Twenty five years ago, to coincide with Batman's 50th anniversary, Warner Bros. released a film that breathed life into the ailing superhero genre. The last two attempts, both from the Superman franchise, had flopped. What was needed was something different and it was found in director Tim Burton who took the helm to deliver Batman!
Director: Tim Burton
Writer: Sam Hamm, Warren Skaaren
Starring: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Bassinger, Pat Hingle, Michael Gough, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Palance
Released: 1989
Gotham City is in peril. Overrun by crime syndicates, the city cries out for a guardian, for justice. Rumours of a vigilante dressed as a bat are not taken very seriously by either the police or the press – but the street thugs know better. Batman, the alternate identity of Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) preys on their cowardly, superstitious kind on a nightly basis, looking to visit vengeance to the man that killed his parents so many years ago. Things change drastically, however, when Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) makes a play for control of one of the crime families, and is lured into a trap by his boss, Carl Grissom (Jack Palance). Tricked into a shoot-out with police and a battle with Batman, Napier stumbles into a vat of acid that leave him permanently scarred. Driven insane, he adopts a new identity as the Joker, killing Grissom and menacing the entire city with his Joker poison. For Batman, it becomes more than simply catching a maniac when he discovers that it was Napier who killed Thomas and Martha Wayne.
THE SQUEE
- There are some simply amazing moments in this film. Getting to see Batman as a dark, shadowy figure bent on justice, lurking on rooftops to sweep down and dispense violence to those who would threaten the safety of Gotham's citizens was something new. Sure, Adam West had donned the cowl before, but he wasn't the grim arbiter that Burton brought to the screen. This Batman wasn't sanctioned by the police, he was a rogue vigilante that broke as many laws as he protected. Every experience of Bruce Wayne in that suit meant that there was going to be some serious action. This was the Batman fans had been waiting for.
- There are also some incredibly bizarre moments. Jack Nicholson in his garish purple suit, flitting around an art gallery as Prince plays on a gigantic boombox? Crazy. There is a excellent mix of the different styles of the Joker, from the callous murderer who will hold a city to ransom, to the overly malicious trickster who sees through the ridiculousness of what society has built. There have been a lot of portrayals of the Joker over the years, but Nicholson made his the standard that future interpretations had to hold up to.
- Keaton's portrayal as Bruce Wayne and Batman. I think I can safely say that no one has ever called Keaton debonair (he was Beetlejuice, after all), so he's not the dashing playboy most people picture when they hear of Bruce Wayne. He is, however, the exact person you'd expect to deal with their issues of parental loss by dressing up as a bat and beating the bejeezus out of the criminal element. He plays Bruce (and by extension, Batman) as a damaged person, constantly putting on a mask to the rest of the world. The slightly distanced version of Batman/Bruce Wayne that Keaton brought was something that would be built on for the next three films.
- Those wonderful toys. Batman has always been about his gadgets just as much as James Bond ever was. Part of the wish-fulfilment aspect of Batman is the cool gizmos that he brings along, from grappling hooks to batarangs to even the humble smoke pellet (but the less said about the Bat-Shark Repellent and Bat-Credit Card the better). The Burton Batman has a few of the classic items and makes them seem believable, something which the Nolan Batman trilogy worked very hard to also achieve.
- The score. Danny Elfman is a genius.
THE SUCK
- For all the glory of Batman on the big screen, there are some significant flaws. His inability to turn his head without moving the rest of his body, for example. This isn't the smooth, acrobatic Batman we'd see in adaptations like The Animated Series – these movements were jerky and robotic. It masy have given him a sense of otherworldliness, but it breaks the illusion of Batman as capable crime-fighter. The car is another example – sure, it looks great roaring down an empty street, but how does it take a corner? The 1980s were a great decade for style over substance and this was really the epitome of that. Visually, Batman is outstanding – that's what Burton brings to the table, a definite aesthetic that suits the brooding nature of Batman and Gotham in general, but the manner through that it was achieved doesn't quite hold up to much scrutiny.
- Batman straight up kills the Joker. This is my major problem with the film on re-watching. When I first saw it, I had no issues with Batman tossing the Joker off a roof. Then, it was an action movie with superheroes, and at the end of action movies, the villain has to die. John McClane didn't have a rule against dropping Hans Gruber off a skyscraper, so why should Batman care if the man who killed his parents ends up as a splat on the pavement? BECAUSE HE'S BATMAN.
So there you have it – Tim Burton's Batman. Over the course of Bat-May, we'll be looking at the rest of the Batman films, Batman Returns, Batman Forever and (gulp), Batman and Robin.
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