Thomas Wayne
Ever since I was a child, Batman was my favorite superhero. As a young girl, I used to watch re-runs of the corny Batman show starring Adam West after school. I especially loved when Batman would fight the villains and the words, "Bam" and "Pow" would appear on the screen. I also loved when the announcer would say at the end of each show, "Same bat time, same bat channel."
Back then, I did not know anything about Bruce Wayne's past, that his parents were murdered and he was raised by the butler, Alfred. When I saw the Batman movie starring Michael Keaton, they show his parents being murdered at the beginning of the film. I then felt an even stronger affinity towards Batman. I've always had a soft spot for kids who lose their parents at a young age considering I have two loving parents that I wouldn't know how I would have grown up without.
What I love about Batman Begins, the first in the latest series of movies directed by Christopher Nolan, is that it goes into detail about how and why Bruce Wayne becomes Batman after his parents are murdered. Lucky for Bruce Wayne, after his parents are murdered, he had a lot of people who cared about him and gave him advice like a parent would including Alfred and his childhood friend Rachel Dawes.
After Bruce Wayne watched his parents get shot and killed, he felt guilty considering the reason they left the opera early was because he was scared when something in the opera reminded him of bats. At some point, as he puts it, his anger outweighs his guilt. He grapples with the idea of taking revenge on his parents' killer, but before he can, the killer is murdered. When Bruce Wayne tells Rachel Dawes that he wants to kill the murderer, her response is, "You're not talking about justice, you're talking about revenge."
Bruce then travels all over the world seeking the means to fight injustice. He is recruited by Ra Al Ghul , from the League of Shadows, who becomes his mentor. The League of Shadows is a vigilante group who performs their own version of justice when criminals are let free by the government. Bruce Wayne's mentor teaches him how to fight. He also teaches Bruce about the philosophy of the organization, which is criminals should be shown no mercy, because if they are, they will just continue to commit crimes. Eventually the League of Shadows asks Bruce to execute a criminal, but he refuses, remembering what Rachel said about revenge.
Rachel's also gives Bruce more advice when it comes to Gotham and he follows her advice. After Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered, the city of Gotham becomes under the control of a very powerful crime boss. The Gotham citizens who benefit financially under his rule refuse to stop him, while the poor are too powerless to stop him. Rachel tells Bruce Gotham doesn't have a chance if good people do nothing and its not enough to just be a good person underneath. but it's what you do that defines you.
Batman Begins also explains why Bruce Wayne chose to fight crime in a disguise. He chose to dress in a disguise because as he tells Alfred, "As a symbol, I can be incorruptible and everlasting." The obvious, next question would be why choose to dress as a bat. He specifically chooses a bat because "bats frighten him and it's time his enemies feel his dread." Also, Ra Al Ghul told Bruce, "He fears his anger and that in order to conquer fear he must become fear." Considering bats are Bruce's biggest fear, it makes sense he would choose to dress as one.
Batman Begins is very layered and could be seen through a variety of criticisms we learned this semester. It could be seen through a feminist lens considering Rachel's advice seems to dictate what Bruce Wayne does through the entire movie, which begs the question who is the real hero in the movie. The film could also be seen through a Marxist lens considering Gotham is divided into the powerful, rich, corrupt class and the poor class powerless to stop them. One could also do a formalism critique and analyze how the movie's scenes are structured to show how Bruce Wayne's past affects his present.
What I took away from Batman Begins, is that Bruce Wayne took the tragedy of watching his parents get mudered as a child and turned it into a positive. The quote from above that Bruce's father told him as a child really brings that message home. He could have wasted his parents' money by partying, but instead he used it to bring justice to the people of Gotham. He wasn't going to let anyone bring down the city he loved and more importantly the city his father built.
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