Example of Sales in Batman Begins

Over break, my mom and I decided to begin the journey of watching every Christopher Nolan movie in his filmography, starting with the earliest released to the most current. Nolan directed The Dark Knight Batman trilogy, which includes Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. We didn’t get to the last one, The Dark Knight Rises, but we did watch the first two. In the first one, Batman Begins, I saw what I believe could be analyzed as a good sales pitch try from one of the characters to another. Bruce Wayne, before he turns himself into Batman, is on a journey of self-discovery and growing stronger and gaining skill. During this he meets Henri Ducard, who is later revealed to actually be Ra’s al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows. Ducard begins a long sales pitch to Bruce Wayne to try to convince him (or sell to him) that his idea and plan for Gotham City is the best one. He begins by training Bruce and during that training he presents himself as a wise and meditative individual. He builds a rapport and trust with Bruce Wayne who puts faith in him as a wise trainer to be under. During this training Ducard explains all of his ideals and plans for people and the world in a bit of a disguised and sugar-coated way that leads Wayne to partly agree with or at the very least not reject the ideas. Later, this trust pays off because he saves his life. The movie steers away from this for a while and then at the end Ducard comes back to reveal himself to be Ra’s al Ghul to Bruce Wayne. The rapport and trust that was built up is then shattered and Bruce realizes the true meaning of all the things that were told to him earlier on. So, Ducard’s sales pitch to Wayne was not in the end effective. He tried to build the trust and rapport necessary but played both sides too much.