Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman

[chom]

“For me, he’s an anarchist and a free spirit. He knows that there are parallels between him and his enemies because life is never stable – you always have to fight for it. Keeping in mind that it may never be boring and that nobody is obliging you to behave like a superhero and to always have your muscles flexed and bulging.”--Bale

That's probably one of the more interesting takes on the character I've heard in a while, and it's definitely the first time I've ever heard Batman described as an anarchist, which I think is actually pretty accurate. It blurs the line between the characterizations of Joker and Batman even further.
The overarching theme of this series seems to be about these chaotic men (Batman, Ra's, Joker, Bane) destroying the establishment in an attempt to reshape it into their own ideal. Even though, weirdly enough, Bane and Ra's want to destroy it in order to establish a totalitarian society, while Bruce and Joker seem to want to give it back to the people. Bruce and Joker just have different ideas of what would happen once they did that.

[mchekhov]

But see Bale doesn't get to play the character that way. He said Nokan constantly steers him away from that characterization into a safer zone

[chom]

I think that the idea of him being an anarchist is expressed less by Bale's acting choices and more by the story. The guy is subverting authority throughout both movies; driving over cop cars, hacking into people's phones, hanging dirty cops 4 stories off the ground, etc.

Bale's direction, if I had to guess, is probably to keep Bruce contained, and to let Batman be this outlet for him.

I agree that Nolan keeps the character a little too restrained in TDK. Bale's more than capable of making characters really fun to watch and adding cool characterization moments, but in TDK the character's sort of one note.

[mchekhov]

I think that the idea of him being an anarchist is expressed less by Bale's acting choices and more by the story. The guy is subverting authority throughout both movies; driving over cop cars, hacking into people's phones, hanging dirty cops 4 stories off the ground, etc.

Bale's direction, if I had to guess, is probably to keep Bruce contained, and to let Batman be this outlet for him.

I agree that Nolan keeps the character a little too restrained in TDK. Bale's more than capable of making characters really fun to watch and adding cool characterization moments, but in TDK the character's sort of one note.

i'm just saying he is too cooperative with the law and the city officials to be an anarchist

i remember that when Bale first set out to research Batman he came back with a really dark take on the character and that Nolan had to constantly remind him that they were making a superhero franchise for a studio and not an indy film (paraphrasing Bale's word's here)

so how Bale sees the character, is definitely not what we get in the movie.

[TalkOnCorners]

From Warner Bros' promotional photoshoot (TDKR department):



(source: SHH's RealIrOnMaN)

[TehBatGetsBraked]

From Warner Bros' promotional photoshoot (TDKR department):



(source: SHH's RealIrOnMaN)

WAT.

[Mason]

From Warner Bros' promotional photoshoot (TDKR department):



(source: SHH's RealIrOnMaN)

Say what?

[Mr. Caine]

From Warner Bros' promotional photoshoot (TDKR department):



(source: SHH's RealIrOnMaN)

Huh?

[BlairCo]

From Warner Bros' promotional photoshoot (TDKR department):



(source: SHH's RealIrOnMaN)

[Oneironaut]

From Warner Bros' promotional photoshoot (TDKR department):



(source: SHH's RealIrOnMaN)