Tagline: How does one man change the world?
Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight’s emergence as a force for good in Gotham. Christian Bale stars as Bruce Wayne / Batman; Michael Caine as his trusted butler Alfred; Gary Oldman as Lieutenant James Gordon, a detective on the Gotham police force; Katie Holmes as a childhood friend of Wayne’s; Liam Neeson as Wayne’s mentor, Henri Ducard; Ken Watanabe as the villainous Ra’s Al Ghul; and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, a former board member and sidelined employee of Wayne Enterprises.
How does one man change the world? It’s a question that haunts Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) like the specter of his parents, gunned down before his eyes in the streets of Gotham on a night that changed his life forever.
Tormented by guilt and anger, battling the demons that feed his desire for revenge and his need to honor his parents’ altruistic legacy, the disillusioned industrial heir vanishes from Gotham and secretly travels the world, seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.
In his quest to educate himself in the ways of the criminal mind, Bruce is mentored by a mysterious man called Ducard (Liam Neeson) in the mastery of the physical and mental disciplines that will empower him to fight the evil he has vowed to destroy. He soon finds himself the target of recruiting efforts by the League of Shadows, a powerful, subversive vigilante group headed by enigmatic leader Ra’s al Ghul (Ken Watanabe).
Bruce returns to Gotham to find the city devoured by rampant crime and corruption. Wayne Enterprises, his family’s former bastion of philanthropic business ideals, now rests in the hands of CEO Richard Earle, a man more concerned with taking the company public than serving the public good.
Meanwhile, Bruce’s close childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), now an Assistant District Attorney, can’t secure a conviction of the city’s most notorious criminals because the justice system has been so deeply polluted by scum like crime boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). It doesn’t help that prominent Gotham psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) bolsters insanity defenses for Falcone’s thugs in exchange for nefarious favors that serve his own devious agenda.
Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman, co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe and Morgan Freeman. The film reboots the Batman film series, telling the origin story of Bruce Wayne from his initial fear of bats and the death of his parents to his journey to become Batman and his fight to stop Ra’s al Ghul and the Scarecrow from plunging Gotham City into chaos. Comic book storylines such as The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One and Batman: The Long Halloween served as inspiration.
After a series of unsuccessful projects to resurrect Batman on screen following the critical failure of Batman & Robin (1997), Nolan and David S. Goyer began to work on the film in early 2003 and aimed for a darker and more realistic tone, with humanity and realism being the basis of the film. The goal was to get the audience to care for both Batman and Bruce Wayne. The film, which was primarily shot in Iceland and Chicago, relied on traditional stunts and miniatures, while computer-generated imagery was used minimally.
Batman Begins opened on June 15, 2005, in the United States and Canada in 3,858 theaters. It grossed over $48 million in its opening weekend in North America, eventually grossing over $374 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews and is considered by many to be one of the best superhero films of the 2000s. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and three BAFTA awards. It is followed by The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) in a continual story-arc, which has later been referred to as The Dark Knight Trilogy.
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Batman Begins (2005)
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, Gerard Murphy
Screenplay by: David Goyer
Production Design by: Nathan Crowley
Cinematography by: Wally Pfister
Film Editing by: Lee Smith
Costume Design by: Lindy Hemming
Set Decoration by: Gene Foad, Andrew Hodgson, Paki Smith, Simon Wakefield
Art Direction by: Peter Francis, Paul Kirby, Simon Lamont, Dominic Masters, Alan Tomkins, Su Whitaker, Eggert Ketilsson, David Lee, Shane Valentino
Music by: James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense action violence, disturbing images.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: June 15, 2005
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