..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Batman
Begins
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Warner Bros

Resurrection is one of the most powerful and mystical elements in the universe. To apply such a force of religious and philosophical importance to a film let alone one derived from the smeared pages of a comic book seems patently absurd or worse.

Yet, one ought to be willing to afford a charitable dispensation when the result is as entertaining and engrossing as Batman Begins. While I'll stop short of elevating the iconographic crimefighter to a social touchstone, there's little question that he represents an outlet for one's frustration to see justice meted out against those elements of evil that infiltrate at least some semblance of daily life. And he has special significance because, unlike the majority of his comic book brethren, he is mere flesh and blood and prone to grappling with the intellectual angst of doing right at the cost, sometimes, of his soul.

Since debuting in print in 1939 and as the hero of a movie serial in the early 1940s, the Bat-Man has been a cultural favorite with the facility of malleability to whatever environment has dominated the outside world. He's thwarted the original axis of evil, industrial polluters and drug lords as well as ridiculously flamboyant malefactors that ought to be contained in a pack of cards. He's also been a sturdy subject of parody.

The new film version approaches the subject with gravitas. If one believes society needs a judicial ombudsman to expedite matters that tend to bog down in legislatures and courts and supercede conventional police actions, then he is an apt solution. However, if such a force or person were to exist it begs several questions including what would motivate him to such a cause and how would a single entity be capable of combating all the physical incarnations of evil in society?

The original Batman glossed over these queries with convenient shortcuts. The young Bruce Wayne witnessed the deaths of his parents in the streets of Gotham City at the hands of low life thug. That planted the seeds of vengeance and the fact that he came from a financial fortune smoothed the way for him to have the wherewithal to bankroll his noble pursuit.

Batman Begins, unlike past screen incarnations, delves deeper into the steps that led up to the character's creation. Tilting toward Frank Miller's Dark Knight interpretation of the protagonist in graphic novels of the 1980s, the filmmakers go through the painstaking process of truly setting up the story.

While the yarn continues to relegate his mother to the shadows, it quickly establishes a bond between father and son and the installation of moral values and nobility. As Bruce (Christian Bale) enters adulthood, he initially turns to an obvious method of retribution for the murders when the court dictates a verdict that's not to his liking. But fate steps in when others gun down the killer before he can pull the trigger.

The ironic twist sets the wheels in motion for something akin to a Hamlet dilemma. While justice of a sort has been done, he has not experienced catharsis. He's psychologically adrift and spiritually despondent and begins wandering aimlessly through a metaphoric desert.

The path to his salvation occurs when a mysterious stranger named Ducard (Liam Neeson) approaches him in what appears to be a remote region of China. He extends a challenge that leads to an even more obscure location in the Himalayas and its there he's introduced to a band of righteous avengers called The League of Shadows. For an unspecified period he develops the inner and physical strengths that will inform his future role.

Upon his return to Gotham, he begins to explore a means of translating his new knowledge into action. He seeks a position at Wayne Enterprises and finds a station in the low priority arena of research and development. Again, good fortune smiles. In this industrial Siberia, he's teamed with Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a scientist and inventor with a treasure trove of rejected military prototypes that, in the right hands, could transform a man into a battalion of considerable potency.

Even the decision of the bat as a symbol to instill terror in the hearts of bad guys is afforded a thorough deconstruction. It isn't simple happenstance but can be traced back to a suppressed childhood memory that visually recalls the unnerving psychological groundings of such films as Pursued and Spellbound.

The potential pitfall of such an elaborate backstory is that one might easily lose an audience that is impatiently several steps ahead. Director Christopher Nolan who adapted the material with David Goyer averts that situation by viewing the developments with fresh eyes. It's not simply a fanciful realm grounded in realistic terms but a serious exploration of what makes this man/myth tick on a human level we've not previously experienced on film.

In actor Christian Bale he's found a collaborator committed to exploring the dark side of Bruce Wayne - aka Batman - as well as his inconsistencies. He's someone who appears to have a stronger sense of his alter ego than the person that embodies his skin during daylight hours. His station and the values imbued by his father demand a social conscience but part of him feels compelled to affect the bad behavior of privilege as a smoke screen. The schism informs the film with an edginess that keeps things slightly off-center, unpredictable and dramatically vibrant.

Ultimately the film pits Batman against a foe that believes his actions are equally honorable. One can see in both the nominal hero and villain that good intentions can lead to devastating and destructive ends.

The promise Nolan evinced in Memento has been amply justified in this adroit and variegated film. Batman Begins is probably the most intelligent and adult comic book adaptation ever committed to celluloid. It employs the visceral aspects of the saga - the choreographic fights, car chases and pyrotechnic spectacle - as organic drama rather than dynamic attention getters and blurs the boundaries of good vs. evil; reality vs. fantasy at every opportunity without resorting to the banal or conventional.

There's a different sort of hallucinogenic quality to Gotham City at night from the one concocted by Anton Furst for the 1989 movie. The earlier vision seemed inspired by a carnival funhouse while the current concept by Nathan Crowley envisions the metropolis as a pastiche of bygone visions of the future constructed in a maze that interconnects skyscrapers and tenements via freeways and the rails of an elevated train. It is a nightmare of the id.

The film is also impeccably cast with such veterans as Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Tom Wilkinson and newcomers Katie Holmes and Cillian Murphy striking the right balance of realism and objective commentary. There would appear to be purpose behind employing mostly non-Americans (Holmes and Freeman being the notable exceptions) in the picture, but an obvious conclusion has yet to percolate.

I'm uncertain whether Batman has the capacity for infinite interpretations in the coming decades and centuries but Batman Begins certainly affirms that he's surpassed the nine lives of his rhyming feline counterpart.

- Leonard Klady