7/27/2019 Batman Begins 2005

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TOM Wolfe called the 1980sthe Me Decade, a time wheneveryone, with Steven Spiel-berg in the lead, was search-ing for their inner child.Tim Burton put a spoke intothe wheel of this adolescentcycle with his 1989 Batman ,which insisted that we aban-don the foetal attraction of that hidden infant and go insearch of our dark sides.

In so doing, he took usback to the cruel spirit of thestrip cartoon Bob Kane, cre-ated in the late 1930s. Thiswas before Susan Sontagsseminal 1964 essay Notes onCamp helped create a vogue

for kitsch and the cult of Itsgood because its bad, whichwas consciously adopted bythe 1966 TV series featuring Adam West as Batman.

Burtons two Batman lms were followed by a pairdirected by former windowdresser Joel Schumacherthat returned the franchiseto the camp Sixties. Now,Christopher Nolan, one of the truly exciting Britishdirectors to have emergedin the past decade, has beenengaged to restore somedepth and dignity . His Bat-man Begins , scripted incollaboration with David SGoyer, takes the caped cru-sader back to his origins.

The rst episode of BobKanes comic-strip for theMay 1939 Detective Com-ics was headed The legend

of the Batman who he isand how he came to be! In12 frames, he explained howBruce Wayne grew up toadopt the guise of Batman,brooding over Gotham Cityas the implacable nemesisof the underworld.

As Kane tells it, the pre-teen Bruce is out at night(circa 1924) with his parents

when an armed mugger killsboth of them. The orphanedlad, his hands clasped inprayer, his bedroom illu-minated by a single can-dle, swears to avenge theirdeaths by spending the restof my life warring on allcriminals. He becomes a

master scientist and trainshis body to physical perfec-tion and, because criminalsare a superstitious cowardlylot, chooses to become acreature of the night, black,terrible a bat the Bat-man. From these two gar-ishly printed pages, Nolanand Goyer have fashioned awhole movie.

To a narrative that itself draws on a tradition of avenger heroes in foppishdisguise stemming fromBaroness Orczys Scarlet

Pimpernel , they have addedelements from sourcesancient and modern, among them Fritz Langs expres-

sionist thrillers, Da Vinci Code conspiracies, kung fuicks and Bond movies.

More important, in tracing Bruce Waynes progress fromtroubled youth to condentadult, they have employedthe disruption of time andlinear narrative that gavesuch distinction to Nolansshoestring Following , and

its low-budget follow-up, themasterly Memento . In boththose movies, the ellipticalstyle drew us into the mindof a troubled protagonist;here, the brilliant but notamboyant editing involvesus in the divided conscious-

ness of Bruce Wayne (Chris-tian Bale).

The primary strand cen-tres on Bruces journeying inthe east, where his attemptsto understand the criminalmind have led to his incar-ceration in a Chinese gulag.From this dread place, hes

plucked by a mysteriousstranger (Liam Neeson) whodispatches him on a quest tothe Himalayas. At a remote,vertiginously located mon-astery, he receives the spirit-ual and physical instructionthat will make him a mem-ber of a clandestine ninja-style elite called the Leagueof Shadows.

The secondary narrativeis a succession of ash-backs, recounting his child-hood, the murder of hiswealthy parents, his deci-sion to drop out of Prin-ceton and his departurefrom Gotham, disgustedby its corruption. From

these ashbacks emergeshis secret fear: he fell intoa bats nest as a boy, sobats became for him whatrats were for WinstonSmith and snakes for Indi-ana Jones. We also learnof his lifelong love for theupright Rachel (Katie Hol-mes), the guilt he feels forhis parents death and the

agitation produced by histhoughts of revenge.

These problems are dra-matically resolved when hecomes to see that the Leagueof Shadows, despite its2,000-year history, is a bandof fascistic vigilantes. Hereturns to Gotham to shapehis new identity by turn-ing his greatest fear into aweapon against crime as hedecides to follow an age-oldfamily tradition of publicservice. Apart from comicinterventions from Alfred(Michael Caine), the familysdevoted English butler andguardian of Wayne Manor,the early part of Batman

Begins is an earnest, not tosay solemn a ff air.

It becomes more playfulthereafter as Bruce preparesto confront two groups of opponents on one hand,the sinister CEO of WayneEnterprises (Rutger Hauer),and, on the other, a sadis-tic underworld boss (TomWilkinson) and a mad psy-chiatrist (Cillian Murphy)with a private asylum, whoare terrorising Gotham. Amajor ingredient here is adelightful, extremely funnyperformance from MorganFreeman as the maverickhead of the special ord-nance branch of WayneEnterprises, a version of James Bonds Q. He pro-

vides Bruce with a lethalarmoury, equipment forscaling skyscrapers and, of course, the Batmobile, mostof it commissioned by thePentagon but rejected as tooexpensive for everyday use.

