The Dark Knight Rises Characterization of the Knight - Nolan and Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman

[Brain Damage]

I also loved Bale in Public Enemies, but that movie might be way too slow paced for some.

 

[AnneFan]

Was reading Bruce Wayne Fugitive and a few similar themes of TDKR struck out at me. In the series Bruce is framed - doesn't care much about clearing his name, locked up in jail/escapes, renounces his identity as Bruce and lives only as Batman. Throughout the story he realises the importance of Bruce Wayne in his life. At the end his name is cleared.

 

[kvz5]

From the print version:

 

[kvz5]

From the GD thread:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/christian-bale-goodbye-batman-dark-knight-rises-article-1.1010436

As if having to dress up in a latex and rubber Bat costume wasn’t surreal enough, try getting in costume in a room that's right around the spot where George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States.

That’s what went through Christian Bale’s mind as he suited up on the days when "The Dark Knight Rises," the third and final movie in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, was filming on location at the Federal Hall monument in lower Manhattan.

"I’m sure George Washington could never have imagined," Bale told the Daily News while promoting his latest film, "The Flowers of War". "And I apologize to him, because it probably should have never happened."

Bale, though, is glad that it did happen. He spent the last eight years as the Caped Crusader — and doesn't regret a minute — but says he's ready to hang up that cape for good.

"We need different rhythms in our life, don’t we, and to me it would be the wrong rhythm to jump into a franchise at this point," he says. "For now, no, I’d be looking for new experiences."

Bale is too polite to acknowledge what most moviegoers and fanboys would, that his take on Batman has long since surpassed predecessors like Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

"I wasn’t a 12-year-old that gave a damn about comics," he says. "I had never been someone into comic books, it just didn’t interest me. It wasn’t my thing."

It wasn't until reading Frank Miller's "Batman: Year One," writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli's seminal 1987 comic book miniseries, while prepping for the role that he really got the character. Before that he kind of thought Batman was a spoiled rich kid in tights.

"Suddenly, I found Batman has so many issues, he’s not a healthy individual, this is somebody that is doing good, but he’s right on the verge of doing bad," says Bale.

"He’s got that killer within him that he’s desperately not trying to let off his leash. And that’s what I always return to."

 

[Dragon_316ca]

http://www.toronto.com/article/714624--flowers-of-war-a-leap-of-faith-for-christian-bale

Q: Is this the final episode in the Dark Knight trilogy?
A: I can’t speak for Chris, but that’s my understanding.

Q: What impresses you about that role?
A: It’s strange, because I was never a comic-book fan, but in my 20s I came across the (1987 Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli/Richmond Lewis) graphic novel Batman: Year One, and it was fascinating, unlike anything I’d seen before. That coincided with news that Chris was planning a new take on the character, something radically different.

Everything you do in movies is a leap of faith, and since I had to audition for the part, I decided to go in with a far more extreme interpretation of the character than those of other people who were reading for it.

That was the way I really wanted to play it, and I’d made up my mind that if they didn’t like it, I didn’t want to be in the film. I took a big chance and it paid off.

 

[shallbecomeabat]

I really hope that Bruce's journey will get a satisfying ending in rises. A lot of stuff I have read, here and on other sites, suggests that it could really well be a possibility that Nolans movies end with the notion that Bruce creating Batman was a mistake, and that he did almost more harm than good. I would really hate that.

Sure I love the notion that he draws those crazy people out of the woodwork simply because of his existence as much as the next guy, but I still want him to be standing tall at the end of his journey, as the hero that he is.
Nolan just HAS TO make it abundantly clear to every audience member that without Batman, things would've been much much worse! That may not be the most realistic thing in the world, but its what Batman is ultimately about. A hero's story and not the story of a guy who meant well but f'ed it up in the end.

I know that its wrong if I expect him to become the Batman of the comics, because that wouldn't work a 100% in Nolans context and I have allready made my peace with the fact that he won't be Batman forever (8 to 9 years crimefighting carreer is hardly forever), but I need him to be the symbol of heroism he is in my mind at the end of the trilogy.

