Batman Begins
—Overview
—Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
If there were a formula for action hero movies, most would go something like this—Bad guy does bad stuff, hurts people, kills people, cheats people, and generally attempts to amass some sort of power, control, and/or large sums of money. Good guy tries to stop bad guy, save people, and stop bad from overcoming good. There would probably be a damsel in distress. Superheroes would indefinitely struggle with identity issues. Throw it all together with some choreographed fight scenes, near death scenes, and heroic rescues, and you’d have yourself an action hero movie.
Batman Begins, however, is surprisingly different. It goes beyond fight scenes and formulas. It even goes beyond simple good versus evil.
Taking us back to Batman’s beginnings, the movie also takes us to the core of formulaic good versus evil stories. While there is good and evil in Batman Begins, the interesting thing is that both the main “good guy� and the main “bad guy� have their sights set on overcoming evil. Instead of simply telling us a story in which the good wins and evil fails, Batman Begins addresses the reality that we all must face evil and darkness, and that in the end, the way we choose to deal with them is what will define who we are and how we live.
The movie opens during the childhood of young Bruce Wayne. A mugger kills his parents as he watches. The movie then skips many years to the appeal trial of his parents' murderer. The man is set free, Wayne is ready to kill the man himself, but someone else takes care of it. He is mad that he could not get his revenge, all he wants is justice, all he sees is injustice, and so he gives up and leaves to wander Asia.
While in an Asian prison he is met and “recruited� by Ducard, a member of the League of Shadows and follower of Ra's Al Ghul. When Wayne arrives at the League of Shadows’ compound, Ducard asks him what he is seeking. His reply: “I seek the means to fight injustice.� Their answer to his quest—destruction of the center of that corruption and injustice, his hometown of Gotham City. “Gotham’s time has come,� says Al Ghul. “The city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustices…it is beyond saving and must be allowed to die.�
For the League of Shadows, the people and world of Gotham are not even worth trying to save. “Only a cynical man would call what these people have lives,� Ducard tells Wayne. Even as Wayne seeks to fight injustice, he disagrees, determinedly stating, “Gotham is not beyond saving.� Al Ghul and Ducard chastise Wayne for his compassion, an understanding they say allows criminals to thrive. Wayne, however, holds firmly to it, for as he sees it, it is one thing that truly separates him from the criminals he desires to see brought to justice.
From there the movie unfolds with Wayne becoming Batman and attempting to fight evil and the League of Shadows attempting to combat evil by destroying Gotham. The story, however, is more than merely a tale of some imaginary city facing destruction and pleading for salvation. As we see the different ways that the movie’s characters face evil, we are confronted with the questions of how we face evil and how evil is dealt with in our own world.
On a global scale, the movie pushes us to think about injustices such as oppression, starvation, genocide, and terrorism. Closer to home, we picture local corruption, hatred, unkindness, abuse, and the like. We cannot deny that our world is clouded with darkness and evil. The question is, will we, like Wayne, choose to believe that our world is worth saving? Or, like other characters, are we too unable to believe in its value to even consider saving it?
As we watch Wayne face darkness even closer to himself, we are also prodded to ask those same questions about ourselves. In this movie, Wayne is tortured man. He struggles with guilt. He questions his own self-worth. We do the same. We feel guilt for things we have done or things that have simply happened. We look at ourselves and wonder why we are even here? Often, we feel so flawed and damaged we wonder if we are even worth saving.
When it comes down to it, the belief that seems to separate Wayne from Al Ghul is hope. Wayne chooses to hope, while Al Ghul chooses hopelessness. Wayne believes in trying to save his world from darkness. Al Ghul doesn’t even see that world and those people as worth saving.
Looking at the world around us, we cannot deny that it is filled with darkness. We cannot pretend we don’t see injustice every day. We cannot even keep a straight face and truthfully say we have never done anything wrong. No matter what I do, I cannot dismiss that reality of evil, and, as such, I cannot help but think that if there were someone like Al Ghul in our world with the power to destroy me and it, we would be gone. Surprisingly though, we aren’t. We’re still here, even in our failings, even in our corruption.
Even as evil and darkness attack us in so many ways, we have survived, and, in the same way that Gotham needed Batman to survive, I don’t think we have done it on our own. If there is truly a God, powerful enough to create us and powerful enough to destroy us, I cannot believe anything other than the fact that He believes in hope, that He believes in our value enough to fight and sacrifice to save us, and that He has sacrificed and fought to combat the evil and darkness that exists both around and within us.
If I met God with my hopelessness and questioned the rationality of His caring so much for a person so flawed and a world so imperfect, I cannot help but believe that our conversation would be no different than one between Alfred and Wayne many years after Wayne abandons Gotham and his life for dead.
“There are those of us who care about what you do with your future,� says Alfred.
“You haven’t given up on me yet?� Wayne questions.