Christian Bale is persua-sively melancholy but lessgloomily brooding thanMichael Keaton, a sturdiergure than George Clooneyand Val Kilmer, and morelikable than any of them.He doesnt manage his char-acters playboy persona aseasily as Leslie Howard doesin The Scarlet Pimpernel or

Pimpernel Smith , but thatmay be part of the joke.

Anyway, this is an enjoy-able, sophisticated lm witha largely British cast andmostly made in this coun-try. Amusingly, the Joker

presents his calling card inthe nal minute, seeminglyannouncing a sequel. But noone would be foolish enoughto compete with Jack Nichol-sons 1989 Joker, so perhapsNolan is saying that Batman

Begins already has a sequel Tim Burtons Batman andthat he himself is moving onto pictures new.

The Observer 19 June 2005 9FILM OF THE WEEK

C R

I T I C S

NOLAN EMPLOYSTHE BRILLIANT STYLE THAT GAVE SUCH DISTINCTION TO MEMENTO

AND THE REST BY PHILIP FRENCH

Spreading his wings: Christian Bale as Batman.

Billy Elliots waste land Jamie Bell excels in a moody melodrama. Elsewhere, adultery rules

Convincing: Jamie Bell and Shiri Appleby in Undertow.

UNDERTOW (105 mins,15) Directed by David GordonGreen ;starring Jamie Bell,Josh Lucas ,Dermot Mulroney

WE DONT LIVE HEREANYMORE(99 mins,15) Directed by John Curran;starring Mark Ru ffalo,Naomi Watts,PeterKrause,Laura Dern

13 CONVERSATIONSABOUT ONE THING(104 mins,15) Directed by Jill Sprecher;starring Matthew McConaughey,Alan Arkin,Amy Irving,John Turturro

BOMBON EL PERRO(98 mins,15) Directed by Carlos Sorin;starring Juan Villegas,Walter Donado,RosaValsecchi

THE ECLIPSE(125 mins, PG) Directed by MichelangeloAntonioni;starring Monica Vitti,Alain Delon,Francisco Rabal

TWO PROMISING talentsemerged in 2000 to consider-able acclaim teenage Brit-ish actor Jamie Bell in Billy

Elliot and American direc-tor David Gordon Greenwith George Washington .Both lms were aboutyoung people attempting to escape from inert, de-industrialised communi-ties, one in the north westof England, the other inthe American South. Theirfollow-up lms were uncer-tain. Now Bell and Green

join forces in Undertow ,a melodrama set on thehumid coast where Georgiameets Florida with teasing hints at the beginning thatthe lm is based on actual

events.Bell plays Chris, the 16-

year-old son of widowerJohn Munn (a dishevelled,unshaven Dermot Mul-roney), who, for ill-denedreasons has withdrawnwith his sons into the back-woods to live in primitiveconditions tending pigs.

He bullies Chris while lav-ishing his attentions on12-year-old Tim (DevonAlan ), a bookworm with ananxiety disorder. Into this

neo-Tobacco Road comesJohns brother, Deel (JoshLucas ), a sleazy, charm-ing lowlife newly releasedfrom jail. Deel is after amysterious cache of goldcoins bequeathed to Johnand him by their father.Very soon, theres a lethalconfrontation between thepair. Fearing for their lives,the kids go on the run fromtheir vicious uncle, living by their wits as they headfor Mexico with the gold.

His southern accentconvincing and unforced,Jamie Bell more than holdshis own with Lucas andMulroney. Philip Glass hasprovided a score that alter-nates between the pulsat-ingly minimal and the mys-tically choral. The lm isstronger on mood than nar-

rative drive and ends up asa pale imitation of CharlesLaughtons 1955 classic,

Night of the Hunter , whichit consciously reworks.

The weeks two otherAmerican independentlms are urban, middle-class, northern and end-lessly loquacious. Larry

Gross, hitherto best knownfor genre movies and sharpmovie criticism, has donea sensitive job of adapting two Andre Dubus tales as

We Dont Live Here Any-more , a look at adultery andits consequences on a smallNew England campus. Eng-lish lecturer Jack (MarkRu ff alo) and creative writ-ing professor Hank (PeterKrause ) are best friends, asare their respective wives,Terry (Laura Dern) andEdith (Naomi Watts). Jackand Edith fall in love andembark on an a ff air. Boredby Edith, Hank makes

passes at Terry, which sheinitially rejects becauseshes devoted to Jack andtheir small children.

The movie covers a periodof around six months fromthe height of summer to therst snows of winter, andGross and the director JohnCurran keep all four char-acters constantly before us,cutting between them in vir-tually every scene, as theymake love, argue, rational-ise and deceive each otherand themselves.

