Batman Begins

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Batman Begins' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Batman Begins completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 15 June 05.

Overall comments and recommendations

Batman Begins is an action, fantasy film specifically tailored for older teenagers and younger adult males. It is not recommended for children under the age of 15, as it contains frequent and brutal violence, horror scenes, adult themes, drug references and some mild sexual innuendo. In terms of adult viewing Batman Begins is a very good movie, with good visual effects and fine acting performances. The film steers away from the normal Batman comic book genre and contains far more realism with Gotham City represented as a crime infested, drug ridden ghetto. The first fifty minutes of the film is devoted to telling the story of how Bruce Wayne develops his Batman persona, which provides adult viewers with a more realistic and believable character.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Batman Begins contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Eight year old Bruce Wayne, while playing on grounds of Wayne Manor, falls through a disused well and is attacked by a large flock of bats, as a result being left with a fear of bats. A number of years later, Bruce (Christian Bale) is an inmate in a prison somewhere in Asia .. The mysterious Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) aids Bruce's release from prison, and trains Bruce in the ways of the League of Shadows, an age-old secret society that fights corruption and evil. At the end of his training, Bruce has a falling out with Ducard and returns home to Gotham City .

Once home, Bruce finds that crime boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) is in control of Gotham City , which is now full of crime and corruption. To fight the criminal element of Gotham , and with the support of Alfred (Michael Caine), and Wayne Enterprises' Applied Science division run by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Bruce acquires all the equipment necessary to transform into his Batman persona, a terrifying batlike creature able to strike out of shadows and vanish without a trace.

Batman learns that there is an even greater evil at large than Falcone. Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) uses a fear-inducing psychotropic drug to make his victims see him as a terrifying Scarecrow, resulting in permanent brain damage and psychotic behaviour. Crane/ The Scarecrow is backed by Ducard and the League of Shadows, who have been supplying Crane with the fear inducing drug. Batman and his ally Detective Gordon (Gary Oldman) join forces to defend the population of Gotham City against their evil plans.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

Batman Begins contains many scenes of brutal physical and psychological violence, and fear is used as a major weapon. Violent scenes include:

• martial arts style fighting, including punches and kicks to the head and stomach
• street style fighting, that is brutal, vicious and dirty)
• sword fights
• automatic weapons being fired at Batman
• Bruce's parents being shot at point blank range while a young Bruce looks on
• a courtroom assassination
• an older Bruce being held by thugs and punched in the face
• Batman being doused with petrol and then set on fire
• the Scarecrow using a fear inducing drug to terrorise both men and women
• Batman punching and kicking numerous villains
• Batman using a fear inducing drug to terrorise the Scarecrow
• Detective Gordon firing missiles from the Batmobile to blow up a monorail.

The violence presented in Batman Begins is more disturbing than any other Batman film as the violence is presented a realistic manner rather than comic book style. Both good and evil characters use physical and psychological violence to intimidate and control those who oppose them. Batman's use of vigilante violence was glamourised, and portrayed as successful, justifiable and acceptable.

Most of the fight scenes in the movie are represented as a whirl of movement leaving the viewer with an impression of what happens rather than actually seeing it. The fight scenes still give the appearance of being very violent and brutal, and Batman's victims demonstrate a genuine fear of Batman's wrath.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned scenes, there are many scenes that could scare or disturb younger children. Two scenes of Bruce as a young boy could be particularly distressing:

• Bruce being attacked by bats, and the obvious terror he suffers
• witnessing the murder of his parents.

Visual images that could disturb children under the age of eight include:

• the Scarecrow character itself
• Scarecrow's face riddled with maggots
• Bats crawling out of the Scarecrows mouth
• a skeleton faced policeman
• a horse with demonic eyes that breathes fire
• Batman transforming into a very scary, dark, demon like creature with a scary demonic voice
• Many of the bad-guy/evil characters have a very mean, intimidating appearance, which young children may find threatening and scary.

Other scenes of concern are:

• thousands of bats attack Gotham 's police force.
• The manner in which Batman attacks his victims is specifically designed to create terror. He drops out of nowhere, wraps his victims in his wings and then disappears back up into the sky, all in the blink of an eye (reminiscent of the manner in which the alien creatures attacked their victims in the film Aliens).
• loud explosions and gunfire
• car chases where numerous cars are destroyed and a mono-train derailed

Aged eight to fifteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

The violence and violent visual images in Batman Begins are presented in a very realistic manner and setting, and are still capable of scaring or disturbing children aged eight to fifteen.

Over the age of fifteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Some older adolescents could still be disturbed by the horror-like images presented in Batman Begins . It is recommended that parents consider the film's contents and carefully assess their own teenager's ability to cope with it.

Sexual references

There are no explicit sexual references, although there is some mild sexual innuendo, including the implication that Bruce Wayne is a playboy, accompanied by beautiful, provocatively dressed playgirls.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity.

Use of substances

The movie contains some use of substances, including:

• Bruce holds a birthday party for himself at Wayne manor. He pretends to be intoxicated and abuses his guests referring to them in terms such as “sycophantic suck ups”.
• Bruce see distorted images as a result of breathing in the smoke of a hallucinogenic drug
• In a number of other scenes, the Scarecrow blows a hallucinogenic drug into the faces of his victims causing them to become psychotic and see horror like images.
• While the film contained no scenes involving the consumption of illicit drugs, there were several scenes where reference was made to Gotham 's population being dependent on illicit drugs and scenes where large quantities of illicit drugs, packets of white powder, were being smuggled into Gotham .

Coarse language

There is mild and occasional use of coarse language, including 'what the hell' and 'bloody'.

The movie's message

Batman Begins is about the struggle of a sole vigilante against injustice and corruption. Batman struggles with his ideals, his own anger and uses fear to fight his own fear.

Parents of teenagers who view this film may wish to discuss the portrayal of violence as an acceptable method to fight injustice and corruption, and what the real life consequences can be of vigilante justice.