Jesus Christ
The Contenders: As if it was final proof that good triumphs over evil, big J.C. has appeared on screen even more times than Dracula—there’s nearly 400 listings for him as a character on IMDb, from silents to the upcoming “Son Of God” by way of “South Park” and “Robot Chicken.” Ruling out the performances that don’t go much further than cameos (“Ben Hur,” “The Robe,” “Life Of Brian” et al.), we’re left with a brace of serious possibilities: H.B. Warner in Cecil B. DeMille‘s 1927 silent “The King Of Kings“; Jeffrey Hunter in Nicholas Ray‘s 1961 “King of Kings“; Enrique Irazoqui in Pasolini‘s 1964 “The Gospel According To Matthew“; Max Von Sydow in 1965’s “The Greatest Story Ever Told“; Victor Garber and Ted Neely in 1973 musicals “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar“; Robert Powell in Zeffirelli‘s 1977 made-for-TV epic “Jesus Of Nazareth“; Willem Dafoe in Martin Scorsese‘s “The Last Temptation Of Christ“; and Jim Caviezel in Mel Gibson‘s 2004 “The Passion Of The Christ.”
The Argument: Christ might be the trickiest part to pull off on this list: play him as “Christlike,” as it were, and you risk being dull, but put too much humanity in the part and you bring down the moral majority on your head. We’d argue that Warner and Hunter fall in that category, while Garber and Neely are too much slaves to the musical numbers to really make a lasting impression. Enrique Iraqoqui (a Spanish economics student who’d never acted before) is a rather remarkable presence in Pasolini’s film, though there are rough edges on the performance, while Jim Caviezel does a fair but unexceptional job in Mel Gibson’s otherwise unpleasant retelling, especially given that his dialogue in Aramaic. But ultimately, we come down to Robert Powell’s unearthly, yet human take in the Zefferelli miniseries, and Dafoe’s flawed, angst-ridden Jesus H in Scorsese’s film.
The Winner And Why: Willem Dafoe. Controversial to this day (it’s still banned in Singapore and the Philippines), the film makes a case for being one of Scorsese’s best, or at least his most soulful, films, and so much of that is down to Dafoe. He never plays Christ as the son of God, but as a man, and fully rises to challenges inherent in that. If the mob who firebombed the French cinema showing the film, or any of the other kneejerk religious critics actually sat down to watch the thing, they’d find in Dafoe someone who makes Jesus’ plight and sacrifice more moving than any other version.
The One You Haven’t Seen: For a (very) alternative take, check out Hal Hartley‘s 60-minute 1998 curio “The Book of Life,” a digitally-shot, present-day tale of Millennial apocalypse that sees Hartley regular Martin Donovan take on Christ (with no less than P.J. Harvey as Mary Magdalene). Along similar lines, Christopher Eccleston is rather good in TV two-parter “The Second Coming,” from “Doctor Who” rebooter Russell T. Davies.
Batman
The Contenders: Arguably the movies’ most popular superhero (he’s been consistently more successful than Superman, and gone through more incarnations than Spider-Man or Iron Man), billionaire-orphan-turned-crime-fighter Bruce Wayne, better known as Batman, first came to the screen in a 1943 serial for Columbia, played by Lewis Wilson, with a follow-up, “Batman And Robin,” in 1949 with Robert Lowery donning the cowl. But the first to truly become famous was Adam West, in the TV series that ran from 1966 to 1968 (as well as the movie spin-off that was filmed after the first season). Twenty years later, Michael Keaton got the keys to the Batmobile for Tim Burton‘s megabudget 1989 “Batman,” and reprised the role in 1992 sequel “Batman Returns” before Val Kilmer, and then George Clooney, took over for 1995’s “Batman Forever” and 1998’s “Batman and Robin,” respectively. The latter put paid to the franchise for a while, but it was rebooted to huge success by Christopher Nolan with 2005’s “Batman Begins,” in which Christian Bale played the role. Nolan and Bale reunited for the second and third parts of the trilogy, 2008’s “The Dark Knight” and 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” Ben Affleck will play the role in “Batman Vs. Superman,” but you’ll have to wait until 2016 to see that happen, now that the film’s been delayed.
The Argument: Let’s assume for a minute we can disregard Wilson and Lowery from the serials, who from what we’ve seen, are fairly deservedly brushed over in the history of the character. West is gloriously silly (it says something about the endurance of his performance that people still make references to his catchphrase), though it’s obviously lightweight stuff—though some would argue, perhaps correctly, that it’s the appropriate tone for something based on the funny papers. George Clooney’s one film in the Batsuit is almost as campy, which is a shame—he’s the Timothy Dalton of the franchise, a decent bit of casting wasted on disappointing material. That said, we’d probably take him over Val Kilmer, who looks miserable for every second that he’s on screen in “Batman Forever.” As for the greatest ever, it probably depends on your age as to whether you go for Keaton, whose casting proved unlikely, or Bale, the grittier 21st Bat-avatar, as the seminal pick.
The Winner And Why: Christian Bale. Keaton is great in the role, with a wry humor that none of the other Batmen matched, and his two films are pretty solid. But ultimately, he has a tendency to fade into the background a bit, with Burton much more interested in the villain. “Batman Begins” might be the weakest of Nolan’s trilogy, but it’s the only Batman movie to actually be about Batman, rather than his adversaries, and even in Nolan’s sequels, there’s much more depth to the character than you find elsewhere. And Bale, while a bit dour, is superb, delivering multiple performances in one—there’s wounded orphan boy Bruce Wayne, there’s the public persona of Bruce Wayne, drunken playboy, and there’s the monstrous and intimidating alter ego (and yeah, the gravelly voice can become silly in places, but it was an inspired choice to begin with). The actor takes the odd concept of a man who dresses up as a flying rodent to fight crime and sells it as something you can empathize with, and that’s a hell of an achievement.
The One You Might Not Have Seen: We were tempted to unseat Bale for Will Arnett‘s vocal turn in “The Lego Movie” based on the trailer alone, but we should probably wait for the film to actually come out before we do that. But we should shine a light on another great animated performance, that of Kevin Conroy. The voiceover specialist first voiced Bruce Wayne for the seminal “Batman: The Animated Series” in 1992, and twenty years on, continues to crop up in straight-to-DVD animations and video games. In many ways, his performances are just as iconic and influential as Keaton and Bale’s have been.