With firmness and resolution, Alfred simply responds, “Never.�
—Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
If there were a formula for action hero movies, most would go something like this—Bad guy does bad stuff, hurts people, kills people, cheats people, and generally attempts to amass some sort of power, control, and/or large sums of money. Good guy tries to stop bad guy, save people, and stop bad from overcoming good. There would probably be a damsel in distress. Superheroes would indefinitely struggle with identity issues. Throw it all together with some choreographed fight scenes, near death scenes, and heroic rescues, and you’d have yourself an action hero movie.Batman Begins, however, is surprisingly different. It goes beyond fight scenes and formulas. It even goes beyond simple good versus evil.
Taking us back to Batman’s beginnings, the movie also takes us to the core of formulaic good versus evil stories. While there is good and evil in Batman Begins, the interesting thing is that both the main “good guy� and the main “bad guy� have their sights set on overcoming evil. Instead of simply telling us a story in which the good wins and evil fails, Batman Begins addresses the reality that we all must face evil and darkness, and that in the end, the way we choose to deal with them is what will define who we are and how we live.
The movie opens during the childhood of young Bruce Wayne. A mugger kills his parents as he watches. The movie then skips many years to the appeal trial of his parents' murderer. The man is set free, Wayne is ready to kill the man himself, but someone else takes care of it. He is mad that he could not get his revenge, all he wants is justice, all he sees is injustice, and so he gives up and leaves to wander Asia.
While in an Asian prison he is met and “recruited� by Ducard, a member of the League of Shadows and follower of Ra's Al Ghul. When Wayne arrives at the League of Shadows’ compound, Ducard asks him what he is seeking. His reply: “I seek the means to fight injustice.� Their answer to his quest—destruction of the center of that corruption and injustice, his hometown of Gotham City. “Gotham’s time has come,� says Al Ghul. “The city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustices…it is beyond saving and must be allowed to die.�For the League of Shadows, the people and world of Gotham are not even worth trying to save. “Only a cynical man would call what these people have lives,� Ducard tells Wayne. Even as Wayne seeks to fight injustice, he disagrees, determinedly stating, “Gotham is not beyond saving.� Al Ghul and Ducard chastise Wayne for his compassion, an understanding they say allows criminals to thrive. Wayne, however, holds firmly to it, for as he sees it, it is one thing that truly separates him from the criminals he desires to see brought to justice.
From there the movie unfolds with Wayne becoming Batman and attempting to fight evil and the League of Shadows attempting to combat evil by destroying Gotham. The story, however, is more than merely a tale of some imaginary city facing destruction and pleading for salvation. As we see the different ways that the movie’s characters face evil, we are confronted with the questions of how we face evil and how evil is dealt with in our own world.
On a global scale, the movie pushes us to think about injustices such as oppression, starvation, genocide, and terrorism. Closer to home, we picture local corruption, hatred, unkindness, abuse, and the like. We cannot deny that our world is clouded with darkness and evil. The question is, will we, like Wayne, choose to believe that our world is worth saving? Or, like other characters, are we too unable to believe in its value to even consider saving it?
As we watch Wayne face darkness even closer to himself, we are also prodded to ask those same questions about ourselves. In this movie, Wayne is tortured man. He struggles with guilt. He questions his own self-worth. We do the same. We feel guilt for things we have done or things that have simply happened. We look at ourselves and wonder why we are even here? Often, we feel so flawed and damaged we wonder if we are even worth saving.
When it comes down to it, the belief that seems to separate Wayne from Al Ghul is hope. Wayne chooses to hope, while Al Ghul chooses hopelessness. Wayne believes in trying to save his world from darkness. Al Ghul doesn’t even see that world and those people as worth saving.
Looking at the world around us, we cannot deny that it is filled with darkness. We cannot pretend we don’t see injustice every day. We cannot even keep a straight face and truthfully say we have never done anything wrong. No matter what I do, I cannot dismiss that reality of evil, and, as such, I cannot help but think that if there were someone like Al Ghul in our world with the power to destroy me and it, we would be gone. Surprisingly though, we aren’t. We’re still here, even in our failings, even in our corruption.Even as evil and darkness attack us in so many ways, we have survived, and, in the same way that Gotham needed Batman to survive, I don’t think we have done it on our own. If there is truly a God, powerful enough to create us and powerful enough to destroy us, I cannot believe anything other than the fact that He believes in hope, that He believes in our value enough to fight and sacrifice to save us, and that He has sacrificed and fought to combat the evil and darkness that exists both around and within us.
If I met God with my hopelessness and questioned the rationality of His caring so much for a person so flawed and a world so imperfect, I cannot help but believe that our conversation would be no different than one between Alfred and Wayne many years after Wayne abandons Gotham and his life for dead.
“There are those of us who care about what you do with your future,� says Alfred.
“You haven’t given up on me yet?� Wayne questions.
With firmness and resolution, Alfred simply responds, “Never.�
