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- Christian Bale is teaming up with director David O. Russell again for the 2022 movie Amsterdam, following his successful turns for the director in both The Fighter and American Hustle. In the period piece, he plays one of three friends caught up in a wild murder mystery, and the cast is sure to get a lot of attention at awards time. This is something Bale has become very familiar with over the years. He has appeared in everything from the biggest blockbusters to some of the most prestigious drama films, and never seems to miss a beat as he takes on every role imaginable.
Few actors have managed to walk the line between small-scale indies and mega-sized blockbusters like Christian Bale has. He’s played a wide range of different roles – from John Connor to Patrick Bateman; Dick Cheney to Batman – working with all kinds of acclaimed, masterful directors, from Inception’s Christopher Nolan to Anchorman’s Adam McKay.
Bale also has a longevity that not many movie stars can hope for, starting out as a child actor in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and still going strong today. He’s made a ton of movies: some good, some not so good, and a few greats.
UPDATE: 2022/09/27 13:58 EST BY SHAWN S. LEALOS
Christian Bale is teaming up with director David O. Russell again for the 2022 movie Amsterdam, following his successful turns for the director in both The Fighter and American Hustle. In the period piece, he plays one of three friends caught up in a wild murder mystery, and the cast is sure to get a lot of attention at awards time. This is something Bale has become very familiar with over the years. He has appeared in everything from the biggest blockbusters to some of the most prestigious drama films, and never seems to miss a beat as he takes on every role imaginable.
The Prestige (2006) - 76%
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In between Batman movies, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale took a short break to make a science-fiction drama called The Prestige. The movie took place in 1980s London and featured rival magicians, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, both trying to one-up each other. However, when the wife of Jackman's Angier dies in a trick by Bale's Borden, their rivalry becomes deadly.
Like most of Nolan's non-Batman movies, this is a tale of twists and turns, with a huge and surprising twist at the end that no one saw coming. Bale carried his role perfectly, and when the truth comes out, he sells it masterfully. This was an actor's showcase and a nice break from the superhero movies for both Jackman and Bale.
Empire Of The Sun (1987) - 76%
* Rent now on Apple TV & Prime Video
Christian Bale is a former child star, and he appeared in two landmark movies as a youngster. Before he appeared in the love letter to newspapers in the musical Newsies in 1992, Bale took on a role in Steven Spielberg's wartime drama, Empire of the Sun, in 1987.
A 13-year-old Christian Bale played a young boy who lived with his wealthy family in Shanghai and became a prisoner of war during World War II. The movie allowed Spielberg to make a World War II movie similar to one of his idols, David Lean, and it helped make the young Bale a superstar.
The Machinist (2004) - 77%
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The Machinist gave Christian Bale a chance to drastically change his appearance for a movie role. This psychological thriller was about a machinist struggling with guilt and paranoia after going a year without sleeping. While it didn't do great at the box office, it received positive reviews and has become a cult classic.
Bale lost 62 pounds for the role to develop a dramatically thin body composition, dropping all the way to 120 pounds. While Brad Anderson's direction received critical praise, it was Bale's commitment to the role and his willingness to do anything the movie needed that made it a lasting success.
Batman Begins (2005) - 84%
* Stream now on HBO Max
The first Christopher Nolan Batman movie saved the franchise. However, Batman Begins was the lowest-rated of The Dark Knight Trilogy on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie brought Batman back from the overly-colorful look at Batman & Robin and retold the origin story of Batman for a new generation.
Christian Bale slipped right into the role of Bruce Wayne flawlessly. Much of the movie was about Bruce Wayne coming into his own, rather than being about Batman fighting crime. In this manner, Bale carried the movie to great heights and set the table for the superior The Dark Knight a few years later.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - 87%
There was no way that The Dark Knight Rises would live up to expectations. Tom Hardy’s Bane had to top Heath Ledger’s Joker, the opening IMAX sequence had to top The Dark Knight’s opening bank robbery, and the whole thing had to conclude Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy in a satisfying way.
The fact that the movie ended up being praised by fans and critics – albeit acknowledging that it wasn’t as great as its predecessor – is nothing short of a Herculean feat. Nolan cashed in all of his chips, bowing out the trilogy with a gargantuan epic inspired by A Tale of Two Cities.
3:10 to Yuma (2007) - 89%
* Stream now on HBO Max
Ever since the western died out, it’s been tough for Hollywood to turn out a memorable entry in the genre. However, James Mangold managed it with 3:10 to Yuma, his remake of the 1957 movie of the same name that was an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard short story.
