Is Batman realistic? Or just a comic book character?

[phantom stranger]

The villains aren't realistic.  (Except for penguin- he's just a regular guy).  But Batman is.  Theirs nothing fantastic about him except that he wears a big costume and has big muscles.

A regular guy with an absurdly pointy nose, who talks in anachronistic hyperbole and is obsessed with umbrellas...I don't think so.

Not a Hitchcock fan, I take it?

[johnnygobbs]

LOL

Seriously though, I love Hitchcock movies.  Vertigo and Rear Window are my favourites.

[The Dark Knight]

I think when you make comic book films super real and so forth, you lose the essence and very point of the source material, no matter how spiritually faithful to them you may be.

[Scarecrow756]

This is a very interesting topic that I want to give my two cents on. I think out of all the comic book characters out there, Batman is the most realistic in the sense of the stories that can be written about him and the concept. However I think that is where it should end. He will always be a comic book character and that is that, when you start to make him too realistic then I think you dilute him and his world greatly. There are fans out there who just like him as super realistic in a world without superheroes and really not fanstical at all. And that is fine but to me that?s boring, seeing Batman in the JLA and outside his element with people stronger than he is,  adds to his character not subtract it. I think there should always be a balance and the best example I can think of is the way Batman was portrayed in the video game Arkham Asylum. There he was gritty, dark, and his world felt comic book esque. 

[Batmoney]

I read an article about a guy who did a research project on Batman and his groundings in reality and such. I can't remember exactly, but the guy basically came to the conclusion that in order to be capable of the life and actions that Batman lives, you would need approximately 20 years of rigorous training just to be able to consider the idea of being a "Batman". So if you started in your late teens or early 20s and kept in good shape your whole life, after training I think you could get a solid 20 years of crime-fighting under your belt.

[The Dark Knight]

I read an article about a guy who did a research project on Batman and his groundings in reality and such. I can't remember exactly, but the guy basically came to the conclusion that in order to be capable of the life and actions that Batman lives, you would need approximately 20 years of rigorous training just to be able to consider the idea of being a "Batman". So if you started in your late teens or early 20s and kept in good shape your whole life, after training I think you could get a solid 20 years of crime-fighting under your belt.

Yep, I posted the link to that article earlier in this thread.

By the way, here?s a good read I found. It's a four page article about Batman and reality.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dark-knight-shift-why-bat

[thecolorsblend]

Somewhat addressing the topic broadly, this is obviously my primary gripe about Chris Nolan (as it is basically his calling card in the franchise; big duh).

I've noticed a tendency in Hollywood to be almost allergic about wholesale embracing comics, both as a genre and also as a storytelling style.  Thus far, of any director of any superhero-oriented adaptation, Burton is the only one who's really gotten it exactly right.  One might be tempted to nominate Schumacher, except that he had a way of looking down his nose at the material.  "Remember everyone, we're making a cartoon!"  He couldn't believe in the material and he didn't expect audiences to.

That's that stuff.  Nothing new 'round these parts.

And honestly, when filmmakers feel that way, I think it sucks but I also kind of understand.  They're not of the comics world and I'm beginning to believe that outsiders can't be expected to fully understand.  More and more, I'm starting to think of comics fandom as sort of like pro wrestling; you either get it or you don't.  Not to stray even further from topic, but I never understood wrestling.  I make no pretense of it.  I've always been kinda reluctant to criticize things like WWE, though, because everyone involved (from "producers" to participants to spectators) all seem to recognize the fiction of it all.  In some sense, you could kind of consider it a different brand of theater, or perhaps opera.

And, in ways, the same could be said of comics.

So when filmmakers don't get that, hey, I've got no argument for them.

But when comics pros and/or comics fans miss that point, well, I've got issues there.

As it pertains to Batman, if you process Bruce Wayne as a real, thinking, feeling, breathing person with ideas, emotions, hopes, goals, fears, dreams, etc, you eventually have to conclude that the guy is bat$#!+ crazy for doing what he does (a la the occasional Frank Miller model).  Or else he really is an idealist (as per Denny O'Neil)... who's going to hit rock bottom after five years when crime in the city has arguably only gotten worse.  Defeated and beaten down, he would eventually retire, having concluded that he's done more harm than good, and his was always a fool's errand.  There are other outcomes as well for a "real" Batman.

And all of these likely overlook the fact that the cops would find and subsequently arrest and try Bruce Wayne after just a few weeks.

And if he beat up a few cops along the way, I wouldn't bet on him even making it to trial in a town like Gotham.

Bottomline, bringing Batman into anything even halfway beginning to faintly resemble a real world brings real world baggage into the equation.  Batman (an icon; NOT a character) simply isn't up to the task of carrying the weight of reality.

Aside from villains like the Joker, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Clayface and others from the sci-fi milieu (which should be argument enough unto themselves), Batman is now and will always be a fictional character.  Maybe he's hardcore sci-fi (All-Star Batman & Robin), maybe it's total fantasy (basically anything drawn by Kelley Jones), maybe it's hardboiled crime/detective drama (basically anything written by Chuck Dixon), maybe it's something else, but it's not real.

Not now, not ever.

EDIT- And just so's we're clear, this isn't me bagging on Nolan yet again.  I dislike BB but I greatly enjoy TDK.  It's not about Burton vs. Nolan pissing matches, it's about stylistic preferences of my own.  I think Burton's conceptualization of Batman serves the character, his world, his supporting cast, etc, better than any other Batman director and, indeed, any other filmmaker to tackle superhero cinema.  If you disagree with me, hey, more power to you.

[The Dark Knight]

That took as long to read as ral's Dave Lea article - but it's equally brilliant. Good post.

[Paul (ral)]

excellent post colors.

[burtongenius]

From what I gather, everybody thinks batman is non realistic.

Somebody should give Christopher Nolan the memo.