Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a four-issue comic book limited series comprising The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Triumphant, Hunt The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Falls, written and drawn by Frank Miller, originally published by DC Comics under the title Batman: The Dark Knight in 1986. When the issues were released in a collected edition later that year, the story title for the first issue was applied to the series as a whole. The Dark Knight Returns tells the story of a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne who comes out of retirement to fight crime, only to face opposition from the Gotham City police force and the United States government.

A sequel (made again by Miller), The Dark Knight Strikes Again, was published in 2001.

Plot[link]

The Dark Knight Returns is set in a dystopian near-future version of Gotham City. A year is never specified, though it has been a full decade since the last reported sighting of Batman, the current American President appears to be Ronald Reagan or someone using his image, and the Cold War is still ongoing. Virtually all superheroes, with the exception of Superman, have been forced into retirement or otherwise driven away by a distrusting populace. Bruce Wayne has voluntarily retired from crime fighting following the death (under unspecified circumstances^[1]) of Jason Todd, the second Robin. In the absence of superheroes, criminals run amok, and a gang called the Mutants terrorizes Gotham City.

The return of an old enemy prompts a now 55-year-old Wayne to don the Batman costume once again. Despite Wayne's funding his rehabilitation, including plastic surgery to restore his half-disfigured face, Harvey "Two-Face" Dent has seemingly returned to crime. Batman apprehends Dent, but the populace debates whether Batman's brand of vigilantism has any place in society. The media plays a large role in DKR, with the narrative broken up by news reports and "talking head" editorials debating events in the story as they unfold.

After Batman saves her from a Mutant attack, 13-year-old Carrie Kelley buys herself a knock-off Robin costume, and searches for Batman to aid him. She finds Batman at the city dump, where he is fighting the Mutants. The Mutants' leader defeats Batman in combat, but Kelley distracts him long enough for Batman to pacify him and Kelley pulls Batman into the tank-like Batmobile. Kelley attends to Batman’s wounds as the vehicle drives toward the Batcave. Once home, Batman takes Carrie on as the new Robin despite the objections of his butler, Alfred. With the help of retiring Commissioner James Gordon, the Mutants' leader is allowed to escape from jail, and Batman beats him in a mud fight in front of the assembled gang. The Mutants disband as a result of his humiliation, forming several smaller gangs, one of which, the "Sons of the Batman," uses extremely violent methods (up to and including murder) to "purge" Gotham of its criminal element in what they see as emulation of Batman's methods.

Meanwhile, the return of Batman causes his oldest and deadliest foe, The Joker, to awaken from a years-long catatonic state at Arkham Asylum. The Joker convinces his psychiatrist, Dr. Bartholomew Wolper, that he is sane and regrets his misdeeds. Seeking to discredit Batman, whom he has crusaded against in the media, Wolper appears with the Joker on a late-night talk show. While the police, now led by the anti-vigilante Commissioner Ellen Yindel, attack Batman, the Joker murders everyone in the television studio (including Wolper) and escapes. He finds Selina Kyle, and after finding out what he wants from her gags her, beats her, dresses her in a Wonder Woman costume, and binds her with a gold-covered rope. Batman and Robin free her, and track the Joker to a county fair, where he has already murdered many people. Batman defeats Joker in a violent showdown but stops short of killing him; however, the Joker twists his own broken neck, seemingly with the intent that the police will charge Batman with murder. Batman escapes, but not before another confrontation with the Gotham police, and a citywide manhunt is now on for the Caped Crusader.

After Superman diverts a Russian nuclear warhead which then detonates in a desert, Gotham is hit by an electromagnetic pulse, and descends into chaos during the resulting blackout. Batman and Robin train former Mutants and the brutal Sons of the Batman in non-lethal fighting to stop looting and ensure the flow of needed supplies. In the midst of nuclear winter conditions, Gotham becomes the safest city in America; the U.S. government, seeing this as a credibility-undermining embarrassment, orders Superman to take Batman down. Having been warned of the government's plans by Oliver Queen, the former Green Arrow, Batman confronts Superman. Symbolically, their duel takes place in Crime Alley, where Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered decades earlier. Batman defeats Superman (with the help of Green Arrow and a kryptonite-tipped arrow), but dies from a heart attack immediately afterward. Alfred destroys the Batcave and Wayne Manor and suffers a fatal stroke.

After Bruce's funeral, it is revealed that his death was staged as an elaborate ruse; Clark Kent (Superman) attends the funeral and gives Robin a knowing wink after hearing Bruce's heartbeat as he leaves the grave site, suggesting his silent approval of what will happen next. Some time afterward, Batman leads Robin, Green Arrow, and the rest of his followers into the caverns beyond the Batcave and prepares to continue his fight. His plan, which will take years of training and studying, is to build an army, and to bring sense to a world plagued by something "worse than thieves and murderers". He decides that this will be a "good life – good enough."

Characters[link]

• Batman: Bruce Wayne, 55, gave up the Batman identity ten years prior to the beginning of the story. When he sees violence running rampant and his personal demons can no longer be denied, he is forced to return.
• Alfred Pennyworth: Wayne's trusty butler, medic, and confidant, now in his eighties.
• Carrie Kelly/Robin: A 13-year-old girl who becomes Batman's newest sidekick. During the creation of the series, fellow comics writer/artist John Byrne told Miller "Robin must be a girl", and Miller complied. Comics historian Les Daniels commented, "In retrospect the imperative seems less than inevitable, perhaps no more than trendy gender bending or possibly just a response to the homophobia inspired by Fredric Wertham more than thirty years earlier."^[2]
• James Gordon: The Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department for 26 years – a police officer for 50 years – who finally retires on his 70th birthday. He is aware of the dual identity of Batman and is supportive of the Caped Crusader.
• Two-Face: Now middle-aged, Harvey Dent's face has been repaired with plastic surgery and his doctor gives him a clean bill of mental health. He is still Two-Face in his mind, and terrorizes the city with his face swathed in bandages.
• The Joker: Batman's archenemy, who awakens from a catatonic state upon learning of Batman's re-emergence. Joker's obsession with Batman is stretched to the extreme, bordering on obsessive attraction (when Batman returns to the spotlight, Joker's first word out of catatonia is "Darling..."). His brutal return to crime sets in motion a final confrontation with Batman.
• The Mutant Leader, head of the Mutants. He is a strong, savage brute who puts a hit on Gordon, brutally beats Batman in their first encounter, goes to jail, kills the Mayor (while still in jail), escapes, and is beaten by Batman.
• Dr. Bartholomew Wolper, Two-Face and the Joker's psychiatrist and staunch opponent of Batman's "fascist" vigilantism. Wolper is convinced that the Joker and Two-Face are both really the victims of Batman's crusades – claiming that Batman drives them to become criminals by assuming an ideological image that they feel compelled to counter – but his attempts to treat Two-Face meet with failure, and he ends up murdered by the Joker along with the entire audience of a late night talk show when he is manipulated into bringing the Joker out in public as an example of Batman's 'victims'.
• Ellen Yindel, James Gordon's successor as Commissioner. A captain in the Gotham City Police Department, she starts off as Batman's fiercest critic, but doubts herself after the Joker debacle (part 3, see plot above) and comes to terms with his involvement, realizing that he is 'too big' for her to judge.
• Green Arrow, aka Oliver Queen. After the outlawing of all superheroes, he undertakes a clandestine career of rebellion against government oppression, including the sinking of a nuclear submarine. He lost his left arm years ago and blames Superman for that. He is still a formidable marksman, using his teeth to grip the nocks of his arrows.
• Superman, aka Clark Kent, is now simply a pawn for the US government. His internal monologues show that he detests having to be a government weapon but sees it as the only way to be able to do some good.
• Selina Kyle: No longer Catwoman, the aged Kyle is now a madame running an escort business.

