Christian Bale Movies

The first time I really took notice of Christian Bale was after I saw the cult classic American Psycho. A friend suggested the movie to me and I didn't really know what to expect. I thought that the movie was going to be a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho but this movie was far from that. He puts on a convincing portrayal of a twenty something modern day serial killer living in New York. Let's just say that Christian Bale's performance in that movie was amazing and left me looking for other movies he had made. To my surprise I had already seen a few of the movies he had been in, including Velvet Goldmine, Little Women, Newsies, Henry V, and Pocahontas. Although he had been in these movies his role in these movies was usually as a supporting actor. However, after watching an American Psycho, Christian Bale solidified himself as a leading role type actor.

His next appearance was in the movie Shaft with Samuel Jackson in which Jackson hunts down Bale after he commits a crime. Following his role in the movie Shaft, the next noteworthy Christian Bale movie was Equilibrium. A futuristic movie in which Bale plays an agent that tracks down humans that express any type of feeling because feelings had been outlawed. According to Wikipedia, Christian Bale's character is responsible for 118 kills in the movie. A must see for those people that enjoy non-stop action and a high body count.

The Machinist was reminiscent of Christian's previous work in American Psycho in which a mentally disturbed Bale is stricken with a severe case of insomnia. His insomnia leads to paranoid thoughts and delusions. In this movie Christian Bale pushes the limits of character envelopment by losing a great deal of weight which provides a level of realism to the character. No doubt a trying performance of both body and mind. But it wasn't until the blockbuster hit, Batman Begins that Bale cashes in on his acting genius.

Following in the long line of Batman films, Bale plays the character of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins and puts in a performance that rivals other Batman actors before him. The stunning cast list included Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Katie Holmes to name a few. His performance as Batman later earned him a spot in the later Batman films, The Dark Knight, and the soon to be released The Dark Knight Rises.

After Batman Begins he played in The New World, Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, 3:10 to Yuma, Terminator Salvation, Public Enemies and The Fighter.

Rescue Dawn found Bale losing the weight once again to portray a prisoner of war after his plane is shot down during the Vietnam War. A classic story of doing what it takes to survive in the substandard prisoner of war facilities in Vietnam.

The Prestige, found Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as competing stage magicians that are willing to do whatever it takes to one up each other. An amazing twist at the end of the movie leaves you wanting to watch the movie again and again to pick up on the subtle foreshadowing throughout the movie.

Following up The Prestige Bale finds himself once again in a battle, this time against Russell Crowe. A destitute rancher looking to make some quick money, Bale is hired to transport Crowe (a dangerous outlaw) to the 3:10 train to Yuma prison. Christian Bale's character Dan finds that transporting Russell Crowe isn't any easy task once Crowe's posse catches wind of his plan to put their leader on a train to Yuma prison.

After filming the second Batman movie, The Dark Knight, he took on a leading role as John Connor in Terminator Salivation. An apocalyptic vision of a world taken over by Terminators. Bale is tasked with keeping the future of mankind intact and meets up with co-star Sam Worthington (Avatar, 2009), a hybrid of both human and terminator.

In 2009 Bale took a backseat to Johnny Depp in Public Enemies. Johnny Depp plays the role of the infamous John Dillinger and Bale's character, Melvin Purvis, an agent hot on Dillinger's trail. A battle between mobster and law enforcement which also stars Jason Clarke, David Wenham, Stephen Dorff, Channing Tatum and James Russo.

Lastly, the role that earned Christian Bale the fortuitous best supporting actor oscar was The Fighter. Bale plays the role of Dicky Eklund, a former boxing champ that has fallen into a life of drug addiction. Mark Wahlberg his brother in the movie, plays Micky Ward a budding boxer that depends on his drug addicted brother for training. With Bale's help Wahlberg achieves the one thing that always seemed to elude his brother.

After putting together an amazing resume in the past twenty years it's hard to foretell what great movies will be next for Bale. The one thing is certain though, if there is a new Christian Bale movie you can bet that I'll pay my $7.50 at the box office to take a look.