didn't want to exclude the sort of ten to 12-year olds, because as a kid I would have loved to have seen a movie like this." Because of this, nothing gory or bloody was filmed.[38]
The score forBatman Begins was composed byHans Zimmer andJames Newton Howard. Nolan originally invited Zimmer to compose the music, and Zimmer asked Nolan if he could invite Howard to compose as well, as they had always planned a collaboration.[61] The two composers collaborated on separate themes for the "split personality" of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman. Zimmer and Howard began composing in Los Angeles and moved to London where they stayed for twelve weeks to complete most of their writing.[62] Zimmer and Howard sought inspiration for shaping the score by visiting theBatman Begins sets.[63]
Zimmer wanted to avoid writing music that had been done in earlierBatman films, so the score became an amalgamation of orchestra and electronic music. The film's ninety-piece orchestra[61] was developed from members of various London orchestras, and Zimmer chose to use more than the normal number of cellos. Zimmer enlisted a boy soprano to help reflect the music in some of the film's scenes where tragic memories of Bruce Wayne's parents are involved. "He's singing a fairly pretty tune and then he gets stuck, it's like froze, arrested development," said Zimmer. He also attempted to add a human dimension to Batman, whose behavior would typically be seen as "psychotic", through the music. Both composers collaborated to create 2 hours and 20 minutes worth of music for the film,[63] with Zimmer composing the action sequences and Howard focusing on the dramatic scenes.[61]
Special effects and design
Design
Nolan used the 1982science fiction filmBlade Runner as a source of inspiration forBatman Begins. He screenedBlade Runner to Pfister and two others to show the attitude and style that he wanted to draw from the film. Nolan described the film's world as "an interesting lesson on the technique of exploring and describing a credible universe that doesn't appear to have any boundaries", a lesson that he applied to the production ofBatman Begins.[64]
Nolan worked with production designer Nathan Crowley to create the look ofGotham City. Crowley built a model of the city that filled Nolan's garage.[58] Crowley and Nolan designed it as a large, modern metropolitan area that would reflect the various periods of architecture that the city had gone through. Elements were drawn from New York City, Chicago, and Tokyo; the latter for its elevated freeways and monorails. The Narrows was based on theslummish nature of the (now demolished)walled city of Kowloon in Hong Kong.[65]
Crowley started the process of designing the Tumbler for the film bymodel bashing. Crowley used the nose cone of aP-38 Lightning model to serve as the chassis for the Tumbler'sturbine engine. Six models of the Tumbler were built to 1:12 scale in the course of four months. Following the scale model creation, a crew of over 30 people, including Crowley and engineers Chris Culvert and Annie Smith, carved a full-size replica of the Tumbler out of a large block ofStyrofoam in two months.[66]
The styrofoam model was used to create a steel "test frame", which had to stand up to several standards: have a speed of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), go from 0 to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) in 5 seconds, possess asteering system to make sharp turns at city corners, and withstand a self-propelled launch of up to 30 feet (9.1 m). On the first jump test, the Tumbler's front end collapsed and had to be completely rebuilt. The basic configuration of the newly designed Tumbler included a5.7-liter Chevy V8 engine, a truck axle for the rear axle, front tires byHoosier (which are actually dirt racing tires used on the right rear of open wheel sprint cars), 4 rear 44/18.5-16.5 Interco Super Swamper TSL tires (44" tall, 18.5" wide, mounted on a 16.5" wheel) and thesuspension system ofBaja racing trucks. The design and development process took nine months and cost several million dollars.[66]
With the design process complete, four street-ready race cars were constructed, with each vehicle possessing 65 panels and costing $250,000 to build. Two of the four cars were specialized versions. One version was the flap version, which had hydraulics and flaps to detail the close-up shots where the vehicle propelled itself through the air. The other version was the jet version, in which an actual jet engine was mounted onto the vehicle, fueled by sixpropane tanks. The visibility inside the vehicle was poor, so monitors were connected to cameras on the vehicle body. The professional drivers for the Tumblers practiced driving the vehicles for six months before they drove on the streets of Chicago for the film's scenes.[66]
The interior of the Tumbler was an immobile studio set and not actually the interior of a street-capable Tumbler. The cockpit was oversized to fit cameras for scenes filmed in the Tumbler interior. In addition, another version of the Tumbler was aminiature model that was 1:6 scale of the actual Tumbler. This miniature model had an electric motor and was used to show the Tumbler flying across ravines and between buildings. However, the actual Tumbler was used for the waterfall sequence.[66]