Its an honest, modestlm and beautifully acted.Dern is especially good asthe long-su ff ering Terry,driven into indelity by

her husband to assuagehis own guilt. Its far moreerotic than Michael Win-terbottoms 9 Songs , andthe women emerge from itbetter than the men.

Directed by Jill Sprecherand co-scripted with hersister Karen, 13 Conversa-tions About One Thing isone of those mosaic mov-ies in the manner of RobertAltmans Short Cuts , andtells a succession of paral-

lel stories about New York-ers that appear to be, butare not, taking place at thesame time.

The one thing of thetitle is fate or chance orthe possibility of happinessor, put more grandly, themeaning of life. The mis-anthropic head of an insur-ance companys claimsdepartment (Alan Arkin)sacks an oppressivelycheerful employee to see if unemployment takes thesmile o ff his face. A deeplyreligious girl (Clea DuVall )believes her rescue fromdrowning as a child was amiracle, but later eventstest her faith. A cockyyoung lawyer (MatthewMcConaughey), convincedhes doing a great jobputting felons behind bars,unexpectedly commits acrime and nds everything he stands for challenged.A professor of physics atColumbia (John Turturro),seeking to revitalise his life,leaves his wife for a fellowteacher. And so on.

What links all these peo-

ple is that old movie device,a hit-and-run accident (thelast picture to employ itwas Iarritus 21 Grams in2003, though 13 Conversa-tions was rst shown inthe States in 2001). Its anintriguing lm, a little likeWoody Allens Crimes and Misdemeanours with fewer

jokes, and the kind of thing that keeps serious under-graduates debating into theearly hours.

Less pretentious andmore fun, Carlos SorinsBombn El Perro is a hom-age to Patagonia and itssweet-natured inhabitantswho soldier on in this at,thinly populated edge of theworld where coat collars arepulled up against the windand belts are constantlytightened by the economy.

The central character, JuanVillegas (played by a non-professional called JuanVillegas) is a kindly, end-lessly cheerful 52-year-oldmechanic, made redundantby a lling-station chainand travelling around try-ing to sell knives.

Suddenly, his life is trans-

formed when a gratefulwidow gives him an enor-mous white bulldog from aspecial Argentinian breed.Hes now welcome every-where as the dog, known asBombn or Lechien, doessecurity duties, enters ken-nel shows that o ff er big prizes, is hired out for studpurposes and sought afterfor wild-boar hunting. Thelms a delight and whilenot neglecting social prob-lems, its as far as you canget, geographically andotherwise, from that otherLatin-American doggy pic-ture, Amores Perros .

As part of a completeAntonioni season at theNFT, The Eclipse (1962)is getting an extendedrun. It completed the mas-terly trilogy of black-and-

white movies begun b y LAvventura and La Notte ,that made his reputation,created (along with Fel-linis La Dolce Vita and8 ) a new kind of Italiancinema and turned MonicaVitti into an internationalart-house icon.

She was part of the fash-ion process by which theintelligentsia put Anouilh and neorealism behindthem and embraced ennuiand neo-Marxism. Vittiselegant languor is con-trasted with the cacophonyof the Rome stock exchange,which is the directors metaphor for the madnessof unrestrained capitalism.The trilogy is wearing well,though only one of Antonio-nis later pictures, Blow-Up ,has stood the test of time.

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The box o ffi ce

UK 1 Mr & Mrs Smith2 Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith3 Sin City4 The Pacier5 House of Wax

US1 Mr & Mrs Smith2 Madagascar3 Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith4 The Longest Yard5 The Adventures ofSharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D

BATMAN BEGINS(139, 12A) Directed byChristopher Nolan; starringChristian Bale, KatieHolmes, Liam Neeson,Michael Caine, MorganFreeman

PHILIPFRENCH

KINGS AND QUEEN (15)Arnaud Desplechins sprawlingfamily drama is like Love

Actually and Four Weddings rewritten by Balzac.BATMAN BEGINS (12A)Christopher Nolan hasstruck camp and takenthe caped crusader backto a more serious time inGotham CityTHE CONSEQUENCESOF LOVE (15) PaoloSorrentinos poised thrillerstars Tonio Servillo as aMaa bagman waiting forthe end in a Swiss resort.

BOMBONEL PERRO (12A) DelightfulArgentinian comedyabout one man and hisdog in Patagonia.MOOLAADE(15) Noconcessions or reservationsneed to be made in greetingthis brave, compassionate lmby the octogenarian OusmaneSembene, Africas greatestcineaste.

P H I L I P F R E N C H S

T O P F I V E F I L M S

The cape of good hopeChristopher Nolans dark Batman prequel pays homage to its heros comic-strip beginnings