ENG4U
Batman Begins essay
Fear is one of the strongest emotions amongst human feelings, it is strong enough that people chose to do actions based on fear. One of the main themes in Batman Begins is fear, much of the plot is driven by fear, and the movie shows and explores fear in order to show how it affects people’s lives. It also shows how a person can be swallow by fear when you cannot control your emotions. The mastery of the control of fear is what truly liberates a human being because without fear people can truly do anything they desire.
Two opposite effects of fear confront each other in Batman begins, the one driven by Batman against the one from Ra’s al Ghul, these characters experience fear during their lives, that fear was imposed by similar sources; Criminal Underground. Batman lost his parents to a criminal and it is implied that Ra’s did as well. The ke is in the difference between their targets. While Batman utilizes his fear to save the innocent from those criminals, Ra’s utilizes his to attempt to destroy those criminals and the ability to produce more criminals. This difference says something about the level of control that each of them has over their fears. Batman has enough control over his fear to retain a sense of rationality, distinguishing who is the enemy and who is the innocent. He even has a code of no murder anybody, that’s what sets him apart from that criminal underworld and ensure that he truly is making a difference. Ra’s, on the other hand, cannot distinguish the good from the bad. His fear drives him to attempt destroying the entire Gothan city, a completely irrational judgment call fueled by an extreme desire to ensure justice. Extremism is born from fear, and Ra’s is different than Batman in that he doesn’t control his fear, his fear controls him.
Another way fear is shown in this movie is through the drug that Scarecrow administers to bring out people’s deepest fears. Not even Batman is immune to this