Christian Bale Suits Up for the First Time in Batman Begins

When The Dark Knight came out in 2008, one of the reasons I was interested in it despite the violence the trailers portended was that I’d seen part of Batman Begins and liked it. This month, I watched the first movie in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and realized just how little of it I’d actually seen. Nonetheless, I did find it an enjoyable movie, much more so than the second.

Batman Begins is like The Dark Knight Rises in that it spends a lot of time getting into the head of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale). While the focus of The Dark Knight is a bit different, these two movies make natural bookends. We see several flashbacks to Bruce’s childhood, during which he is tormented with anxiety over the bats that live in a cave on the grounds of Wayne Manor. This terror ultimately has deadly consequences, leading him to revisit it as an adult and use it to face more monstrous villains, including an unlikely but terrifying foe who preys on people’s deepest fears.

Batman is a dark superhero forged through tragedy, and we see a lot of that brooding angst here. However, we also see the strength of his moral principles, which were instilled in him by his parents. While he struggles with a desire for revenge, his refusal to become a bloodthirsty vigilante plays an important role in his development, particularly in regard to Ducard (Liam Neeson), the martial arts master from whom he receives extensive training during a lengthy absence from Gotham City.

The movie is very action-packed, with numerous explosions and altercations, but it also has quieter moments and bits of humor sprinkled throughout as welcome seasoning. Michael Caine is magnificent as his faithful butler Alfred, a father figure and devoted friend with a wry sense of humor, and Morgan Freeman is similarly enjoyable as inventor Lucius Fox, who provides Batman with all of his nifty gadgets. Meanwhile, Gary Oldman brings dignity and warmth to the role of kindhearted Jim Gordon, one of the few cops in Gotham City who is truly concerned about justice.

The screenplay by Nolan and David S. Goyer does a great job of establishing the complexities of Bruce’s motivation and the darkness of the city he aims to protect. The scenes in his childhood and early adulthood are particularly effective at making him sympathetic despite his aloof manner and tendency toward darkness. As childhood pal Rachel Dawes, Katie Holmes helps drive home the distinction between his noble aims and his sometimes excessive methods.

While I’m much more of a Superman fan, Nolan and these talented actors are very effective in bringing a unique vision of this iconic character to the big screen.

You're Never Too Young to Be Old in Howl's Moving Castle

This fall, I’ve been enjoying the Disney releases of some of master Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. They’re very unusual, rich in artistry and imagination and full of surrealistic images. One of the weirder ones is Howl’s Moving Castle, originally released in 2004.

Sophie (Emily Mortimer) is a young woman who works at a haberdashery. One day, she runs afoul of the Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall), a woman of monstrous girth who puts a curse on her. Sophie soon realizes that she has instantly aged about 60 years. Instead of young and slim, she is elderly and stooped, and she can’t stay at home in this condition. So it is that Sophie, now looking like an old crone (Jean Simmons), makes for the countryside and eventually seeks refuge inside Howl’s Moving Castle.

Howl (Christian Bale) is a mysterious sorcerer who comes and goes at will. He’s mildly intimidating but mostly kind, and he is happy to welcome Sophie into his home as a housekeeper. His household also includes a cheeky but sweet boy named Markl (Josh Hutcherson) and a wise-cracking fire demon named Calcifer (Billy Crystal) who could be the key to restoring Sophie to her former self.

In her travels she also meets a scarecrow with an enormous smile pasted on his face. Although this cursed fellow who she dubs Turniphead is mute and can only get around by hopping, using the post on which he is stuck as a pogo stick, he proves a valuable ally after she earns his loyalty by saving him from a compromising situation. She also comes into contact with the Witch of the Waste again, and how these two continue to relate to one another is one of the oddest but most touching elements of the movie.

Much of the movie takes place inside Howl’s castle, which wanders over the countryside on mechanical legs and features a magical device that allows its door to open upon one of several terrains, depending on which way the dial is pointed. One of the landscapes added into the mix is a glorious meadow, and there are a couple of idyllic moments in which Sophie sits placidly by a lake, so relaxed that the years seem to drop off her.

In these scenes, we see Miyazaki’s love of nature, but overall, that’s not a huge focus here. The movie does not feature as much cold industrialism as Castle in the Sky, but it does seem to encroach, and some scenes are pretty dark. Additionally, there’s at least one subplot that doesn’t quite seem to fit in. The movie is two hours long, and I wonder if he wasn’t cramming a bit too much into it.

On the whole, however, this is an enjoyable movie populated with fantastical characters and celebrating the power of love. It’s also an interesting commentary on the perspective that old age grants; though Sophie is barely an adult at heart, the wisdom she develops as a result of her curse is most beneficial. Themes of redemption and sacrifice also run strong. Meanwhile, Crystal’s excellent voice work helps to keep the movie light-hearted, as most of Calcifer’s interjections are good for a laugh.

While I didn’t like it quite as much My Neighbor Totoro, I think I prefer to Castle in the Sky and would probably put it at about the same enjoyment level as Ponyo. It’s a strange and surreal movie; you’ll have to accept the magical qualities of this world going into it. If you can roll with the strangeness, however, you may just find Howl’s Moving Castle a moving film experience.