“The Dark Knight Rises,” the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, is Christian Bale’s third turn as the Caped Crusader, but it’s Batman’s eighth major live-action feature film. Bale, for his own part, is the latest and fifth man behind the mask. But which Bruce Wayne was played best? Here’s my list.
5. George Clooney – “Batman & Robin” (1997); Joel Schumacher, director Clooney appears clueless at times in the fourth and final film of the Tim Burton/Schumacher series, which garnered a 13 percent “rotten” rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. “Batman & Robin” is garbage, by all accounts; and its star – guano. Clooney is less Batman than Robin in certain scenes of Schumacher’s suckfest, which also top-bills Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, a role he’d later reprise as the governor of California, as it were. Gorgeous George always salt-and-peppers the screen of otherwise bland movies. But here, his Bruce Wayne isn’t a playboy – he’s a playmate.
4. Val Kilmer – “Batman Forever” (1995); Schumacher, director Kilmer doesn’t exactly kill it in Schumacher’s first crack at the series. He certainly didn’t kill it (the franchise) like Clooney. But “Batman Forever” is a blind bat of a blockbuster, perched upside-down and head-high-up-ass in a belfry somewhere, brooding and bellyaching. Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne just never rings anyone’s bells in “Batman Forever.” He’s “The Dork Knight” – Hamlet in a two-horned cowl, maybe, only impossibly more theatrical and impossibly less logical. To bat or not to bat, hanging up the ol’ utility belt – these are the thematic concerns, for good or ill, of Schumacher’s tragedy. Which is to say: for ill. In the end, Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne is the hipster’s Bruce Wayne – and the series’ Bruce Lame.
3. Michael Keaton – “Batman” (1989), “Batman Returns” (1992); Burton, director Keaton’s contribution to Batman is, as IGN describes it, a “gravel-in-your-guts voice and [a] rigid, ‘can’t move your neck’ posture.” Granted (and with a Joker’s tee-hee-hee) – but Keaton’s turn as Bruce Wayne is inspired, in all seriousness. He doesn’t look the part. You’d never confuse him for a billionaire ladykiller. Beetlejuice, maybe, but not Bruce Wayne. But flak-jacketed in costumer Bob Ringwood’s murderously sexy Batsuit, Keaton’s the real McCoy. He’s Batman, all right: it’s in his terrifyingly abyssal eyes. And the proof is in the hearts and minds of a generation of audiences.
2. Adam West – “Batman” (1966); Leslie H. Martinson, director West’s iconic Batman, oddball and onomatopoeic, wouldn’t stand a chance in Arkham Asylum. He’s blue. The “Batman” of the ’60s, though, is anything but melancholic and pensive. All the campy spectacle’s thought went into Robin’s “holy [insert alliterative noun here]” lines. What was left, in turn, was spent on spunky POW!’s and ZOINK!’s and WTF!’s. Which is what’s so damnably pleasing about West’s Batman, the only one to date to have equipped shark repellant. Innocence.
1. Bale – “Batman Begins” (2005), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012); Christopher Nolan, director “The Dark Knight” – that’s Bale’s Batman, for all intents and purposes. The postmodern Batman. No longer a superhero but an anti-hero, almost. And he’s batass, by all accounts. Say what you will of Keaton’s gravelly delivery, Bale’s lines are delivered like cranky infant rock-golems – and with the pace and rhythm of tectonic plates. The effect is earth-shattering. And somehow, for all this, Bale manages it to be understated. It’s real and natural, too, which is precisely why Bale’s Batman is best: The films concern themselves with Bruce Wayne, not Batman – with the man and not the mask.
Phil Sweeney is a 25-year-old English senior from New Orleans, LA. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_PhilSweeney.
Contact Phil Sweeney at pweeney@lsureveille.com.
The Philibuster: Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne the best caped crusader
July 15, 2012