Background and creation[link]

In the early 1980s, DC Comics promoted Dick Giordano from his position as Batman group editor to editorial director for the company.^[3] In Giordano's words, his chief contribution in this position was "getting people to work for DC who could do the work a little better". This resulted in the recruitment of writer-artist Frank Miller to create The Dark Knight Returns. Giordano said he worked on the story's plot with Miller, he commented, "The version that was finally done was about his fourth or fifth draft. The basic storyline was the same but there were a lot of detours along the way."^[4]

Giordano dropped out of the project halfway through due to disagreements over production deadlines. Giordano said, "Frank wanted to take the time that was needed to get the job done". Comics historian Les Daniels comments that Miller's idea of ignoring deadlines was "the culmination of the quest towards artistic independence". DC published the issues of The Dark Knight Returns in packaging that included extra pages, square binding, and glossy paper to highlight the watercolor coloring by colorist Lynn Varley.^[5]

Miller has claimed in interviews that inspiration for the plot came from Dirty Harry, perhaps specifically the 1983 film Sudden Impact, which like DKR focuses on an older Dirty Harry returning to fight crime after a lengthy convalescence. Miller also cites his increasing age as a factor in the plot.^[6]

Reception[link]

Priced at $2.95 an issue, DC Comics promoted The Dark Knight Returns as a "thought-provoking action story". At the time, Time saw the series' depiction of a "semi-retired Batman [who] is unsure about his crime-fighting abilities" as an example of trying to appeal to "today's skeptical readers".^[7] Despite the then high cost of the single-issue packaging, The Dark Knight Returns sold well.^[5]

The New York Times gave the 1987 collected release of the series a negative review. Mordecai Richler felt that The Dark Knight Returns was not as imaginative as the work of Batman creator Bob Kane. Richler commented, "The stories are convoluted, difficult to follow and crammed with far too much text. The drawings offer a grotesquely muscle-bound Batman and Superman, not the lovable champions of old." He concluded, "If this book is meant for kids, I doubt that they will be pleased. If it is aimed at adults, they are not the sort I want to drink with."^[8]

IGN Comics ranked The Dark Knight Returns #2 on a list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels, second only to Batman: Year One,^[9] also written (though not drawn) by Miller. The website called The Dark Knight Returns "a true masterpiece of storytelling" with "scene after unforgettable scene."^[10]

In 2005, Time chose the collected four-issues as one of the 10 best English language graphic novels ever written.

In 2001 and 2002, DC Comics published The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller's sequel to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The sequel, which differs drastically in style from the original, received mixed reviews but was one of DC's biggest selling titles at the time.

Forbidden Planet placed the collected issue on top of their "50 Best Of The Best Graphic Novels" list.^[11]

In April 2010, Nicolas Layton from Comics Bulletin ranked The Dark Knight Returns 2nd in their Tuesday Top Ten feature's Top 10 Overrated Comic Books, just behind Watchmen. "There is no central plot to the comic, leaving only a forced fight scene between Superman and Batman as an out of place climax to the story." "Gone are the traits that define Batman," also citing "misuse of the central character."^[12]

Writer Matthew K. Manning in the "1980s" chapter of DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle (2010) calls the series "arguably the best Batman story of all time."^[13]

DC Multiverse[link]

In the current DC Multiverse, the events of The Dark Knight Returns and its associated titles are designated to occur on Earth-31.

In other media[link]

Television[link]

• An episode of The New Batman Adventures, entitled "Legends of the Dark Knight," depicted a scene directly based on both of Batman's showdowns with the Mutants' leader (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson). Michael Ironside, who provided the voice of Darkseid in the DC Animated Universe, lend the voice of The Dark Knight Returns version of Batman. It originally aired on October 10, 1998.

• A couple members of the Mutant gang were shown throwing snowballs at an elderly Beast Boy in a cage in the season 2 episode of Teen Titans, entitled "How Long Is Forever?".

• The Batman has used many inspirations. The name and personalities of one of the characters "Ellen Yin" is a clear nod to Ellen Yindel, Police Commissioner of Gotham City in Frank Miller's classic "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns." In "Artifacts", it is stated that Yin becomes the new Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department in the year 2027. Also in the season 4 episode "Artifacts", a thousand years into the possible future, the citizens of new Gotham must uncover the history of Batman in order to stop a new-and-improved Mr. Freeze. This episode is based on Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

• The Dark Knight Returns Batman was shown in the season 1 episode 19 Batman: The Brave and the Bold, entitled "Legends of the Dark Mite!" where Bat-Mite was switching between Batman's costume and when he got to the DKR costume he calls it "too psycho".

