Whenever an actor signs on to play the role of Batman, he is essentially taking on two separate roles: Batman and Bruce Wayne. But there’s normally a similar dynamic between the Caped Crusader and his billionaire alter ego. And while different actors have handled the dual roles in their own ways over the years, Christian Bale’s portrayal offers a dichotomy that most other iterations simply do not. The Dark Knight trilogy is the golden standard for superhero movies, but a closer inspection shows that Bale’s Batman was kind of a lousy superhero. The reason for that, however, might be that he was the best version of Bruce Wayne.
At the end of The Dark Knight, Christian Bale’s Batman took the fall for Harvey Dent so that Gotham could keep its “white knight.” On the surface, his decision allowed the Dent Act to put Gotham’s criminals away for years, but it would come back to bite him in The Dark Knight Rises. When the next film rolled around, it showed that Batman hadn’t just moved into the shadows to avoid heat from the GCPD, he had actually hung up his cowl with no intent of donning it ever again.
Sure, Batman did come back to save Gotham from Bane and Talia, but arguably, it was his fault that they were able to gain a foothold in the first place. While Batman’s actions in The Dark Knight worked for a short time, his retirement left a void in the city that Bane came to fill. And that’s even ignoring that Bane broke Batman’s back because he was out of practice and hadn’t done any real crime-fighting in eight years.
In the long run, it’s clear that Batman’s retirement caused more problems than it solved. But despite that, at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, he decides it would be a great idea to retire — again. He even had a confidant in Detective Blake that could have taken up his cowl, but he didn’t do anything to help “Robin” find his way. Essentially, Batman replicated his own failed example of walking away from his commitment, which makes him a bad hero.
That being said, however, Bale’s Batman deserves to be examined through the lens of Bruce. With most versions of Batman’s character, the hero is the focus, with Bruce only functioning as an alter ego. With Bale’s version, though, Bruce takes on a humanity that’s palpable, and that’s why his Batman cannot seem to focus on fighting crime with reckless abandon.
When looking at Batman’s actions, while acknowledging Bruce’s state of mind, everything is different. Batman had dedicated nearly a year of his life-fighting crime in Gotham when he decided to take the fall for Harvey Dent. He had put all of himself into his goal of saving Gotham, but now the city was simply going to cast him aside and hunt him, and while Detective Gordon said he “can take it,” the reality is that someone can only take being hunted before so long. There is also the important factor of Rachel’s death. She died at the end of The Dark Knight, and that kind of gets glossed over because of everything that happens with Harvey and the Joker.
In truth, Bruce was cast out by his city and had lost a loved one. The beginning of The Dark Knight Rises shows that he was lost, and that’s why he really hung up the cowl the first time. He wasn’t giving up on his fight, he was giving up on his own, personal ability to keep fighting. That is also what makes Bruce’s second retirement more meaningful. He left his sadness behind him, realized his faults and moved on. It’s something that almost no other version of Bruce Wayne has done — put his own wellbeing above Batman.
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