The movies Christian Bale calls his ‘Ethics of Revenge’ trilogy: “You need to become obsessed”
For better or for worse, there’s a certain trilogy that Christian Bale will always be associated with. In many ways, the Christopher Nolan Batman films can be viewed as a meditation on revenge through the lens of a superhero film. What with Bruce Wayne’s initial motivation being the murder of his parents, the vengeful downfall of Harvey Dent and the return of the League of Shadows to avenge their leader Ra’s al Ghul.
However, it was the Scott Cooper film Out of the Furnace that inadvertently began what Bale has called his ‘Ethics of Revenge’ trilogy. Released a year after The Dark Knight Rises, Out of the Furnace was the beginning of what is now a long standing working relationship and friendship between Cooper and Bale.
Out of the Furnace is a straightforward revenge flick that sees Bale play Russell Baze, a Pennsylvania steel mill worker searching for his missing brother, an Iraq War veteran turned bare knuckle fighter. The slow burning nature of the film allows the audience to see the deep, angsty emotions of revenge played out by Bale, who is supported by an equally epic cast of Woody, Harrelson, Willem Dafoe and Sam Shepard.
Interestingly, Bale originally turned the film down even though Cooper wrote the film with the actor in mind. Having too many commitments at the time and trying to find any way to “avoid working”, Bale politely declined the starring role offer, only to eventually circle back due to his obsession with the film. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Bale explained, “I just kept on thinking about it, and I knew that it was going to keep me engaged. You need to become obsessed about these things, and so that allowed me to become obsessed for the few months that it took to film it.”
Bale took his usual deep interest in every character and eventually took the role to different places than Cooper expected, which left the director knowing it was going to be much more of a collaboration than a one off job. And so the pair have gone on to become close friends and further collaborators.
Bale returned to work with Cooper on two-period dramas, Hostiles and The Pale Blue Eye. Both continue this interrogation into the motivations for and consequences of revenge. The former deals with the complex emotions of a US Army officer in 1892 when he has to escort an ailing Cheyenne chief home after years of being enemies. The latter follows a veteran detective and his unlikely protege, Edgar Allen Poe, as they investigate a series of murders at the US military academy.
Bale explained that he started calling their work together the “Ethics of Revenge” trilogy as it “aptly describes all three films in a sense”. And that it does. Otherwise unrelated except for their returning collaborators, the films explore revenge, what it means, who it helps and hurts, and why one might undertake such a bloody task through a different lens and through the ages. And it seems the two aren’t likely to stop. “We’ll keep going.” Bale explained, “We don’t know what yet, but we’ll keep going.” And, with rumours of an L.A. noir bolstered by Cooper himself, it seems likely that the theme of revenge will remain on the menu.
