He’s certainly one of the best-known heroes of the 20th and 21st century: the only creature rising from the darkness whose purpose is not evil and whose soul is 200% human.
Bob Kane had to come up with a character charismatic enough to compete with Superman and whose charisma would match Zorro’s and The Phantom’s: no need to say challenging enough!
That’s when Batman was born in 1939: a cape and a mask, but instead of drawing on the roots of Spanish cavalry and riding a horse, Bruce Wayne was drawing on a force of nature and driving a machine that looked a lot like a rocket. What could be more alert, sensitive and dark than bats? So silent that the noise of their wings perfectly fades away in the wind and so sensitive that they would perceive danger miles away. Couple that with a successful business entrepreneur that would set the idealistic image of the ‘career-accomplished’ 1940’s American businessman and the result is simple: Batman.
The dream of the double-sided identity was certainly not a new one: from Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde, the myth of the Ware wolf, to Count Dracula. But for the first time, Batman, was devoted to restoring peace and to accomplish ‘something good’ to the point of meticulous control and calibre of his two identities. The animal side would be a highly inspirational one, rather than an uncontrollable propelling force that would take over the human side. No unusual DNA code would be mixed with that of a bat, but rather the adoption of the costume would be to Batman the beginning of an inward journey aimed at dealing with his personal fears and channelling that energy towards positive actions and the rescue of a trashed city best described by its gothic architecture; a city inspired by a Manhattan that we are hoping never to see.
Reflecting on the years of darkness the society was going through in the late '30s, even though on a different type of darkness, the birth of the Batman must have come as the result of a demand for hope and belief.
The fictional character that inspired TV shows, movie directors, designers has come back with the latest Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” . I still remember the first Tim Burton’s blockbuster: a gothic movie where the setting had become a canvas of blacks, purples, reds: contrasting colors and characters, few dialogs, a captivating soundtrack. A more shy Bruce Wayne where the tinier figure of Michael Keaton seemed to contrast his inner force even more and made him appear a lot stronger. A Jack Nicholson trashing a museum only for the sake of it to the sound of a very sensual "Cream" by Prince and a Kim Basinger whose inexpression would become acceptable only because of her captivating and enlighting beauty.
A fictional character that would grow through endorsements by Val Kilmer, Clooney to culminate with Bale. Batman would adopt looks to resemble the Comic book’s drawings more and more as the hero would become taller and stronger. Definitely a more impressive figure aesthetically, but a more vulnerable one that would allow the spectator inside the real life of Bruce Wayne and the true human condition of the Batman.
The latest one is a movie not to be missed, even though it offers suggestions for the end of the Bruce Wayne we know, but nevertheless for a birth of the Batman legacy.
Thank you Chris Nolan.
