Why was Christian Bale so poor in this?

Christopher Nolan's 2008 mega success about Batman's attempts to defeat a criminal mastermind known only as the Joker.
User avatar
Posts: 9849
Joined: October 2011
Location: Foot of Mt. Belzoni
Bale's performance evolves and is distinct with each film. And yet it's the connective tissue.

He's excellent in TDK. I don't know how you judge it against him in the other films though. It's effectively the same performance.
Ah, böwakawa! Poussé, poussé...
Ah, böwakawa! Poussé, poussé...
Ah, böwakawa! Poussé, poussé...

Posts: 710
Joined: February 2011
Bale's performance in TDK is solid. He brings the character to life, he convincingly emotes and conveys Bruce's/Batman's struggles, and in no way gives a good performance.

I think the perception of a "poor" performance comes from Dent being the protagonist of the film, rather than Bruce/Batman. This was a deliberate choice on Nolan's part (and he explicitly says so in the Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy book). Bruce does have a character arc, but it's shorter and more subtle than Dent's. Hence, Bale's acting doesn't attract the attention that Eckhart's (or Ledger's) does.

User avatar
Posts: 6087
Joined: June 2012
Location: Colorado
This thread is a piece of shit and the thread starter should be embarrassed and quit watching movies.

Posts: 837
Joined: August 2012
Location: Congo
bale poor in a movie .... :facepalm: :facepalm:
theres no such thing

User avatar
Posts: 3046
Joined: December 2012
He wasn't in any of the 3 movies.

User avatar
Posts: 2610
Joined: June 2012
Image

Posts: 55632
Joined: May 2010
DoubleD wrote:Your opinion that Bale is poor in The Dark Knight is just that.

Poor.

But that's just my opinion.

User avatar
Posts: 749
Joined: May 2013
gaspernoe wrote:Of all the the things that can be praised about this truly wonderful movie, Bale's performance isn't one of them. I didn't notice it at first when I first saw TDK in theaters because I was so immersed by the story and Ledger's epic performance. But on repeat viewings I noticed how stilted and one dimensional his performance. It's always been a conundrum for me, especially when Christian Bale is a pretty good actor. Even without Ledger's overshadowing performance Bale looked like a shell in TDK. He wasn't nearly as good as he was in TDKR and even BB.
did we we watch the same movie ?

Bruce Wayne is a billionaire what the fuck are you talking about?

User avatar
Posts: 195
Joined: March 2012
Location: American Gardens Building, West 81st Street
Sandy wrote:This thread is a piece of shit and the thread starter should be embarrassed and quit watching movies.
1000x this. Bale was as great in TDK as he was in the other two.

Post Reply