Heroes Need Saving, Too
One of the most poignant and satisfying moments in Batman Begins is the second act turning point: Raz Nagul has crashed Bruce’s birthday party, wreaked havoc, and torched the place, leaving Bruce incapacitated under a burning rafter. This is BATMAN. The guy’s so good, he’s so powerful, he so wants to save the city... but in this moment he’s not able to save himself. No, it’s Alfred who comes valiantly in and hauls poor Bruce out. Our response: go, Alfred!
Or something less nerdy.
Point being, it's NICE when a hero is fallible. It reminds us of the strength of the enemy, and allows us to feel that slight bit of worry that the hero may not be able to save the day after all. Even if we know, deep down, that he will, we need to know how difficult it's going to be.
And the Alfreds of the world need their moments to shine.
One of the most poignant and satisfying moments in Batman Begins is the second act turning point: Raz Nagul has crashed Bruce’s birthday party, wreaked havoc, and torched the place, leaving Bruce incapacitated under a burning rafter. This is BATMAN. The guy’s so good, he’s so powerful, he so wants to save the city... but in this moment he’s not able to save himself. No, it’s Alfred who comes valiantly in and hauls poor Bruce out. Our response: go, Alfred!
Or something less nerdy.
Point being, it's NICE when a hero is fallible. It reminds us of the strength of the enemy, and allows us to feel that slight bit of worry that the hero may not be able to save the day after all. Even if we know, deep down, that he will, we need to know how difficult it's going to be.
And the Alfreds of the world need their moments to shine.
posted by Jennica at 1:21 p.m.
2 Comments:
I’m with you on that. Someone in the scribosphere (John August??) commented on how Indiana Jones failed on every step throughout Raiders of the Lost Ark. Really, when you think about it, the only thing that goes right for him is not looking directly into the ark at the end.
There's also Terry Rossio's well-known column on "impressive failure," which takes the idea and elaborates on it a bit.
Batman Begins does a pretty good job with it, despite having a pretty narcissistic and--as the kids would say nowadays--monumentally emo protagonist, which wouldn't seem to be setting the table for that kind of necessary humbling experience. What a good movie.
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