is the duality of Bruce Wayne/Batman.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Marvel/DC
Drevnibor — 12 years ago(June 11, 2013 11:53 AM)
is the duality of Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Yes, we had deep and emotional scenes, and we were shown the difference between the Public Bruce, Real Bruce, and Batman.
But somehow, I would have liked to see the real internal struggle of Bruce Wayne
who is he?
Whenever we think of duality disorder, we think of Two-Face, but the fact is that Batman has that disorder too.
Why is he batmanning, when he could easily help more by spending his money on other useful things - he's a billionaire, he could buy the whole police force, and eliminate corruption.
But every night, he puts on the cowl, and starts beating the sh!t out of criminals because he likes being Batman.
The only problem is that he doesn't know who he is anymore, but clearly, the personas of Real Bruce Wayne, Public Bruce Wayne and Batman are all different, and it isn't easy to keep them all in one body without losing your mind.
That's one of the rare things that I haven't seen in the majority of Batman films, not even in Nolan's Trilogy.
But here's one good example from the animated film Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1:
It shows 2 important things:- that Batman is a different person than Bruce Wayne
- that Bruce cannot live without Batman
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CovertThunder — 9 years ago(April 14, 2016 10:34 PM)
Have you ever seen
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
? It depicts when Bruce Wayne first decided to become Batman, and deals heavily with choosing between being Batman and being a normal person.
It has one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen in any
Batman
movie. Bruce Wayne has been dating someone for a little while after he's already chosen to be Batman, and we see Bruce crying and pleading at his parents grave asking if he can forgo the promise he made to them.
He's doing all this in the middle of a dark and stormy night, and as lightning flashes, illuminating the names of his parents on their tombstone, you get this feeling of doom and dread because the audience (and Bruce Wayne) know that he'll never be able to escape being Batman.
He even says
"Please! I didn't count on being happy."
That line sums up a hell of a lot about Batman's character. He chose to be Batman when he didn't know of any other life, and no matter how old he is or who he meets or what comes along, he'll never give up being Batman for anything. It's damn-near depressing, and the fact it's in one of the DCAU films is a huge credit to the makers.
Can't be too careful with all those weirdos running around. -
Jetfire1959 — 9 years ago(April 23, 2016 12:56 AM)
I agree with CovertThunder completely.
Mask Of The Phantasm
does an excellent job with the aspects of the Bruce/Batman duality you want in a Batman story. Even a number of critics liked it, and
that
is an accomplishment! It balances subtlety and in-your-face symbolism quite well, IMHO. Kevin Conroy's impassioned vocal performance is no small part of why it works so well. I also agree with you that the duality struggle is missing from most of the newer batman material. However, I didn't really miss it in
Return Of The Jokar
. The story cruised along smoothly with out it IMHO. We already know of it, so we don't really need to be reminded in every film. Unless, of course it's integral to the story. Again, IMHO.
I'm reminded of Rasputin's words when he said "Wow those pastries gave me indigestion!"