That is also why I would like it if he truly stopped being Batman for 8 years. Stopping his mission after TDK would almost mean that he really did loose the battle against the Joker and that he quit because of that. Batman cannot be a quitter. I really hope he did fight crime in the 8 year gap, only on streetlevel. The peacetime that Cop in the trailer talk about could mean that organized crime vanished from Gotham, but maybe it vanished because Batman didn't let it get up again, after rooting it out in TDK.
In TDKR he could've fought for 8 years, but only against low level guys, who thought they could fill the void that the mob left in TDK. Nothing on the scale of Ra's or Jokers attack on the city. He would still be stuck in time or in a bad place (don't remember how Nolan phrased it), because he just couldn't stop protecting Gotham, because he had to make sure it actually stays peacefull. If he really went away for years, somebody evil should've filled that criminal void.

 

[BestGirl]

If Batman hasn't been fighting crime for the past eight years, I'd like to know just what the hell he's been doing. Brooding in the batcave? It certainly hasn't been made to sound like he's been having fun at parties.

 

[The Batman]

I think it'd be a much better story if Bruce has been Bats for 8 years, and he's become run down because of it.

Question: What're some of your favorite Batman/Bruce Wayne scenes throughout Bat-Cinema?

 

[craigdbfan]

His introduction in TDK. I love that scene. The way he takes down those thugs and brushes off those rottweilers and goes on to obliterate that van and then have a close up on his trademark Bat glare in the shot after is one of the most iconic moments for me in the film series.

 

[The_Raganork]

I think it'd be a much better story if Bruce has been Bats for 8 years, and he's become run down because of it.

Question: What're some of your favorite Batman/Bruce Wayne scenes throughout Bat-Cinema?

To be cliche:
Taking the blame for Harvey is one of the most heroic moments I can think of. I literally got goosebumps when I first saw it.

 

[The Joker]

Question: What're some of your favorite Batman/Bruce Wayne scenes throughout Bat-Cinema?

The interrogation room scene with the Joker. It's the perfect clash of black vs white. Good vs evil. Batman vs his ultimate enemy.

I know this scene gets most praise for Heath, and brilliant he is, but Heath couldn't have pulled it off if it wasn't for Bale to work off who was the perfect opposing force to Joker in this scene. From the moment where he slams Joker's head off the table, to the silent anger in his face when Joker is mocking his morals and ideals, to when he's pummeling Joker in anger on the floor.

It's probably the richest hero and villain scene ever put into a CBM movie.

 

[gugumugats]

"He’s got that killer within him that he’s desperately not trying to let off his leash. And that’s what I always return to."

I wonder if Bale is talking about himself rather than talking about himself playing Batman. He's always been so .... expressive ... when it comes to his anger.

 

[Gee]

Is that the scar he got from the dog bite in TDK?

 

[ron1705]

It looks like it.

 

[AnneFan]

Is that the scar he got from the dog bite in TDK?

He drew it on himself to express how he's feeling.

 

[The Batman]

Question: What're some of your favorite Batman/Bruce Wayne scenes throughout Bat-Cinema?

Answering my own question, I gotta go with:

*Bruce brooding after Rachel's death. The way he tries to hold it in and the guilt he feels over the whole situation makes this scene.

*Batman vs the SWAT team.

*"Its not who I am underneath...its what I DOOO that defines me"

*Bruce's argument with Alfred in BB..."I don't care about my name", and the drunk scene afterwards

 

[kvz5]

This is probably one of my favorite Bruce scenes (I can't find a specific GIF but that shot of him crouching and then eventually standing straight among the Bats in particular was just a big favorite of mine):

 

[Brother Jack]

I've always loved the scene in TDK between Batman and Harvey when the latter is interrogating Thomas Schiff. The way Batman just appears and interjects on Dent and drops science to him about Schiff is just fantastic. It showcases Batman's intelligence as well as his respect of Harvey. The two are really setup to be mirrors of each other, down to action (both men interrogate someone unethically and unsuccessfully) and even in the cinematography (notice how both are viewed in opposite profiles).

 

[JackWhite]

I've always loved the scene in TDK between Batman and Harvey when the latter is interrogating Thomas Schiff. The way Batman just appears and interjects on Dent and drops science to him about Schiff is just fantastic. It showcases Batman's intelligence as well as his respect of Harvey. The two are really setup to be mirrors of each other, down to action (both men interrogate someone unethically and unsuccessfully) and even in the cinematography (notice how both are viewed in opposite profiles).

