So I tuned into the Oscar telecast this past Sunday, expecting the same boring, shameless pandering we've come to expect from the Academy. Well the show ended up being anything but boring but that's a whole different subject, but one thing that made me very happy was Christian Bale walking away with the Best Supporting Actor award. I've been a big fan of Bale's for years, and I thought he definitely deserved the award for the years of solid performances he's been turning in. Now, he's off to his next film, The Dark Knight Rises, and I think going into the third Batman movie with Oscar momentum is the best thing for Christian Bale right now.
Before Batman Begins, I didn't really know much about Christian Bale other than he was best known for American Psycho. After hearing that he had been cast as my favorite comic book hero I immediately started checking out his filmography, and I found myself impressed with how versatile of an actor he was. Just watch Empire of the Sun, it's kind of a boring movie but a young Christian Bale totally owns the movie. Equilibrium was awesome but ridiculous, but it's clear the movie would not have been as good without Bale's performance. Post Begins, Christian Bale gave a criminally underrated performance in The Prestige (in my opinion one of the best of his career) and a few other movies.
Then The Dark Knight hit, a movie that should have been the biggest success of his career, but Bale started getting a bad rep after the movie premiered. First there was the incident with his mom and sister, which was swept away pretty quickly, but then the criticism started over his bat-voice. Soon, Bale's performance as Batman became the butt of many jokes and internet memes. Then, almost a year later, a recording hit the web of Bale getting into a profanity laced tirade against the DP of Terminator Salvation, and the film being a critical and commercial failure didn't help either. Once again, Bale was the subject of internet jokes and remixes. But now, Bale has seemingly redeemed himself by lying low and being on his best behavior, and now the rest of his career is in his hands, especially in the role he will be best known for: Batman.
Earlier tonight, I was sitting around my house bored, and popped in Batman Begins. A few minutes in, I realized that it had been years since the last time I watched this movie, in fact I think the last time I watched it was the night before The Dark Knight hit theaters. Other than being reminded how awesome Batman Begins is, I also realized how much Bale owns this movie. I'm going to say it right now: Batman Begins owes a lot of it's success to Bale's performance as Batman/Bruce Wayne.
Batman Begins is very much Bale's movie from beginning to end, not to say he didn't have help from an amazing supporting cast though. As Bruce Wayne, Bale is sympathetic, bad-ass, intense, charismatic, and just plain compelling as a scarred youth on a mission. After the movie came out, I remember many people saying how they wanted to "be Batman"; one review I read of the movie stated "Finally, the Batman movies have found their Christopher Reeve". When you watch it, Bale just owns every scene he's in because he seems to understand both Batman and Bruce Wayne.
Batman Begins definitely created a new generation of Batman fans, especially with younger people, who seemed to connect with Christian Bale's Batman. Bale's Batman is an outsider, fighting against society by seemingly doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. As someone in my late teens, this spoke volumes to me and once again Batman was my hero, and I think many other angry young people connected with Bale's performance in the same way. After all, aren't most teenagers angry young people trying to fight back against society?
Then The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger happened.
Though Bale stills gives a great performance as Batman, it's clear from the beginning that something was off. It seems like Bale was intimidated by Heath Ledger's performance and tried to keep up with him, but just ended up over doing it, just look at his voice as an example. Christian Bale had a similar Batman voice in Begins, but it was a little more subdued so it didn't bother people, where as it was just plain distracting in many scenes of TDK. And the youth, who had connected with Bale so well in Begins now had a new hero: Heath Ledger's Joker.
We loved Batman as the outlaw bad-ass in Batman Begins, but The Joker took that to an extreme in The Dark Knight. We all long to be able to fight against the establishment, to do whatever we want and get away with it, and Heath Ledger's Joker did just that and made it look cool. Not only did Ledger's performance steal the movie from Bale, but his character was far more fun to watch than Batman.
Now, we have over a year until The Dark Knight Rises hits, and I think it's time to show everyone why we love Batman so much. Hopefully Bale has heard the criticisms about his Batman voice and scales it back. Bale has also got to scale back his performance and bring back more of that rebel cool that he had with the first film. Seeing how Batman will probably be a fugitive in this movie, the ball is in Bale's court to once again make Batman the guy we all want to be. Choosing Bane as the villain is a good approach because he's nowhere near as compelling as Joker, and hopefully he'll be a dastardly villain that will have us cheering for Bats again. This movie is Bale's last chance to show if he really is the Christopher Reeve of the Batman franchise and to show that Batman can be a hero and not an internet punchline.