BATMAN BEGINS = Rewrite of THE SHADOW?

Sorry if this has been posted before.

I was just thinking the other day about how similar the two films are. It's almost as if The writers of Batman Begins used The Shadow as a template. Although, not everything happens in the same order in both films, but the characters are still very similar.

Much was made about how they sort of reinvented Batman from the previous films, comics, cartoons, etc. But, he is really much like The Shadow from the 1994 movie.

(Ironically, anyone who watched that movie would probably agree that Alec Baldwin would have made a great Batman/Bruce Wayne)

Similarities that stand out for me:


1) How the two characters "begin" their quest.

Lamont Cranston disappears "after the war" for some years and becomes a criminal while searching for a direction in life.

Bruce Wayne also disappears "after his parents murder and then his inability to avenge them." While seeking direction in life, he, for all intents and purposes, becomes a criminal.

2) The men who trained them.

Both characters are trained similarly in a similar setting. Sort of a Chinese or Japanese Mythical Palace, one hidden high at the top of a mountain, the other deep in the desert.

The Character Ra's Al Ghul for example, was never portrayed as Japanese before this film. In the comic and cartoons he was Arabic. Even his name is Arabic.

Yet, here he is portrayed by a Japanese actor, as the leader of a ninjitsu clan.

Infact, outside of keeping the name "Ra's Al Ghul," he is virtually a new character and is strikingly similar to man who trains The Shadow.


Other notable similarities:

The first appearence on screen of both characters is almost identical, with both characters looming off screen, terrifying the bad guys until finally appearing.

Cranston awakens and then states that something or someone is coming to the city, similar to other characters in Batman Begins stating that "he is coming to Gotham."

I guess I could go on forever and overanalyse every aspect of both films, but I think you get the point I am trying to make.