Great scene indeed. I didn't quite notice on my first viewing how both of there interrogations are suppose to mirror one another.

I also love how freaked out Schiff looks when Bat's catches the coin and begins chastising Dent. He's like "oh crap, The Bat is here too!"

 

[RustyCage]

His introduction in TDK. I love that scene. The way he takes down those thugs and brushes off those rottweilers and goes on to obliterate that van and then have a close up on his trademark Bat glare in the shot after is one of the most iconic moments for me in the film series.

The music there... Creeps up and fills me with an overwhelming emotion that poignantly embodies Batman.

Amazing.

I also have a batgasm at the part where he drops down onto the truck. The music building up to the drop, the suspense, that wicked little flickering of his cape enveloped around him, the fearlessness, bam!

The fearlessness perfectly expresses how he had conquered Scarecrow - who is the icon of fear, symbolic of Begins' story - as a hurdle in his mission, and the scene sets him up to move on from that first element of his challenge to the next one. He is no longer afraid, but now over-sure (as we see in his early conversations with Alfred in the movie).

It sets Batman up to think he's ontop of the game, to slip into complacency, thinking it's all straight forward from here, that he's worked the enemy out. All nicely aligned for chaos (Joker) to smash him from the angle he wasn't looking.

Beautiful, thoughtful, subtle writing. Very specific and meaningful villain choices. One scene, just a few minutes, tells SO MUCH story.

We could not be in better hands.

 

[RustyCage]

I've always loved the scene in TDK between Batman and Harvey when the latter is interrogating Thomas Schiff. The way Batman just appears and interjects on Dent and drops science to him about Schiff is just fantastic. It showcases Batman's intelligence as well as his respect of Harvey. The two are really setup to be mirrors of each other, down to action (both men interrogate someone unethically and unsuccessfully) and even in the cinematography (notice how both are viewed in opposite profiles).

 

[kvz5]

 

[kvz5]

Quote from the recent EW issue:

"Listening to Team Nolan talk about the film, you find yourself wondering: 'Will Batman actually survive till the end credits?"...."We wanted to show a character who is aging, who is damaged, who may not be in his prime," says Bale. "He has never encountered anyone with such blunt force as Bane, and this is not the best time for him to encounter him."

Something relevant about Miranda Tate's description -

"She’s a do gooding suit who sits on the board of directors of Wayne Enterprises and takes a shine to glum, emotionally frozen Bruce. It seems the Dark Knight Rises isn’t all doom, gloom and damaged adults in scary Halloween costumes — there’s also romance! As Nolan says ‘She represents the hope that Bruce can be brought back to life again’."

 

[Brother Jack]

I figured way back that Bruce would be in a pretty bad place this time around.

 

[BatmanBeyond]

The music there... Creeps up and fills me with an overwhelming emotion that poignantly embodies Batman.

Amazing.

I also have a batgasm at the part where he drops down onto the truck. The music building up to the drop, the suspense, that wicked little flickering of his cape enveloped around him, the fearlessness, bam!

The fearlessness perfectly expresses how he had conquered Scarecrow - who is the icon of fear, symbolic of Begins' story - as a hurdle in his mission, and the scene sets him up to move on from that first element of his challenge to the next one. He is no longer afraid, but now over-sure (as we see in his early conversations with Alfred in the movie).

It sets Batman up to think he's ontop of the game, to slip into complacency, thinking it's all straight forward from here, that he's worked the enemy out. All nicely aligned for chaos (Joker) to smash him from the angle he wasn't looking.

Beautiful, thoughtful, subtle writing. Very specific and meaningful villain choices. One scene, just a few minutes, tells SO MUCH story.

We could not be in better hands.

You're spot on about the music there...and everything else you mentioned, for that matter.

One of my favourite scenes from the two movies so far (and one that I think is underrated sometimes) is the "cave scene" from BB. It's such a powerful scene in that this one scene manages to tell so much story (as you said about the scene from TDK). The cave scene is one of the culminating points of Bruce's journey, the moment when his path is clearly shown to him, where he conquers his fear and truly becomes the Batman. All the while, accompanied by one the best tunes from Zimmer & Newton-Howard I've heard.

This scene is poetry in motion for me...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoM0x7cQjEM