Christian Bale is thought by many to have become an “actor’s actor.” He is fully committed to his characters, often staying in character during shooting, and he is not afraid to lose or gain weight in order to make a character more believable, as was the case with his Oscar-nominated role as former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney in “Vice.”
Good reviews are something that Bale has gotten used to during his three-decade film career, beginning with his starring role in Steven Spielberg‘s “Empire of the Sun” when he was only 13 years old. In that time, Bale has been nominated for three Oscars (winning one for “The Fighter” with bids for “American Hustle” and “The Big Short”), three Golden Globes (winning one, again for “The Fighter”) and five Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations of which he won two (for “The Fighter” and “American Hustle”). His 2022 films included “Amsterdam” for David O. Russell and “The Pale Blue Eye” for Scott Cooper.
Let’s take a look back at his eclectic career in our photo gallery featuring his 16 greatest films, ranked from worst to best. Which one is your favorite?
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16. NEWSIES (1992)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: Kenny Ortega. Writers: Bob Tzudiker, Noni White. Starring Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Ann-Margret, Robert Duvall.
As Bale’s first and only musical, “Newsies” was a flop on its first release, but the film was one of those movies that gained a huge fan base once it was released on home video. Loosely based on the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City, Bale plays teenage newsboy Jack Kelly, who rebels when Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall), publisher of the New York World, the paper that Jack delivers, forces the newsboys to pay more for the newspapers that they sell, prompting Jack to lead “newsies” all over New York City to go on strike. The film was adapted into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical in 2011.
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15. OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013)
Image Credit: Relativity Media / Scott Free Produtions/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Scott Cooper. Writers: Brad Ingelsby, Scott Cooper. Starring Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker.
Before his work with writer/director Scott Cooper in “Hostiles,” the two collaborated on this 2013 thriller in which Bale played Russell Baze, a debt-ridden steel worker whose Iraq vet brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) makes chump-change duking it out in bare-knuckle fights in rural Pennsylvania. When Rodney suddenly disappears after a mob-controlled fight, Russell, gun in hand, takes it upon himself to find his brother and track down the hoods who abducted him. Yet another believable American blue-collar performance by Bale.
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14. THE NEW WORLD (2005)
Image Credit: Line/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Terrence Malick. Starring Colin Farrell, Q’orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale.
In writer/director Terrence Malick’s retelling of the legend of Pocahontas, Bale steps into the key role of John Rolfe, an English settler in 17th Century Jamestown, Virginia, who comforts Pocahontas (Q’orianka Kilcher) of the Powatan Native American tribe, who believes that the love of her life, Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) is dead. It’s a tough part for Bale, having to follow Farrell’s charismatic John Smith, but he makes Rolfe such a decent human being that Pocahontas eventually comes to her senses and sees that Rolfe really is her life partner. A wonderfully rare romance by Malick.
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13. EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Steven Spielberg. Writer: Tom Stoppard. Starring Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Joe Pantoliano.
Bale became a star at age 13 with the release of Steven Spielberg’s World War II coming-of-age epic “Empire of the Sun.” As schoolboy Jamie Graham in Shanghai during World War II, Bale captures the terror of being separated from his parents during the Japanese invasion and the adventure of partnering up with a couple of American hustlers, whose idea of hustling leads to acts that wind up placing them in a Japanese internment camp. Critics were particularly taken by the maturity displayed by young Mr. Bale in his first leading role.
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12. PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009)
Image Credit: Forward Pass/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Michael Mann. Writers: Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman, Michael Mann. Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup.
Just as he did in “3:10 to Yuma” two years before, Bale plays the good guy in a genre film for which there is a formidable bad guy — in this case hoodlum John Dillinger (Johnny Depp). In Michael Mann’s gangster film, Bale portrays celebrated FBI agent Melvin Purvis, whose focus appears to be fixated on bringing Dillinger and his mobster cohorts to justice. Although he doesn’t share many scenes with Depp, Bale brings an authority to Purvis that helps to give the film’s final shootout some extra gravitas.
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11. THE PRESTIGE (2006)
Image Credit: Touchstone/Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Christopher Nolan. Writers: Jonathan & Christopher Nolan. Starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine.
This mystery/thriller, directed by Christopher Nolan, set in the world of stage magic in 1890s London, starred Bale and Hugh Jackman as rival magicians who attempt to top each other to see who is the best, and the results are tragic. The screenplay by Jonathan Nolan is filled with the same kind of twists and surprises that the two main characters attempt to pull off on stage, and casting two actors as strong as Bale and Jackman almost creates an acting rivalry on screen that mirrors their characters’ relationship.
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10. 3:10 TO YUMA (2007)
Image Credit: REX/Shutterstock Director: James Mangold. Writers: Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas. Starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda.
In James Mangold’s 2007 remake of the classic Delmer Daves western, Bale co-stars as one-legged rancher Dan Evans who, broke because of a drought, agrees to take on the job of escorting dangerous outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to the 3:10pm train for Yuma Territorial Prison. Bale has a crackling chemistry with Crowe, which helped to make their respective characters’ antagonism work. For his performance as Wade, Bale received his first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Ensemble Cast.
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9. THE PALE BLUE EYE (2022)
Image Credit: Netflix Writer/Director: Scott Cooper (based on the novel by Louis Bayard)
Starring: Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Harry Melling, Fred Hechinger, Toby Jones, Timothy SpallIn this monumentally moody and disturbing Netflix gothic horror mystery, Bale stars as a worn-out detective who is summoned to investigate an apparent suicide among the cadet community at West Point Academy in 1830. But by the next morning, someone will have surgically removed the heart from the corpse. Uh oh. Bale is zeroed in and mega-intense in a role tailor-made for him. Adding stellar support are Gillian Anderson and Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in all five “Harry Potter” movies). Here, Melling is a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe. Yes, that one. Robert Duvall also drops by, but if you blink you’ll miss him.
