What is there so truly disturbed about Bale's Batman/Bruce Wayne?
He decides to set a line between him and criminals because logic tells him it wouldn't be good to become the same thing.
He's lucid enough to create a convincing playboy persona and separate revenge from justice. He's lucid enough to recognize love in a completely normal woman and fight for it.
Lucid enough to quit as Batman only when he found something truly better to replace him and protect the city.
He has normal relationships with Alfred and Fox and with Rachelm would be the same except that Batman is an obstacle - and not because he's so "disturbed" but merely because he's incompatible with a romantic relationship..
I'm gonna deal with each hightlighted bit one at a time.
1. I don't see how setting himself apart from criminals has anything to do with logic. It doesn't make his job as Batman easier, it's not like the public like him better for it or something, because they don't know the details.
He doesn't want to be the same as criminals for his own personal reasons. To protect his own sanity, he sets himself lines, so that he doesn't get drawn in by the thrill of crime and end up becoming the very thing he's fighting... because he knows he's got it in him.
2+3. He sees love in the only woman in his life, the only woman he's ever been remotely close to in any way. She loves him, as any woman would, because they were close as kids and because he's been through so much. It would be difficult to see all that pain and not want to comfort him.
But there really isn't a relationship there. And I don't see at all how he fought for it. And I think being incompatible with a romantic relationship does show a part of his disturbed nature.
Unlike Keaton, who wooed a woman in just a few days and slept with her, Bale doesn't understand how to woo a woman. He's just latched onto this woman who cares about him, and keeps trying to force her to accept their relationship is already more than it is without having done any of the courting stuff first.
Keaton's Bruce/Batman can't even introduce himself without hesitating, can't stop distrusting people, can't create a double life because he simply doesn't know how normal people act so he could act like one, the only emotion his Batman knows is rage and that's why he reacts to criminals so viscerally - "you killed my parents in cold blood; I'll kill you in cold blood, I don't care about consequences or moral dilemmas" - he doesn't even know how to lie properly. He tried to quit as Batman because he thought that another screwed up person with duality issues could be his soul mate..
It's Bale's outward persona that makes his true self more obvious. How no one notices he's faking every second is a real testament to the fact he only has people around him who can smell his money. I mean his playboy self is so over the top and ridiculous... like a man trying to pretend to be a normal rich boy and ending up sticking out as eccentric.
Bale's Batman has more focus than just rage, because his rage brought him to so many places of training. But he NEEDS Batman to control that. As long as he has this commitment to doing something good with his violence, he is sane. But it's the only thing that keeps him going.
Not saying than Bale's Bruce/Batman was completely sane but it seems to me that other than wearing a bat-suit, he has everything under control.
What in his life is under control other than Batman?
I do think he has a better handle on how to be Batman than Keaton's Batman did. He is more focused, more determined. Has more of a plan, more strict rules. But to me that shows how much it's taken over his life.
While Keaton seems like a man who is a bit confused about who he is and what he wants from his life, and who genuinely seems to be looking for a connection with someone nice, Bale to me seems like a man who is very certain what he wants, but keeps trying to tell himself he can one day give it up and be normal and have everything a normal man should want... because it's another one of those things that helps him feel seperate from villains, especially one's like the Joker. But the thing is, he is just Batman.
With Keaton, I at least felt like Batman was a disguise, and there was a Bruce underneath. With Bale, it's like Bruce died a long time ago, and Batman is what took his place.
Until perhaps the final scene in The Dark Knight, Bale's Wayne thinks being Batman is a short-term gig after which he can get on with the rest of his life (hell, he doesn't even seem troubled or motivated by the death of his parents any more). It's a rational symbol rather than a disturbed state of mind. But it's still early days; hopefully in the third Batman he will get 'lost inside this monster' as Alfred feared he would in Begins. It's only then that Wayne/Batman truly becomes an interesting character, like Keaton's Wayne who has ceased to exist. His Wayne is just a mask Batman reluctantly dons until night falls (particularly in Batman Returns). He's the Haunted Knight to Bale's Super-Bat. Keaton's performance is actually quite brilliant; his eyes tell the whole story.
Yeah, I prefer Keaton.
1. I don't think that's true at all. He is TRYING to think that he can give it up and be a normal man, but he's barely convincing himself, and certainly not convincing Rachel.
2. As to how much his parents death motivates him, I think your right. I think that may have been the trigger that set this whole disturbed life off, but it's much much more than that now. His mind is tainted with the anger and pain and bitterness that have ruled most of his life. He's broken. Being Batman is the only thing that gives him a sense of control, of a life that is worth something.
Without Batman, what would he be?
Bale acts with his eyes just as much as Keaton does. Obviously their eyes are telling different stories respective to the situation they're in, but they both silent act beautifully.
I agree, they do both have a subtle way of performing their own portrayals without speaking. It's always interesting to watch things like that.
I agree with what you said in a previous post. Bale's Batman is full of vicious rage; And I'd say Keaton was more like a mad man on the edge.
That's a nice way of summing it up actually.