Film[link]

• Along with Batman: The Killing Joke, Tim Burton has cited The Dark Knight Returns as an influence in his Batman film series. References are made in the films with Vicki Vale taking photos of the devastated Corto Maltese.
• A deleted scene and subplot in Batman Forever features scenes involving Bruce Wayne confronting a gigantic bat.
• At the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, Zack Snyder, director of the screen adaptations of the equally celebrated Watchmen by Alan Moore, and Miller's 300, expressed his love for The Dark Knight Returns, in response to a question about the more mature direction of comic book adaptations. Later, Miller told Snyder: “You can do it anytime you want to, Zack.” Batman film franchise producer Michael Uslan also expressed interest in a possible adaptation.^[14]

• A two-part animated version is currently in the works from "DC Universe Animated Original Movies" and several Batman veterans are known to be involved.^[15][16]

• The upcoming Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight Rises has been confirmed to pick up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, and involves a retired Batman coming back to take up the mask once more, very similar to The Dark Knight Returns, although Batman will be facing Bane rather than the Joker, Two-Face and the Mutants.

Merchandise[link]

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the graphic novel, in 1996, DC Direct released a limited edition statue of Robin aiming her slingshot with the guidance of Batman.^[17]

A series of action figures based on The Dark Knight Returns was released by DC Direct in 2004. Featuring Batman, Robin, Superman, and The Joker, each has a sidewalk display base that connects to the others to form a street corner. Later, a Batman and Joker Gift Set was released including both characters with new paint schemes to reflect earlier points in the story, as well as a 48-page prestige format reprint of The Dark Knight Returns #1.

Video games[link]

The Batsuit of The Dark Knight Returns is available as a DLC (downloadable content) Skin for the video game Batman: Arkham City.

[edit] References

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

• The Dark Knight Returns at the Comic Book DB
• The plot in more detail at darkknight.ca
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again discussed at sequart.com
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – a retrospective and review at Batman-On-Film.com

This disambiguation page is currently linked from a large number of articles. Please help direct these ambiguous links to articles dealing with the specific meaning intended. (March 2012)

The Dark Knight is a common nickname for the DC Comics superhero Batman. It may refer specifically to:

Comics medium

• The Dark Knight Returns, a 1986 four-issue limited series written and drawn by Frank Miller
• The Dark Knight Strikes Again, a 2001-02 limited series by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, a monthly series running 1989 to 2007
• Batman: The Dark Knight, an ongoing series written by David Finch, started in 2011
• Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty, a graphic novel published in 1999, written by Mike W. Barr

Adaptations in other media

• Batman: DarKnight, an undeveloped Batman film proposed in 1998
• The Dark Knight (film), a 2008 film by Christopher Nolan and a sequel to Batman Begins
  • The Dark Knight (soundtrack)
  • The Dark Knight (video game), a cancelled video game
• The Dark Knight Rises, a 2012 film by Christopher Nolan, sequel to the 2008 film

Amusement park rides

• The Dark Knight Coaster, a theme park coaster found at the Six Flags parks Great Adventure, Great America, and México
• Batman – The Dark Knight (Six Flags New England) a theme park coaster found at Six Flags New England

Other uses[link]

• Mark Knight (musician), nicknamed The Dark Knight, a British musician
• Dark Knight, a character class in Final Fantasy
• Dark Knight (TV series), also known as Fantasy Quest in the U.S., a medieval adventure filmed on location in New Zealand

See also[link]

• Black knight, a literary stock character
• Dark Night (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Note: This page may need to be cleaned up to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Further information might be found on the talk page. Tools: DabFix

Christian Bale
Bale in June 2009
Born	Christian Charles Philip Bale (1974-01-30) 30 January 1974 (age 38) Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Sandra Blažić (2000–present)
Children	1
Parents	David Bale, Jenny (née James) Bale
Family	Gloria Steinem (Step-Mother)

Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor.^[1] Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses.