Batsuit
The Batsuit, as worn by Christian Bale
The filmmakers intended to create a very mobileBatsuit that would allow the wearer to move easily to fight and crouch. Previous film incarnations of the Batsuit had been stiff and especially restrictive of full head movement.Costume designerLindy Hemming and her crew worked on the Batsuit at an FX workshop codenamed "Cape Town", a secured compound located at Shepperton Studios in London. The Batsuit's basic design was aneoprene undersuit, which was shaped by attaching molded cream latex sections. Christian Bale was molded and sculpted prior to his physical training so the team could work on a full body cast. To avoid imperfections picked up by sculpting with clay, plastiline was used to smooth the surface. In addition, the team brewed different mixtures of foam to find the mixture that would be the most flexible, light, durable, and black. The latter presented a problem, since the process to make the foam black reduced the foam's durability.[22]
For the cape, director Christopher Nolan wanted to have a "flowing cloak... that blows and flows as in so many great graphic novels". Hemming's team created the cape out of their own version of parachute nylon that had electrostatic flocking, a process shared with the team by theBritish Ministry of Defence. The process was used by the London police force to minimize night vision detection. The cape was topped by acowl, which was designed by Nolan, Hemming, and costume effects supervisor Graham Churchyard. The cowl was created to be thin enough to allow motion but thick enough to avoid wrinkling when Bale turned his head in the Batsuit. Churchyard explained the cowl had been designed to show "a man who has angst", so his character would be revealed through the mask.[22]
Fight choreography
On-set fight choreography act between Bruce Wayne and the League of Shadows
Fight choreographers forBatman Begins, Justo Dieguez and Andy Norman, trained actors and stunt performers using the SpanishKeysi Fighting Method,[67] which gained fame after it was used in the film and its sequel,The Dark Knight; however, the method was modified inThe Dark Knight Rises due to Batman's age and physical condition and in order to match Bale's fighting style. The method is aself-defense system whose training is based on the study and cultivation of natural instincts.[68]
Visual effects
ForBatman Begins, Nolan preferred traditional stuntwork overcomputer-generated imagery.[7]Scale models were used to represent the Narrows and Ra's al Ghul's temple.[54][58] There were, however, several establishing shots that were CG composite images, such as Gotham's skyline, exterior shots of Wayne Tower, and some of the exterior monorail shots.[58] The climactic monorail sequence mixed live action footage, model work, and CGI.[69] The bats depicted in the film were entirely digital (except in shots containing only one or two bats), as it was decided that directing large numbers of real bats on-set would be problematic; dead bats were scanned to create digital models. Locations and sets were recreated digitally so that the flying bats would not appear incongruous once incorporated into the finished film.[69]
2005 was expected by industry experts to underperform compared to 2004. Many attributed the slump to be a result of high ticket prices, marketing costs, DVD sales hitting record levels, and new technologies creating an incipient demand for movies delivered directly via the Internet, over-the-airwaves, satellite dish or cable set-top box.[70] By the start of the theatrical summer in 2005 (May), the box office slumped for 11 consecutive weeks, with year-to-date ticket sales down 5.4 percent from last year even as ticket prices rose a moderate 3 percent, to around $6.40 on average, according to Exhibitor Relations. Theater attendance prior to the summer of 2005 declined about 8 percent.[70]
Batman Begins was expected by industry experts to help reverse the box office slump in June. However, there were concerns over a possible soft opening for the film. The previous film,Batman & Robin, was widely panned by critics and was credited with stalling the franchise since 1997. Bale's lack of star power at the time and a lack of iconic villains such as theJoker andPenguin that were portrayed by A-list celebrities were seen as possible detachments from audiences.[73][74] Some also expressed concerns that Holmes' involvement with the film could derail the film's financial prospect due to her high-profile relationship withTom Cruise (whose filmWar of the Worlds opened the following weekend) after his controversial appearance onThe Oprah Winfrey Show.[74]
Theatrical
Warner Bros. held the world premiere forBatman Begins inTokyo, Japan on May 31, 2005.[75] The film opened on June 15, 2005, in the United States and Canada in 3,858 theaters,[3] including 55IMAX theaters.