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8. AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000)
Image Credit: REX/Shutterstock Director: Mary Harron. Writers: Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto.
Bale’s career came roaring back to life in the 2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ notorious best-seller focusing on investment banker Patrick Bateman (Bale) whose obsession with material one-upsmanship (even down to the paper quality of one’s business card) drives him into a homicidal rage. What could have been a routine slasher film is lifted by Bale’s deft performance, keeping us with Patrick (even when he is doing the most reprehensible acts) so that the film becomes less of a horror movie and more of a very dark black comedy.
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7. AMSTERDAM (2022)
Image Credit: 20th Century Writer/Director: David O. Russell
Starring: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Taylor Swift, Rami Malek, Robert De NiroBy turns exuberant, rollicking, wacky and utterly frantic, this caper drama features a cast of seemingly hundreds and a film noir heart that’s very much in keeping with writer-director Russell’s MO. Bale, Robbie and Washington play the three principles, three friends brought together by WWI who, in 1933, are framed for a murder (of Taylor Swift!) and wind up stumbling onto an insane political conspiracy that’s based on real history. While not a great film – its substance tends to get eclipsed by its style – “Amsterdam” is so ambitious in design that we’re willing to forgive its persistent absurdity. And Bale is charmingly neurotic in a way we’ve never seen before.
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6. THE BATMAN Films (2005, 2008, 2012)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Christopher Nolan. Writers: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer. Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman.
Bale starred as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the three most acclaimed Batman films of all time — Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins (2005), “The Dark Knight” (2008) and “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) — giving a dark, tortured performance that has captured the imagination of Batman fans everywhere. Never too far emotionally from the killing of his parents, Bale’s Bruce Wayne is a brooding millionaire anxious to avenge his parents’ murders by wiping out those who threaten Gotham City. Yes, Bale offers plenty of action in all three films, but there’s also a sense of sorrow in Bruce Wayne that is never too far from the surface.
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5. FORD V. FERRARI (2019)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Director: James Mangold
Writers: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, Jason Keller
Starring: Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe, Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, Noah JupeA highly underrated piece of masterful filmmaking by director Mangold, it packs a whopper of a one-two punch in Bale and Damon. Bale portrays daring race car driver Ken Miles, and Damon as American automotive designer Carroll Shelby in the fact-based story of how the two men set out to beat the Italians at the 24 Hours of Le Mans road race in 1966. A technically beautiful movie that wears its energy and adrenaline like a cloak, Bale brings it as few actors could, matching the film’s considerable intensity with his own devil-may-care passion. He’s terrific, grabbing the audience by the throat early on and refusing to let go. I want this guy on my team.
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4. THE FIGHTER (2010)
Image Credit: Mandeville Films/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: David O. Russell. Writers: Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Scott Silver. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo.
Bale’s screen triumph to date is in David O. Russell’s biographical sports drama based on the life of professional boxer Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), who is being trained by his older half-brother Dicky Eklund (Bale), a former fighter who is now hooked on crack cocaine. When he arranges a fight for Micky in which he is clearly outclassed and beaten, Dicky turns to crime and is sent to prison. For his supporting performance as Dicky (for which he had to lose 30 pounds), Bale won the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award.
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3. AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013)
Image Credit: Atlas Entertainment/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: David O. Russell. Writers: David O. Russell, Eric Warren Singer. Starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence.
Although Bale is known to be a bit of a shape-shifter when it comes to his characters, he has never shifted his shape into a character quite like con artist Irving Rosenfeld in David O. Russell’s black comedy “American Hustle.” To capture the essence of Rosenfeld’s character, Bale donned a fat suit and added an absurdly hideous combover hairstyle, making him look like the world’s most unlikely film-flam man. For his performance, Bale won a SAG Ensemble Cast Award, as well as receiving his second Oscar nomination and his second nomination for a Golden Globe.
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2. THE BIG SHORT (2015)
Image Credit: Plan B/Regency Enterprises/Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Adam McKay. Writers: Adam McKay, Charles Randolph. Starring Chriatian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt.
Based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction chronicle of the 2007-2008 financial crisis following a housing bubble in America, Adam McKay’s adaptation of the book focuses three distinct but concurrently told stories. The first features flaky hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Bale) who offers a wild theory that, based on high-risk subprime loans, the U.S. housing market is extremely unstable. A bank salesman (Ryan Gosling) comes across Burry’s theory and convinces hedge fund manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell) and eventually retired securities trader Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) to join in. For his performance as Burry, Bale received his third Oscar nomination, this third Golden Globe nomination, and his fifth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.
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1. VICE (2018)
Image Credit: Annapurna Writer/Director: Adam McKay
Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, Eddie Marsan, Justin Kirk, LisaGay Hamilton, Jesse PlemonsBale performs one of his astonishing transformations here, not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well in becoming Vice President Dick Cheney. It earned him a lead actor Oscar nomination, and it was entirely deserved. The film itself has a few issues, namely that it’s so single-minded in its negative focus. But sometimes, a single dominant actor can make a film more than worthwhile to see, and this is one of those times. As uneven as the focus may be, the portrayal is so devastatingly powerful that we get swept up in its megalomaniacal tenor. Adams, Carell, Rockwell and Pill lend strong support, but this is Bale’s movie to its core.
