Consulting his mementos, Christopher Nolan recalls making Batman Begins.
By Pat Jankiewicz, Starlog, August, 2005
With his dark visions in films like Memento and Insomnia, writer-director Christopher Nolan seems like the kind of guy who would go to Gotham City's Crime Alley for kicks. His work is full of flawed, tortured heroes and venal villains who live in a grim, uncaring universe, so a meeting between Nolan and Batman is a match made in film noir heaven.
Batman Begins is Nolan's attempt to revamp the entire Bat-franchise, restoring the Dark Knight to his gritty roots. It deals with the origin of Batman and how he came to be. Young billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) witnesses the murders of his parents as a child, overcomes his fear of bats and darkness and travels the world to find purpose in his life. Along the way, he becomes the nocturnal vigilante Batman and faces down the insane Dr. Crane, a.k.a. the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), and the mysterious Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). In writing the script with David (Blade) Goyer, Nolan went for the heart of the character and what he felt fans wanted to see. "There are no nipples on Batman's suit!" he reassures. "Batman Begins is a serious take on the character, which isn't to say it isn't fun. I think the film is lots of fun but, to me, 'fun' in a big blockbuster has always been represented by the films that take themselves seriously enough to make you believe in the events being portrayed on screen. If those events are extraordinary and entertaining to watch, it becomes an enormous amount of fun."
The director is proud of his new Dark Knight. "What we were looking to do with Batman Begins is make a realistic picture that allows the audience to believe Batman's story in a relatively grounded universe," Nolan explains. "Therefore, we had to cast somebody who you believe can - without superpowers or supernatural abilities—devote himself through sheer force of will and determination into becoming this extraordinary figure. Christian does that.
"What Christian provides is a striking degree of commitment, focus and dedication," Nolan says. "You look into his eyes and you actually believe he can do these things. That's pretty unique. Christian is a great Batman. Bruce Wayne's appeal for me is that he's human and flawed. He's driven by dark impulses and motivated by awful events. His life is far from perfect; it's very troubled and tragic. And yet he's able to focus all of those negative impulses into something positive. That's relevant to real life and our existence as imperfect human beings. We are not Supermen. But maybe in our own minds, we can be Batmen!"
Bat Dreams
There's a reason why the film isn't called Batman's Back, Batman Resurrected or some other title variation indicating the hero's return. And that's because, with Batman Begins, Nolan is restarting the franchise. "What's really enjoyable is being able to take afresh approach and reinvent something," he says. "There's a sense of freedom, in terms of coming up with our approach to this material. Everybody at the studio and DC Comics realized that it was time for a fresh view. That's a pretty uncommon situation to find yourself in."
One of the movie's major revampings involves new wheels for Batman. "Oh, the Batmobile," Nolan laughs. "Frankly, the best part about it was sitting down with my designer, slapping model kits together in the garage and coming up with this thing. We then handed it over to the engineers, and within four months, they built five of them. The new Batmobiles could do everything we asked of them. That in itself was amazing, and the Batmobiles were a pleasure from start to finish. They never broke down. I figured my biggest problem on the film would be dealing with the technical issues that come with these kinds of vehicles, but they were incredible. The guys who made them did an awesome job - and they built them from scratch, too."
What drove Nolan batty were the flying rodents who follow this Dark Knight everywhere. "Bats are a complete nightmare," he groans. "They're extremely difficult to train, and they can only do basic tricks. We had to [digitally] multiply them into thousands and thousands of bats, but I was determined to get some hero bats on screen, so the visual effects crew could see the reality we were holding them to. But animals are tough to work with, particularly bats, because they aren't eminently trainable. Surprisingly, they're delightful creatures and actually rather cute. One of the biggest problems with the bats was their faces were a bit too cute!"
As overcoming fear is one of Batman Begins' primary primal themes, selecting the Scarecrow as a villain seemed an appropriate call. "One thing we did to bring the Scarecrow to life was cast a tremendous young actor, Cillian Murphy," Nolan says. "He brings such a chilling reality to Dr. Crane, which allowed us to concentrate more on Crane's character instead of the Scarecrow. We could focus on the nature of his position in the story. Cillian lends an extraordinarily frightening level of credibili ty to Crane that gave us a great basis to craft a character like the Scarecrow."