Bale first caught the public eye at the age of 13, when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987). He played an English boy who is separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.^[2] He is also notable for his role as serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000), and for portraying Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and the upcoming finale The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

In 2010, Bale portrayed Dicky Eklund in the biopic The Fighter. He received critical acclaim for his role and won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

Early life[link]

Bale was born in Wales to parents of English descent. His South African–born father, David Bale, was an entrepreneur, commercial pilot and talent manager, and his mother, Jenny (née James), was a circus performer.^[3][4][5][6] He spent his childhood in England, Portugal, and the United States.

Bale's first foray into acting was a commercial for the fabric softener Lenor in 1982.^[7] A year later, he appeared in a Pac-Man cereal commercial playing a child rock star. In 1984, he made his stage debut in The Nerd, opposite Rowan Atkinson.^[8]

Career[link]

1986–1998[link]

A 14-year-old Bale in Stockholm, Sweden in February 1988 while promoting Empire of the Sun

Bale made his film debut as Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia in the made-for-television film Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna in 1986, which was followed by leading roles in the miniseries Heart of the Country and the fantasy adventure Mio in the Land of Faraway, in which he appeared with Christopher Lee and Nick Pickard.

Bale's performance as Jim Graham in Empire of the Sun earned him widespread critical praise and the first ever "Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor" award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.^[9] The attention the press and his schoolmates lavished upon him after this took a toll on Bale, and he contemplated giving up acting until Kenneth Branagh approached him and persuaded him to appear in Henry V in 1989.^[9] In 1990, he played the role of Jim Hawkins opposite Charlton Heston (as Long John Silver) in Treasure Island, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic book.

In 1992, Bale starred as Jack Kelly in the Disney musical Newsies, and followed it up in 1993 with another release, Swing Kids, a film about teenagers who secretly listened to forbidden jazz during the rise of Nazi Germany.^[10] Bale was recommended by actress Winona Ryder to star in Gillian Armstrong's 1994 film Little Women.^[9] Bale provided the voice for Thomas, a young compatriot of Captain John Smith, in Disney's Pocahontas (1995) and in 1997 played Arthur Stuart in Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haynes' tribute to glam rock.^[10] In 1999, Bale contributed to an all-star cast, including Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stanley Tucci and Rupert Everett, portraying Demetrius in an updated version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[10]

1999–2001[link]

In 1999, Bale played serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, director Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel. Bale was briefly dropped from the project in favour of Leonardo DiCaprio, but DiCaprio eventually dropped out to star in The Beach, and Bale was cast once again. He researched his character by studying the novel and prepared himself physically for the role by spending months tanning and exercising in order to achieve the "Olympian physique" of the character as described in the original novel.^[11] He went so far as to distance himself from the cast and crew to maintain the darker side of Bateman's character. American Psycho premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival to much controversy. Roger Ebert condemned the film at first, calling it pornography,^[12] and "the most loathed film at Sundance,"^[13] but gave it a favourable review, writing that Harron "transformed a novel about bloodlust into a film about men's vanity." Of Bale's performance, he wrote, "Christian Bale is heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor."^[14]

On 14 April 2000, Lions Gate Films released American Psycho in cinemas. Bale was later approached to make a cameo appearance in another Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, The Rules of Attraction, a film loosely connected to American Psycho, but he declined out of loyalty to Harron's vision of Bateman, which he felt could not be properly expressed by anyone else.^[15] In 2000, he again played a wealthy murderer, this time in John Singleton's Shaft.

Bale has played an assortment of diverse characters since 2001. His first role after American Psycho was in the John Madden adaptation of the best-selling novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Bale played Mandras, a Greek fisherman who vied with Nicolas Cage's title character for the affections of Pelagia (Penelope Cruz). Captain Corelli's Mandolin was Bale's second time working with John Hurt, after All the Little Animals.

