Batman Begins: Every boy and Man’s Dream
I was a fan of most of the Batman franchise movies but still think the best one was the Christopher Nolan series starring Christian Bale. It really was perfect in my eyes.
It chronicles the journey of how a billionaire becomes a crime fighting superhero after suffering a tragedy in his youth, losing his parents in a robbery gone wrong. I grew up reading the comic books of Batman. Batman was the original Jason Bourne. He pretends to be an unserious billionaire bachelor by day and a crime fighter terrorizing criminals by night.
“The training is nothing. The will is everything. The will to act.”
Bruce Wayne is a normal man with brains and resources but through tremendous discipline he travels the world and learns fighting skills to enable his mission of cleaning up Gotham City.
On his journey to gather skills he eventually joins with an assassin guild, the League of Shadows.
His mentor there tells him:
“I know the rage that drives you. Like you I was forced to learn there are those without decency, who must be fought without hesitation, without pity. That anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you.”
What I learned in myself is that fear is a driver of anger.
“You travelled the world to learn the mind of a criminal and conquer your fears. But a criminal is not complicated. What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power, fear your anger and the drive to do great & terrible things. Now you must journey inwards. Breathe. Breathe in your fears. Face them. To conquer fear, you must become fear. Embrace your worst fears.”
I’ve always been driven by fear. Fear of poverty, of not being respected, of not belonging. All of us have some fear that drives us and debilitates us subsconsciously. And most of us don’t understand this, let alone face it. “This is a world you don’t understand. And you always fear what you don’t understand.”
We have our external journeys, chasing wealth, love, health and fitness. I certainly have. Yet all of our journeys end up focusing inwards eventually. No matter how successful we become for some reason I see us do stupid things, almost like self sabotage. It’s like we have a self destructive instinct. Not exploring, not knowing ourselves and our shadows are the seeds of our eventual ruin.
“Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.”
But like Bruce Wayne, if you face it, you might have a chance. “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of their apathy….l’m using this monster inside to help others.”
“If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal. And if they can’t stop you, you become something else entirely. A legend.”
So for all the guys out there, maybe be more courageous and take action. “It’s not what you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you…..We can bring Gotham back!”