Christian Bale plays a rancher whose livelihood is threatened by a drought. He takes on the difficult task of bringing an outlaw, played by Russell Crowe, to justice. It has the same black-and-white view of good and evil that has given classic westerns such longevity.
The Big Short (2015) - 89%
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The mortgage crisis has been used as the basis for a number of movies in the past decade or so since it first happened, but the world of banking just doesn’t look that exciting when it’s portrayed on-screen.
Adam McKay made his best effort to pull off an entertaining movie about men in suits looking at numbers on computer screens with celebrities explaining financial jargon in cameo appearances and A-list actors like Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell in the lead roles, but he still fell a little short. Although it’s not a particularly riveting movie, Christian Bale is still fantastic in it.
Rescue Dawn (2007) - 90%
* Stream now on Prime Video
In this biopic directed by Werner Herzog, Christian Bale plays a German-American pilot named Dieter Dengler, who was shot down over Laos and captured by communist-sympathizing villagers during the Vietnam War.
Rescue Dawn may have been a box office bomb, but it’s still a brilliant movie. Herzog’s direction immerses viewers deep in the jungles of Thailand, where the movie was shot. There’s no mistaking it for a backlot or a forest in California – this is the real deal. Plus, Bale’s performance as Dengler is captivating. He anchors the whole movie. It feels much more raw and honest than the average prisoner-of-war movie.
The Fighter (2010) - 91%
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Christian Bale won an Oscar for his turn in The Fighter, David O. Russell’s impeccably crafted biopic of boxer Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Eklund. Bale lost a ton of weight to play Eklund, but playing the role required Bale to do more than just impersonate his Boston accent.
He has very distinctive mannerisms that Bale had to lock down, and his dedication to the part was unparalleled. His performance is seamless from start to finish. Performances like this are why they hand out Oscars in the first place (even though no one really cares about them anymore) – they need to be recognized.
Ford v Ferrari (2019) - 92%
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Just two years after helming a beautiful, Oscar-nominated send-off for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine with 2017’s Logan, director James Mangold returned with the true-to-life tale of the Ford racing team’s desperate efforts to finally beat the undefeated Ferrari team on the track.
Matt Damon stars as the renowned car designer Carroll Shelby, while Christian Bale is playing his British driver, Ken Miles. Ford v Ferrari hit theaters in 2019, but after its world premiere, critics gave it a rare 100% score. It has since dropped somewhat, but is still one of Bale's best-rated movies.
American Hustle (2013) - 92%
* Stream now on Starz
David O. Russell’s movie about the FBI’s Abscam operation is darkly comic and star-studded, although is likely not the most memorable movie on his resume.
It takes pretty obvious inspiration from the works of Martin Scorsese – the only downside being that it has Scorsese’s style without his substance. While the plot itself isn’t too compelling in American Hustle, its humor is as hilarious as it can be. One running joke in particular, involving Bradley Cooper trying to guess the end of Louis C.K.’s ice-fishing story, is brilliant.
Little Women (1994) - 93%
* Stream now on HBO Max
Before Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig made her version of Little Women with Saoirse Ronan, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Emma Watson, and Timothée Chalamet, the last major film adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott source material came out in 1994.
In the 1994 version, Christian Bale played Laurie, the childhood best friend of Winona Ryder’s character Jo, who grows up to fall in love with her. He spends the movie trying to get her to marry him, but she doesn’t want to, so he ends up with her little sister.
The Dark Knight (2008) - 94%
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After 11 years of MCU installments, with a handful of inspired gems and a dozen others following a winning formula, it’s astounding that The Dark Knight still remains undefeated as the greatest superhero movie ever made. Christopher Nolan’s sequel succeeds due to pretty primal elements.
It builds on the dichotomy of Bruce Wayne and Batman (with a layered performance by Bale to back it up), it presents the quintessential movie villain with a personal connection to the hero (making way for Heath Ledger to win an unprecedented posthumous Oscar), and it’s impeccably made, shot mostly on IMAX to feel genuinely cinematic.
Henry V (1989) - 100%
* Stream now on Hoopla & Tubi
This movie based on William Shakespeare’s play Henry V was directed by Kenneth Branagh, one of the world’s foremost directors of Shakespearean film adaptations, who also wrote the script – retaining the play’s tight five-act structure – and played the lead role.
Henry V is widely regarded to be one of the best Shakespearean movies of all time. Christian Bale only had a small role as Robin, the luggage boy, but he was just a child actor at the time, and any child who can keep up with that unwieldy, old-timey Shakespearean dialogue and follow what’s going on is pretty impressive.