2002–2004[link]

From 2002 to 2003, Bale starred in three feature films. Laurel Canyon (2002) was generally well received by critics.^[16] This film also marked the second time he worked with actress Kate Beckinsale, his costar in Prince of Jutland (1994). Critics generally focused on star Frances McDormand's performance over the rest of the cast, however.^[17]

Reign of Fire was Bale's first action vehicle and had, compared to all his previous work, an immense budget estimated at US$95,000,000.^[18] Bale entered into negotiations about starring in the film with reservations, but director Rob Bowman convinced him to take the lead role.^[19] Bale starred as Quinn Abercromby opposite Matthew McConaughey's Denton Van Zan. Bale and McConaughey trained for their respective roles by boxing and working out.^[19]

Equilibrium was Bale's third film of 2002, costing US$20 million to produce but earning just over US$5 million worldwide.^[20] In Equilibrium, Bale played John Preston, an elite law enforcer in a dystopian society. Equilibrium featured a fictional martial art called Gun Kata that combined gunfighting with hand-to-hand combat. According to moviebodycounts.com, the character of John Preston has the third most on-screen kills in a single movie ever with 118, exactly half of the movie's total of 236.^[21]

After a year's hiatus, Bale returned in 2004 to play Trevor Reznik, the title character in the psychological thriller The Machinist. Bale gained attention for his devotion to the role and for the lengths to which he went to achieve Reznik's emaciated, skeletal appearance. He went without proper rest for prolonged periods, and placed himself on a crash diet of generally coffee and apples,^[22] which reduced his weight by 63 pounds (4 st 4 lb/27 kg) in a matter of months.^[23] By the end of filming Bale weighed only 121 pounds (8 st 9 lb/55 kg),^[22] a transformation he described as "very calming mentally"^[24] and which drew comparisons to Robert De Niro's alternate weight-gaining regimen for his role as Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film Raging Bull.^[25] Bale claimed that he had not worked for a period of time before he was cast in the film. "...I just hadn't found scripts that I'd really been interested in. So I was really dying for something to arrive. Then when this one did, I just didn't want to put it down. I finished it and, upon the kind of revelation that you get at the end, I immediately wanted to go back and re-visit it, to take a look at what clues I could have gotten throughout".^[26] The Machinist was a low-budget production, costing roughly US$5 million to produce, and was given only a limited US release. It was well received, with the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 75% of the critics' reviews tallied were positive.^[27]

Bale, an admirer of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away,^[15] was then cast as the voice of the title character, Howl, in the English language dub of the Japanese director's fantasy anime adventure Howl's Moving Castle, an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's children's novel. Its gross in the US was US$4,711,096, a fraction of its worldwide gross (US$235,184,110).^[28]

Batman: 2005–present[link]

Bale in 2005

It was reported that Bale had previously auditioned for the role of Robin in Batman Forever (1995) and later Batman and Robin (1997), but lost out to Chris O'Donnell. However, this rumour was later dispelled by Bale himself in a magazine interview in 2008.^[29] In 2004, after completing filming for The Machinist, Bale won the coveted role of Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, a reboot of the Batman film series. Bale beat out Jake Gyllenhaal, the closest competition for the role.^[30]

Still fresh off The Machinist, it became necessary for Bale to bulk up to match Batman's muscular physique. He was given a deadline of six months to do this. Bale recalled it as far from a simple accomplishment: "...when it actually came to building muscle, I was useless. I couldn't do one push up the first day. All of the muscles were gone, so I had a real tough time rebuilding all of that."^[23] With the help of a personal trainer, Bale succeeded in meeting the deadline, gaining a total of 100 lb (45 kg) in six months. He went from about 130 lbs to 230 lbs.^[31] He then discovered that he had actually gained more weight than the director desired, and dropped his weight to 190 lbs by the time filming began.^[32]

Bale had initial concerns about playing Batman, as he felt more ridiculous than intimidating in the Batsuit. He dealt with this by depicting Batman as a savage beast.^[23] To attain a deeper understanding of the character, Bale read various Batman comic books. He explained his interpretation of the young boy: "Batman is his hidden, demonic rage-filled side. The creature Batman creates is an absolutely sincere creature and one that he has to control but does so in a very haphazard way. He's capable of enacting violence — and to kill — so he's constantly having to rein himself in." For Bale, the most gruelling part about playing Batman was the suit. "You stick it on, you get hot, you sweat and you get a headache in the mask," he said. "But I'm not going to bitch about it because I get to play Batman."^[33] When promoting the film in interviews and public events, Bale retained an American accent to avoid confusion.^[34]

