In our ongoing effort to offer a variety of resources related to faith and film, we are pleased to feature a regular series focused specifically on adoption in the movies. Addison Cooper, the reviewer you are about to read, is a licensed social worker who cares deeply about helping families navigate the tricky waters of adoption. He also recognizes film’s ability to help people process turbulent emotional situations in life.
If you are pursuing adoption now, we hope this series is is a help. If you know someone else who is adopting, please pass this series on to them. Adoption seems to be very close to the heart of God.
Because this series is meant to be a study guide of sorts for movies featuring adoption, SPOILERS will be included, as dealing critically with thematic issues raised by films generally necessitates discussing plot points from throughout the narrative.
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Batman Begins
The Plot
Bruce Wayne has a charmed life. He has loving, supportive parents, a loyal, caring butler, and a palatial estate to call home. But tragedy strikes. One evening, young Bruce is at the opera with his parents. Bruce, afraid of bats, is terrified by a scene in which the actors are dressed as bats. He asks his father to let him leave. While standing in an alley outside of the theater, Bruce’s parents are mugged and murdered.
Although the murderer was caught, Bruce struggles with anger and guilt, because it’s his fear that put his parents in that alley. Bruce is raised by Alfred, but leaves home as a young adult to study the criminal mind. He learns to confront his fear and decides to use fear to terrify criminals. In an attempt to master his own fear, Bruce becomes Batman.
The Adoption Connection
When Bruce’s parents die, Alfred is left to care for Bruce. Bruce travels the world and struggles with finding his identity but is always able to trust Alfred. Alfred repeatedly affirms that he will never give up on Bruce. Bruce asks why Alfred cares about him and about the Wayne family, and Alfred expresses that it’s because he was entrusted with caring for Bruce by Bruce’s father.
Bruce feels guilt over his parents’ death and masks the feeling of guilt with anger. Many adoptees do struggle with feelings of guilt over their separation from their parents, and sometimes that feeling of guilt is expressed through anger.
Strengths
Bruce is encouraged to see the connection between his anger and his feeling of guilt. He is repeatedly assured that what happened to his parents is not his fault. For adoptees who struggle with feelings of misplaced guilt, this movie could encourage some introspection into why the feelings of guilt are there, whether they’re rational, and how they’re manifested. The continuing theme in the movie – “It’s not your fault” – is also positive.
As Bruce works through his guilt and defines his identity, he makes some mistakes, but this constant refrain in the movie is encouraging – “Why do we fall down? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
Alfred continually affirms and demonstrates that he will never give up on Bruce. Adoptees and children in foster care need to know that they are loved unconditionally and permanently by those in parental roles. Even as a thirty-year-old, Bruce depends on Alfred’s presence in his life.
Challenges
Bruce is told, “It’s not who you are deep down, but what you do that defines you.” He seems to believe this. He ultimately repeats the statement as a way of identifying himself, “I’m not an irresponsible kid. I am someone who fights for justice.” However, it could be easy to get confused. Which message is the movie sharing: “What you do is what defines you” or “Why do we fall down? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”?
The person who tells Bruce “What you do is what defines you,” says it, and walks away. The people who tell him, “We fall down so we can learn to get back up,” are the ones who are most consistent in his life.
Weaknesses
Shortly after I started posting adoption movie reviews, an adoption blogger shared with me about the potential of movies to trigger the negative emotions of young adoptees. Fictional portrayals of traumatic events can cause adoptees to relive and re-experience their own unresolved trauma. This movie has lots of “trigger” potential. Bruce sees his parents get murdered, is attacked on several occasions, and is in several fights. These scenes may hit very close to home for children who witnessed or experienced domestic violence. There are nightmarish scenes which result from a form of chemical terrorism which could badly frighten young children.
Police officers and judges are shown to be corrupt. This could be a particular trigger to children adopted from foster care. In many cases, police officers are present when the children are taken from their parents. Judges declare that their parents no longer have parental rights. Seeing either of these authority figures as corrupt could be very troubling for these children and teens.
Recommended?
This movie is violent enough to be a trigger to many kids, and there are particular reasons why it might be troubling to children adopted from foster care. Know your child’s story, and watch the film before you share it with them.
However, for older kids and teenagers struggling with misplaced guilt – for the circumstances of their adoption or just for things that they’ve done en route to developing their own identity – this movie offers some hope: You can recover from bad choices. You don’t have to live with guilt that doesn’t belong to you. There are people like Alfred who will never forsake you.
Questions for Discussion
* Which statement sounds more true to you and why: “It’s not who you are deep inside, but what you
do that defines you?” or “Why do we fall down? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”?
* Why did Bruce feel guilty about what happened outside of the opera? Why is guilt what he felt
even though it wasn’t his fault?
* Bruce really couldn’t have stopped what happened. Feeling guilt is one way to avoid acknowledging
that he didn’t have power to change what happened. Why is it so scary to know that some things just
happen? How can we function while living in a world where we can’t control everything?
* Bruce was scared of bats, but he later confronts his fear. What fears have you overcome?
Addison Cooper, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in California and Missouri. He has six years of experience in adoption, and has participated in the adoptions of over 90 children who were adopted from foster care. He’s working on a book about adoption in the movies. Visit his website, and follow him on Twitter @AddisonCooper for the most current information about his work.