On July 18 the next installment in the Batman series hits the theaters. By all accounts–and partially due to the untimely death of Heath Ledger and his killer performance as the Joker–The Dark Knight is predicted to be huge.
Batman has always been my favorite comic book character. I liked the campy Batman of the 60s and 70s but things got interesting in 1986. That’s when Frank Miller turned Batman into a gritty anti-hero.
Batman’s martial art? In the comic book he’s said to have mastered several martial arts:
Unlike many superheroes, Batman has no superpowers and instead relies on “his own scientific knowledge, detective skills, and athletic prowess.”[20] Batman is physically at the peak of human ability in dozens of areas, notably martial arts, acrobatics, strength, and escape artistry[citation needed].
So how did the creators of Batman Begins capture Batman’s blending of several martial arts styles? Answer: Have him learn a variant of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do.
Nolan explains that in developing Batman’s combat method and the film’s visceral fight sequences, he searched for a style that married the gritty intensity of street fighting with a disciplined martial arts approach. “For Batman, everything is about function, about the most effective way of doing something; so we needed a style that is brutal, economical and real.”
The filmmakers investigated an offshoot art of Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, the Keysi Fighting Method. KFM was created 20 years ago by JKD practitioner Justo Dieguez.
“The Keysi Fighting Method is a very intuitive kind of martial art. It’s very effective, looks good, but also very, very brutal,” Bale relates. “It’s all about going for the break straight away. It’s quite instinctive and it adapts to many different situations. So it truly looks as though this is Batman’s own style that he’s come up with.”
You can read all about the Keysi Fighting Method here. It’s famous for in-fighting and covers all ranges of combat:
- Projectile Weapons
- Hand Held Weapons
- Kicking Range
- Punching Range
- Trapping Range
- Standing Grappling & Takedowns
- Ground Fighting
There’s also some information about the style here:
The KFM trademark is the thinking man (Pensador) and thinking man attack (pensataq), which makes use of a tight defensive shape to protect the most precious part of the body, the head, and literally smashes and opens up the opponent for the finish using all ranges of strikes – punches, hammer fists, kicks, knees, head butts, and the sharp elbows, all at high, middle and low lines on the opponent. Unlike many martial arts KFM tends to get into extreme close quarters when in combat.
The post 1986 version of Batman adds a level of gritty realism to Batman’s fighting style. While he does not kill, he does disable opponents with brutal efficiency which only makes sense in street situation against multiple opponents.
Anyhow, I’ll close this post with the official movie trailer:
One month to go!
~BCP