Batman Begins was released in the U.S. on 15 June 2005 and was a U.S. and international triumph for Warner Bros., costing approximately US$135 million to produce and taking in over US$370 million in returns worldwide.^[35] Bale earned the Best Hero award at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards for his performance.^[36]

Bale reprised his role as Batman in the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight. He trained in the Keysi Fighting Method, and performed many of his own stunts.^[37] The Dark Knight was released in the U.S. on 18 July 2008 and stormed through the box office, with a record-breaking $158.4 million in the U.S. in its first weekend.^[38] It broke the $300 million barrier in 10 days, the $400 million mark in 18 days and the $500 million mark in 43 days, three new U.S. box office records set by the film.^[39] The film went on to gross over $1 billion at the box office worldwide, making it the fourth-highest grossing movie worldwide of all time, before adjusting for inflation.^[40]

Bale will reprise his role in The Dark Knight Rises which will be released on 20 July 2012,^[41] making Bale the actor who has played Batman the most times in feature film. Bale has given the same opinion as Nolan that, if the latter was forced to bring Robin into the films, he would never again play Batman; even though one of his favourite Batman stories, Batman: Dark Victory, focuses on Robin's origin.^[42]

2006–2009[link]

Bale in 2008

After Batman Begins, Bale returned to appearing in independent films. He was cast as one of the two leads in the South Central David Ayer-helmed crime drama Harsh Times, co-starring Freddy Rodriguez and Eva Longoria. Bale played Jim Luther Davis, a grim Afghanistan War veteran afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, approached by the Department of Homeland Security and hired as a federal agent. Harsh Times premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and had a wide release on 10 November 2006.^[43]

Terrence Malick directed The New World, a period piece inspired by the stories of Pocahontas, and Bale was cast as John Rolfe. He shared the screen with Colin Farrell and Q'Orianka Kilcher, who played John Smith and Pocahontas. The majority of screen time was devoted to Farrell and Kilcher; Bale was a secondary character, and only appeared during the last third of the film. The film was a failure at the U.S. box office and its worldwide total (US$29,506,437) fell short of turning a profit (the production budget was placed at US$30 million).^[44]

In 2006, Bale took on four projects. Rescue Dawn, by German filmmaker Werner Herzog, had him playing U.S. Fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, who has to fight for his life after being shot down while on a mission during the Vietnam War. Bale left a strong impression on Herzog, with the director complimenting his acting abilities: "I find him one of the greatest talents of his generation. We made up our own minds long before he did Batman."^[45]

In The Prestige, an adaptation of the Christopher Priest novel about a rivalry between two Victorian stage magicians, Bale was reunited with Batman Begins' Michael Caine and director Christopher Nolan. The cast of The Prestige also included Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo, and David Bowie. I'm Not There, a film in which Bale again worked alongside Todd Haynes and Heath Ledger (who would go on to play The Joker in The Dark Knight), is an artistic reflection of the life of Bob Dylan. He starred opposite Russell Crowe in a commercially and critically successful Western film, 3:10 to Yuma.

Bale was originally cast to play George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's film W., but dropped out due to the prosthetics involved.^[47] Bale played John Connor in Terminator Salvation^[48] and FBI agent Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann's Public Enemies.^[49]

[edit] Terminator Salvation incident

In July 2008, Bale flew into an angry tirade on the sets of Terminator Salvation, while filming in New Mexico.^[50] In February 2009, the audio recording of the incident was released.^[51][52] The tirade was directed at Shane Hurlbut, director of photography for the film. According to Bale, Hurlbut had, for the second time, ruined his concentration by walking onto the set during a scene.^[50][53][54] The recording is of a highly agitated Bale directing profanities at Hurlbut, threatening and belittling him, and finally threatening to quit the film if Hurlbut repeated his offence without being fired for it.^[53] It was reported that Warner film executives sent the tape to the insurer of the film in case Bale decided to quit the movie.^[55] In an interview with E! Online, assistant director and producer of Terminator Salvation, Bruce Franklin, said it was an isolated incident. "If you are working in a very intense scene and someone takes you out of your groove ... It was the most emotional scene in the movie ... [A]nd for him to get stopped in the middle of it. He is very intensely involved in his character. He didn't walk around like that all day long. It was just a moment and it passed," Franklin said.^[56]

