Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is the fifth addition to six very successful Batman films. Released 16th June 2005, U.S and produced by Emma Thomas, Larry J. Franco and Charles Roven. It is an action crime film in which billionaire Bruce Wayne sees his parents murdered before his eyes at a young age and seeks revenge on their killer. In the process he creates Batman and uses his fear of bats to fight crime and prevent Gotham city from being destroyed.
Batman Begins is a non-linear film as it contains flashbacks in order to explain the story. For example there is a flashback at the beginning of the film where Bruce is a child playing with Rachel Dawes in the Wayne Manor garden. Bruce falls down a well and fractures his arm when a swarm of bats emerging from a large gaping crack at the well base and start attacking him. This is where Bruce gets his fear of bats from and where his idea of the batman develops from.
Batman Begins can be applied to a few of the narrative theorists such as Roland Barthes and Christopher Vogler. However it mainly fits into Vladimir Propp's 'The morphology of the folk tale' as Batman Begins is mainly about one character, Bruce. There are eight parts to Propp's theory and I believe Batman Begins fits most of them.
1.The villain, in this case Scarecrow is trying to destroy Gotham city by polluting the water system with a strong hallucinogenic substance which creates the users worst nightmare. 2.The donor is Henri Ducard who trains Bruce to return to Gotham city and fight crime, however he plays a double role, he is also the main man behind destroying Gotham city. 3.The Helper is Alfred, Bruce's butler and right hand man.
4.The princess is Rachel Dawes, Bruce's childhood sweetheart who's life get put in danger when she is gassed with the hallucinogenic and Batman manages to save her and keep his identity.
5.The dispatcher is also Henri Ducard as he trains Bruce to go back and fight crime in Gotham, he is also the false hero as he sets Bruce up when he sends him back to Gotham to fight crime when it is actually Ducard himself who is behind scarecrow and the destruction of Gotham.
6. The hero is Bruce Wayne/batman. At first his motive, revenge, is wrong but he adopts the role of protector of Gotham and turns into the person Alfred wanted Bruce to originally be and sets the scene for the later films.
The whole Batman series is very heavily branded and dependent on iconography, not just in setting the scene of the film but also in successful promotion of merchandising. It is also clearly a hybrid film embracing action, crime, Si-fi and martial arts. Batman Begins is an action crime and certain things define this such as the characters. The main character is Bruce Wayne who becomes Batman. He is shown as a fit man capable of action, he goes to Asia to train in martial arts in order to go back to Gotham city and fight crime. The locations in Batman Begins also define the genre of a film, in this case one of the main settings in Batman Begins and all of the Batman films is Gotham city. Gotham city Is riddled with slums, poverty and crime, it is shot using dark colours and the streets are narrow which conveys evil and crime. This makes it ideal location for Batman to try and save it and become a hero.
In conclusion I believe that the director, Christopher Nolan produced and extremely good action crime movie.
