Batman's Voice

I recently re-watched Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight this weekend and while discussing it with some friends I decided maybe it’s me, but I kind of like the way Christian Bale portrayed Batman’s voice.

Everyone I’ve ever spoken to about this movie generally agree that it’s a notch above all other super hero movies, but they also tend to wonder why Batman sounds like an old lady that’s been smoking six packs a day.  They don’t understand why Bale and Nolan chose to have Bat’s sound that way and why a different voice is needed at all.

I’ve been a Batman fan for longer than I can remember.  I still remember reading comic books on Batman and watching old re-runs from the campy original series staring Adam West with my father.  Then my ultimate vision of Batman came with the late 80’s movies from Tim Burton with Michael Keaton portraying the caped crusader.  While the series almost lost me with parts three and four and bat nipples, Nolan and Bale created an even greater Batman with Batman Begins.  He was dark, gritty and a more realistic approach to the character than we had ever seen before.

Batman is all about using fear to his advantage and using scare tactics to help him fight off his enemies.  He has no super powers, just gadgets and high intelligence.  The bat suit and persona of a bat is to instill fear and give him a competitive advantage.  How would that come across if he was just talking in a normal voice?  It simply wouldn’t.  A dark, gritty growl of a voice is needed to complete the persona.  I don’t know about you but if a grown man in a bat suit came out of the shadows using Bale’s Batman voice, I would definitely think twice about messing with him and also pray I had brought a second pair of underwear.  If he came out of the shadows with a regular voice, I may just think the guy’s crazy and off his meds.  The voice is needed to create the persona, it creates fear.

That’s not the only reason the voice is needed.  If Batman didn’t disguise his voice, I’m pretty sure someone would figure out who is true identity is.  Think about picking up the phone and instantly knowing who’s on the other end just from the “hello” from the caller. After hearing someone’s voice a couple times, you can recognize them from it.  Somebody, somewhere is going to figure out Bruce Wayne = Batman if he doesn’t disguise the voice somewhat.  This really is the only problem with Burton’s Batman.  Batman & Bruce Wayne have the same voice and to me it’s easily recognizable.  How cool would it have been to have Michael Keaton use the Beetlejuice voice when he was Batman?  At least then we wouldn’t be able to figure out who Batman was.

The Bale Batman voice is not a shortcoming of The Dark Knight.  It’s a great attention to detail that I feel suits the movie and should be applauded.  Maybe it’s me but maybe we should be more concerned that Bale is using the Batman voice in Terminator Salvation.  John Connor can’t be growling directions to the resistance….