Actors Whoopi Goldberg and Terry Crews,^[57][58] directors Darren Aronofsky^[59] and Ron Howard,^[60] as well as Ain't It Cool News website creator Harry Knowles^[61] have also publicly defended Bale's actions, some of them citing the practice that crew members are to remain still while the camera is rolling. The incident also inspired experimental band The Mae Shi to write the song, "R U Professional", which features samples from the recording;^[62] similarly, Lucian Piane's remix "Bale Out" is composed almost entirely of audio from the incident. Stephen Colbert parodied the incident on 4 February 2009 episode of The Colbert Report, in which guest Steve Martin repeatedly walked in front of the camera and was berated by Colbert.^[63] The incident was re-enacted on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, with Inside the Actor's Studio host James Lipton giving performances of both Bale and the crewmember.^[64] An episode of the animated comedy series Family Guy also mixed in the voice of Peter Griffin interacting with Bale and reacting to Bale's comments as if they were directed at him to comedic effect.

After remaining silent for most of the week, Bale gave a public apology on 6 February 2009, to a Los Angeles radio station, KROQ. He stated that the outburst was "inexcusable" and that it was motivated by the day's shooting intensity.^[65] Bale said he "acted like a punk", and that he and Hurlbut talked after the incident and "resolved this completely".^[66] Bale acknowledged that the two worked together for several hours after the incident, and "at least a month after that... I've seen a rough cut of the movie and he has done a wonderful job. It looks fantastic".^[66]

2010–present[link]

Bale starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in the David O. Russell-directed 2010 drama The Fighter, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and thirty other awards in 2011.^[67] Near the end of his acceptance speech during the televised Golden Globes awards ceremony, Bale complimented Robert DeNiro by saying he was "the shit". The comment was censored by NBC.^[68]

Writer/director Joe Carnahan confirmed in November 2007 that Bale is also involved in the upcoming movie Killing Pablo in which he is to play Major Steve Jacoby.^[69] According to a Nuts magazine interview, Bale stated that he will be in the running to play the role of Solid Snake in a film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid.^[70] Niels Arden Oplev, director of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, is to have Bale as lead in his current project The Last Photograph, which Oplev hopes to start filming early 2011.^[71] In December 2010, it was announced that Christian Bale would be starring in the historical drama war film The Flowers of War, directed by Zhang Yimou.^[72]

While filming The Flowers of War in December 2011, Bale and a CNN crew attempted to visit Chen Guangcheng, a blind "barefoot lawyer" under unofficial house arrest for his activism against China's One Child Policy. While on camera, Bale was punched, shoved, and denied access by dozens of Chinese security guards who failed to recognize him.^[73] Bale later stated that he had wanted "to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is".^[74][75] Video footage also showed Bale and the CNN crew having stones thrown at them, and a minivan then chased their car for more than 40 minutes.^[73]

Bale is set to appear in two Terrence Malick directed films to be shot in 2012, Lawless and Knight of Cups.^[76][77]

In early 2012, it was confirmed that Bale was portraying the character Russell Baze in Scott Cooper’s upcoming thriller Out of the Furnace.^[78][79][77]

Personal life[link]

On 29 January 2000, Bale married Sandra "Sibi" Blažić (born 1970), a former model, make-up artist and personal assistant to Winona Ryder; the couple have a daughter, Emmeline,^[80] who was born on 27 March 2005 in Santa Monica, California.^[81][82] Since 1992, Bale has resided in Los Angeles.^[83]

Like his late father, Christian Bale actively supports environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.^[7] Feminist activist Gloria Steinem became Christian Bale's stepmother on 3 September 2000;^[84] it was her first marriage (at the age of 66), and the couple were together until David's death.^[5]

Film and television credits[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christian Bale

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Christian Bale

• Christian Bale at the Internet Movie Database
• Christian Bale at AllRovi
• Christian Bale at Yahoo! Movies
• Christian Bale on Charlie Rose
• Christian Bale collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Christian Bale in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Christian Bale at the Open Directory Project