Home media
TheDVD ofBatman Begins was released on October 18, 2005, in both single-disc and two-disc deluxe editions[76] and also released onVHS andUMD Video formats.[77] In addition to the film, the deluxe edition contained featurettes and other bonus materials. The edition contained a small paperback booklet, the firstBatman story, featured inDetective Comics #27, as well asBatman: The Man Who Falls and an excerpt fromBatman: The Long Halloween.[78]Batman Begins achieved first place in national sales and rental charts in October 2005, becoming the top-selling DVD of the fourth quarter of 2005. The DVD grossed $11.36 million in rental revenue.[79] The DVD held its position at the top of the sales chart for a second week, but fell to second place behindBewitched on video rental charts.[80] The film had brought in $167 million in DVD sales by August 2006.[81]
Batman Begins was released onHD DVD on October 10, 2006.[82] ALimited Edition Giftset of the film was released on DVD andBlu-ray on July 8, 2008, to coincide withThe Dark Knight which hit theaters July 18, 2008.[83] Due to the successful box office performance ofThe Dark Knight, theBatman Begins DVD saw an increase in both sales and rentals.[84]Batman Begins was released on4K UHD Blu-ray on December 19, 2017.[85] It received a novelization written byDennis O'Neil,[86] and a comic book adaptation byScott Beatty.[87]
Reception
Box office
Batman Begins ranked at the top in its opening weekend, accumulating $48 million, which was seen as "strong but unimpressive by today's instantaneous blockbuster standards".[88] The film's five-day gross was $72.9 million, beatingBatman Forever (1995) as the franchise high.Batman Begins also broke the five-day opening record in the 55 IMAX theaters, grossing $3.16 million. Polled moviegoers rated the film with an A, and according to the studio's surveys,Batman Begins was considered the best of all theBatman films. The audience's demographic was 57 percent male and 54 percent people over the age of 25.[88]
The film held its top spot for another weekend, accumulating $28 million in a 43 percent drop from its first weekend.[89]Batman Begins went on to gross $205 million in North America and had a worldwide total of $371.8 million from its original release.[3] It earned $1.6 million more from its 2012 re-release, bringing its lifetime worldwide total to $373.4 million. It is the fourth-highest-grossingBatman film, as of August 2012[update], behind Tim Burton'sBatman, which grossed $411 million worldwide and also being surpassed by its sequelsThe Dark Knight andThe Dark Knight Rises, both of which have grossed over $1 billion.[90]Batman Begins averaged $12,634 per theater in its opening weekend.[3] It was released in more theaters, but sold fewer tickets than the other previousBatman movies, with the exception ofBatman & Robin.[90]Batman Begins was the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2005 in the United States.[91]
Critical response
Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes givesBatman Begins an approval rating of 85% based on 285 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Brooding and dark, but also exciting and smart,Batman Begins is a film that understands the essence of one of the definitive superheroes."[92] AtMetacritic, which assigns aweighted mean rating reviews, the film received an average score of 70 out of 100, based on 41 critics, which indicates "generally favorable" reviews.[93] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[94][88]
Bale received critical acclaim for his performance in the film.
James Berardinelli applauded Nolan and Goyer's work in creating more understanding into "who [Batman] is and what motivates him", something Berardinelli felt Tim Burton's film had lacked; at the same time, Berardinelli felt the romantic aspect between Bale and Holmes did not work because the actors lacked the chemistryChristopher Reeve andMargot Kidder (Superman), orTobey Maguire andKirsten Dunst (Spider-Man) shared in their respective roles.[95] According toTotal Film, Nolan manages to create such strong characters and story that the third-act action sequences cannot compare to "the frisson of two people talking", and Katie Holmes and Christian Bale's romantic subplot has a spark "refreshingly free ofPeter Parker/Mary Jane-style whining".[96]
Los Angeles Times'Kenneth Turan, who felt the film began slowly, stated that the "story, psychology and reality, not special effects", assisted the darkness behind Batman's arsenal; he noted that Neeson and Holmes, unlike Bale's ability to "feel his role in his bones", do not appear to fit their respective characters in "being both comic-book archetypes and real people".[97]The New Yorker'sDavid Denby did not share Berardinelli and Turan's opinion. He was unimpressed with the film, when comparing it to the twoTim Burton films, and that Christian Bale's presence was hindered by the "dull earnestness of the screenplay", the final climax was "cheesy and unexciting", and that Nolan had resorted to imitating the "fakery" used by other filmmakers when filming action sequences.[98]
Holmes' performance was criticized by critics, noting her lack of range and depth compared to the rest of the cast.