With all the restyling and reshaping going into Batman Begins, Nolan may have
thought about ditching the previous movies' cowl and black Bat-costume and going
back to the blue-and-grey suit of the comics. But that wasn't the case. "I
wasn't tempted col-orwise, because I think black is a logical color for him
to wear, and we were trying to find the logic in the story," Nolan says.
"Batman wears black for stealth reasons. However, we did look at the comics
and how the costume has appeared throughout history. We then tried to process
the most successful and sustained features and took our interpretation from
that.
"Batman Begins isn't intended to be a radical approach; it's more about
trying to create certain things on film that worked well in the comics and graphic
novels. If you look at the way comics used to be printed, there was a certain
ambiguity as to whether Batman's suit was blue or black; it depended on the
four-color printing. Dick Grayson's hair appears blue at certain points in the
comics, but you have to interpret it as black. That suggests a certain shading
in Batman's costume. We found all kinds of interesting history."
One wonders if DC or Warner Bros, ever stepped in to say "Batman wouldn't do that." "Not as such, but not because they wouldn't have," Nolan laughs. "They didn't do it because we went to the DC guys early on and told them what we were gonna do with the story. We really tried to include them in our process, because we weren't setting out to re-invent the character; we simply planned to reinvent the movie franchise. We wanted to tell a different story in a different way, but we tried as hard as possible to be faithful to the mythology."
That included re-creating the memorable £ mythic moment where Dr. and Mrs. Wayne 8 are shot to death in front of eight-year-old Bruce as the family returns home from a movie. "The Crime Alley murders are different, in terms of tone, from the way it has been seen previously," Nolan says. "We achieved that by trying to do things unlike other Batman movies and media. What we did is cast great actors, found a fantastic location and staged the deaths of Bruce's parents as a real scene. We wanted to invest it with all the horror, drama and terrifying qualities that such an event would have in real life. The way we portray it is very, very simple. It's actually the way I would shoot that sort of scene in any movie. It's haunting, and it arises from a process of sincerity. We portray it from a child's point-of-view, in the most compelling and realistic manner. "That's the approach we took, and although we didn't come at it from the point-of-view of [comic book] iconography but reality, the irony is when you sit down, edit the scene, score it and throw it up on the big screen, you look at it and go, 'It does present certain iconographic images, by virtue of them arising naturally from the drama of the scene.' That's a testament to the power of the comic book artists who have drawn Batman over the years. They knew what they were doing, even though the tableau is drawn from their imagination instead of what it would really feel like."
Dark Musings
While the London-born Nolan has only made four feature films, he has already established himself as a gifted director. "I don't really know what got me into filmmaking," he admits. "I just started doing it as a kid, and I've always done it. My older brother Jonathan [who wrote the short story upon which Memento was based] and I would make these 8mm epic war movies with our little action figures. That was the start of it, I carried on and the films got bigger...and hopefully better and better."
He was also a follower of a certain pointy-eared crimefighter. "As a little boy, I was a huge Batman fan from the Adam West TV show," Nolan says. "Growing up in later years, I got into the comics and graphic novels, but I wouldn't describe myself as a particularly knowledgeable, avid fan - certainly not compared to the people I've met and collaborated with on this project. However, I've always loved the character and his story, and I'm a big fan of Batman: The Long Halloween. That was a big influence on this film.
"In regard to the movie's overall tone, I was comfortable dealing with Batman on this level because - even though he's a dark character and you could make an R-rated movie - what's interesting is that [his intentions] are positive and admirable. That's what distinguishes Batman from a Charles Bronson-like vigilante. He isn't the Punisher; he's something very different. Many of the films I admired as a kid in the '70s were like that, and I felt it had been a long time since I had seen one of those, so I really wanted to make my own."
Searching for the right attitude and style for his Gotham City, the director turned to a SF classic for inspiration. "I screened Blade Runner for the D.P. [Wally Pfister] and a couple of other people," Nolan explains. "I was actually showing it for a series that [director] Curtis Hanson runs at UCLA. He has filmmakers present movies that have influenced them, and I screened an original print of Blade Runner. It was good fun."
Asked how Blade Runner helped shape Batman Begins, Nolan smiles and responds: "Well, Rutger Hauer is in the film! For me, Blade Runner has influenced everything that I think about and do in the cinema. That picture made a profound impression on me as a teenager, and it has stuck with me ever since. To see it again on the big screen, in its original form, was quite exciting.
