Christian Bale: diverse, or limited?

What defines an actor as “good”? Is it his ability to play certain roles well, or his ability to play many different roles, and all of them well? The popular actor Christian Bale possesses the later of the two, which enables him to perform well in both the movies, Newsies, and The Dark Knight These two movies show his diversity as an actor in three main aspects: the role Bale plays, his compatibility with supporting actor roles, and time frame and setting. The key factor that adds to his value as an actor is his age. Christian Bale features in many movies starting when he was only a teenager.
The first aspect of distinction between The Dark Knight and Newsies is the role that Christian Bale plays. In The Dark Knight, his role is a Gotham city citizen, who recognizes the criminal mind and fights crime in the form of a bat. On the other hand, in the movie Newsies, Bale plays Jack Kelly, a young boy making a living for himself by selling newspapers. Additionally, Newsies is a musical, which calls for much different acting that a super hero movie. In the movie, Bale sings, both alone, and with the other newsies, which is extremely different than the behavior of Batman. The roles in both movies are extremely different, yet Christian Bale plays them both well, despite his early age in Newsies.
Furthermore, the second aspect of difference between these two movies is Bale’s ability to synchronize with different supporting actor’s roles. In The Dark Knight, Bale has The Joker and Alfred as his supporting roles. On the contrary, in Newsies, Jack is accompanied by a newspaper reporter who’s dedicated to helping the newsies’ cause, as well as his fellow newsies. These actor’s roles are especially diverse due to the movies different genres. However, once again this does not stop Bale from performing excellently in both movies.
The final point of diversity is the time frame and setting of each movie. In the Dark Knight, the time frame is present day, and the setting changes dramatically, all the way from Gotham city to Hong Kong. In contrast, Newsies takes place in 1899, and is set only in New York City. Despite the fact that the settings might not have a large effect on Bale’s acting, the cultural overlay definitely does. In Newsies, Bale performs with a thick Brooklyn accent and fits the time frame exceptionally well.
How does one determine whether an actor is a good one or not? One efficient way of knowing this is examining an actor’s diversity throughout his movie career. Christian Bale exemplifies this quality, as demonstrated through three main factors examined the musical, Newsies, and the superhero action movie, The Dark Knight. The factors are the role that Bale plays personally, his supporting actor’s roles, and the time frame and setting. As mentioned before, the key to Bale’s success as a diverse actor is his age. The facts are before you. You, the reader, must decide: Christian Bale, diverse, or limited?