Michael Wilmington of theChicago Tribune believed Nolan and Goyer managed to "comfortably mix the tormented drama and revenge motifs with light hearted gags and comic book allusions," and that Nolan takes the series out of the "slam-bang Hollywood jokefests" the franchise had drifted into.[99] Comic book scribe and editorDennis O'Neil stated that he "felt the filmmakers really understood the character they were translating", citing this film as the best of the live-actionBatman films.[100] In contrast, J. R. Jones, from theChicago Reader, criticized the script, and Nolan and David Goyer for not living up to the "hype about exploring Batman's damagedpsyche".[101]Roger Ebert, who gave mixed reviews to the previous films, and claimed in his review forBatman Returns that he did not believe noir worked in superhero films, wrote this was "theBatman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for". Giving it four out of four stars, he commended the realistic portrayals of the Batman arsenal – the Batsuit, Batcave, Tumbler, and the Batsignal – as well as the focus on "the story and character" with less stress on "high-tech action".[102]
Like Berardinelli,USA Today's Mike Clark thought Bale performed the role of Batman as well as he didPatrick Bateman inAmerican Psycho, but that the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes was "frustratingly underdeveloped".[103]Kyle Smith thought Bale exhibited "both the menace and the wit he showed in his brilliant turn inAmerican Psycho", and that the film works so well because of the realism, stating, "Batman starts stripping away each layer of Gotham crime only to discover a sicker and more monstrous evil beneath, his rancid city simultaneously invokes early '90s New York, when criminals frolicked to the tune offive murders a day;Serpico New York, when cops were for sale; and today, whenpsychos seek to kill us all at once rather than one by one."[104] In contrast,Salon.com's Stephanie Zacharek felt Nolan did not deliver the emotional depth expected of "one of the most soulful and tortured superheroes of all"; she thought Bale, unlikeMichael Keaton who she compared him to, failed to connect with the audience underneath the mask, but that Gary Oldman succeeded in "emotional complexity" where the rest of the movie failed.[105]
Film directorTim Burton—who had directedthe 1989 Batman film andits first sequel—felt Nolan "captured the real spirit that these kind of movies are supposed to have nowadays. When I didBatman twenty years ago, in 1988 or something, it was a different time in comic book movies. You couldn't go into that dark side of comics yet. The last couple of years that has become acceptable and Nolan certainly got more to the root of what theBatman comics are about."[106]
Batman Begins has been cited as one of the most influential films of the 2000s.[111][112][113] On the film's 10th anniversary,Forbes published an article describing its lasting influence: "Reboot became part of our modern vocabulary, and superhero origin stories became increasingly envogue for the genre. The phrase "dark and gritty" likewise joined the cinematic lexicon, influencing our perception of different approaches to storytelling not only in the comic book film genre but in all sorts of other genres as well."[114] Shawn Adler ofMTV statedBatman Begins heralded a trend of darker genre films, that either retold back-stories orrebooted them altogether. Examples he cited wereCasino Royale,[115] as well as the in-developmentRoboCop,Red Sonja, andGrayskull.[116]
Themes
Comic book writer and authorDanny Fingeroth argues that a strong theme in the film is Bruce's search for a father figure, saying "[Alfred] is the good father that Bruce comes to depend on. Bruce's real father died before they could establish an adult relationship, andLiam Neeson's Ducard is stern and demanding, didactic and challenging, but not a father figure with any sympathy. If Bruce is anyone's son, he is Alfred's. [Morgan] Freeman's Lucius is cool and imperturbable, another steady anchor in Bruce's life."[117] Blogger Mark Fisher states that Bruce's search for justice requires him to learn from a proper father figure, with Thomas Wayne and Ra's al Ghul being the two counterpoints. Alfred provides a maternal figure of unconditional love, despite the overall lack of focus on a mother figure in Bruce's life.[118]
Fingeroth also argues that a major theme in the film is fear, which supports the story of Bruce Wayne becoming a hero. Director Christopher Nolan stated that the idea behind the film was "a person who would confront his innermost fear and then attempt to become it". Fingeroth referred to this film's depiction as "the man with fear—but who rises above it". The theme of fear is further personified by the Scarecrow.[117] The film depicts how fear can affect all creatures regardless of might. Allusions to fear are seen throughout, from Bruce's conquering of his demons, to becoming Batman, to the Scarecrow and his deadly fear toxin. The macabre, distorted images presented in the Scarecrow's toxin-induced hallucinations also express the idea of terror to an extreme.[119]
Critic Brian Orndorf consideredBatman Begins "fierce" and "demonstrative in brood", giving the film an abundance of gravitas and energy. It strays away from the lighter fare ofJoel Schumacher's 1997 Batman film,Batman & Robin, which containedcamp one-liners throughout. The theme of fear is intensified with the help of the musical score by Zimmer and Howard, which also "eschews traditional heroic themes".[119] Also contrary to previousBatman films, a psychological investigation of Bruce Wayne's split personality in the bat suit is only lightly touched upon. Orndorf noted that Bruce is a "character constantly striving to do the right thing, not worn down by incessant reexamination".[119]
^McClean, Craig (June 23, 2007)."More Mr Nice Guy".The Daily Telegraph.Archived from the original on January 19, 2010. RetrievedApril 23, 2010.
^Fleming, Michael; Dunkley, Cathy (December 10, 2003)."'Batman' bags a baddie".Variety.Archived from the original on October 25, 2013. RetrievedNovember 2, 2006.
^Graser, Marc; Dunkley, Cathy (February 8, 2004)."The bat and the beautiful".Variety.Archived from the original on April 8, 2017. RetrievedNovember 2, 2006.
^abcGray, Brandon (June 20, 2005)."'Batman Begins' in the Shadows".Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Archived fromthe original on December 20, 2013. RetrievedJuly 7, 2013.Moviegoers polled by CinemaScore gave Batman Begins an "A," while Fellman said it was rated the best of all the Batman movies in Warner Bros.' exit polling.
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