"What Blade Runner does so marvelous-ly is create this entire world where you lose yourself for a couple of hours. And I believe the biggest films, the blockbusters, should do just that. Blade Runner is an interesting lesson on the technique of exploring and describing a credible universe that doesn't appear to have any boundaries. That's what we're trying to do with Batman Begins; our Gotham City feels as big as the real world. Part of how we achieved that was by setting the story within the story outside of Gotham. We look at it from the outside in and see Gotham on a global stage-like a contemporary New York."
Most comics readers view Superman's Metropolis as a romanticized New York and Batman's Gotham as the seedier end of Chicago. "Paul Levitz [publisher] at DC Comics has a great quote on the differences between Metropolis and Gotham. He says Metropolis is New York above a certain street, and Gotham is New York below that!" Nolan chuckles. "Gotham takes in Soho and those areas, but I've always seen Batman's city as New York on steroids, which is how we portray it in the film.
"I desired a world that wasn't stylized and overly fanciful because I didn't want to compete with [production designer] Anton Furst's wonderful work in the 1989 Batman. Talking about a film like Blade Runner would suggest that kind of approach, but that isn't what we've done. I was aiming to create a recognizable world with believable textures, so that Batman stands out against the environment and is as extraordinary to its inhabitants as he is to the audience."
Knight Memories
In previous Batman movies, the dullest parts involved Bruce Wayne, but Batman Begins changes that trend. "It's only logical that Bruce is more interesting in this picture," Nolan offers, "because we're seeing him become Batman. We aren't watching a simple separation of personalities; we're actually seeing Bruce evolve into the figure who's at the center of this mythology. That naturally puts the focus on to Bruce and sparks an interest from the audience, because we're witnessing his emotional turmoil and inner issues that lead to [the creation of Batman]. Beyond that, Bruce is a conduit or surrogate for ourselves. We get to experience the idea of becoming this character, which is pretty exciting."
Liam Neeson plays Henri Ducard, a character based on the comic book hitman who trained Bruce how to hunt. "It will make more sense when you see the film," Nolan promises. "We were looking for a strong, calm mentor figure in Bruce's life, as well as someone he could encounter in the exotic reaches of the world. Ducard fit the bill, but I wouldn't say this is a particularly accurate representation of the comics character.
"The Ducard of the comics is obscure and not particularly fleshed out. We felt free to create our own thing, with the name as our jumping-off point. Ducard's relationship with the law is ambiguous at best, and he serves as an attractive mentor figure for Bruce at a time when Bruce is lost and searching to [channel] the things inside which are driving him. I don't see Ducard as a bad guy."
Asked to draw a throughline between Memento, Insomnia and Batman Begins, Nolan admits, "I'm sort of beginning to be able to do that. I don't consciously try to relate my movies, but toward the end of each one, I start talking about what interested me in it and realize these connections [to my other projects]. I'll put it this way: With every film, I'm trying to answer certain questions for myself but, at the same time, I'm trying to ask interesting questions. And when I do that, then I'm left with something to carry on and explore in my next picture. Batman Begins' relationship to Insomnia [is that both are] concerned about the tension between pragmatism vs. idealism. When does the end justify the means? I think that's the true essence of Batman. He wonders how far it is permissible to go and still be on the side of the angels."
Batman Begins is the first Nolan film to spawn toys, video games and other memorabilia. Actually, Memento may have had a souvenir or two, but for some reason Nolan can't remember. "You didn't get that Robin Williams figure from InsomniaT' he jokes. "Mattel sent me their Batmobile the other day, and it's awesome! I played with it in my office and thought it was great fun - especially from the point-of-view that it's a toy from our film."
Unlike Bale, Nolan isn't signed up for three Batmans. "It doesn't quite work that way with directors," he notes. "You do the movie and see what happens." And if Nolan does shoot a sequel, fans shouldn't hold their breath waiting for the Boy Wonder. "The interesting thing about Robin is, when he first appeared in comics, it was back in the day when the apprentice system was alive and well. The idea of a young male assistant was familiar to society as a whole and a common feature of that pop culture world. But now, it's out of step. It would be difficult to do Robin today and have people relate to it, because the world has changed. It's not something I know how to pull off!"
Although Christopher Nolan can't wait for Batman to begin, he's even more excited about his next project with his producer-wife Emma Thomas. "We're about to have a baby," he says proudly. "It's our third child. We have one boy, Rory, and one girl, Flora, and we're all really looking forward to the baby!"