Batman and Robin or The Dark Knight.
Batman: The Movie or Batman v Superman.
But I think Batman shows that it is possible to be both dark and campy. And personally, I’ve always felt that superhero adaptations usually should at least address the fact that their concepts are often goofy.
Just have fun with it is all I’m saying.
Before I go over my usual areas, I feel as though I should talk about two specific things.
Batman the Killer
Batman does not kill. That's sort of his thing.
Many Batman adaptations feature some kind of scene where
Batman has to tell somebody "If you kill the bad guys, then you're just as
bad as they are." Batman holds himself to a higher standard than just
somebody who goes around shooting purse snatchers, and many superhero stories
have gone out of their way to show that people who run around shooting
criminals aren’t exactly the best role models.
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| Whether they use a gun or a bow. |
Certainly, the comic version of the Joker has racked up
enough of a body count for Batman to justify killing him and only him. After
all, the Joker's the worst of the worst. But with the Joker dead, somebody else
then becomes the worst of the worst. How long until Batman justifies killing them?
What would Thomas and Martha Wayne think of their son?
How can Batman claim to support the police's mission of
subduing criminals and bringing them to justice if he simply kills them without
trial?
Would Superman still be his super friend?
And so on and so forth.
Really, it's a bunch of little things that add up to one big
whole across multiple media: Batman doesn't kill.
But in this movie, he does. Never as an outright goal, but
either in self-defense or as collateral damage. Because although it goes unsaid
in the film itself, this is one of the craziest versions of Bruce Wayne outside
of a Frank Miller story.
People in Gotham think of him as an eccentric billionaire,
but the simple truth is that he can't pretend to be a vapid playboy because he
has trouble acting like a human being. Every night he spends as Batman is one
more night he spends as a vicious creation of his own psyche, drifting further
and further from his basic humanity.
Alfred can't do anything to help him, as seen in the movie,
because at the end of the day, Alfred is an employee. Which is why Alfred took
Vicki into the Batcave; he wanted her to discover the truth so that Bruce could
finally be himself around her, and in the process, figure out who he really is
apart from Batman.
It's why Robin exists in the comics. Batman needs somebody with a different, more optimistic perspective to keep him from losing himself in his crusade. (I’ll get into Robin’s film absence in detail when I go over Batman Forever.)
Here, we have a Batman who's already begun the process of
stumbling off the deep end, which will only get worse by the time the next
movie rolls around. And, oddly enough, Batman Forever will end up bringing
closure to this subplot in a surprisingly satisfactory way.
So in the end, I find this one of the more interesting
Batman movies because of the way it handles showing a Batman who’s on the
brink, with only Alfred and Vicki as Bruce’s only reason to not be Batman 24/7.
He never even does anything with his company.
Tim Burton
Tim Burton is not a comic book fan. And big-name comic book
fan Kevin Smith once joked that that explains Batman.
Burton takes many liberties with the source material, but
there’s very little in this film that you can’t tie back to the source material
in some way. And the film has made such an impact on the Batman comics to
follow, that it appears to be more accurate to the comics in hindsight compared
to when it first came out.
In recent years, Burton’s charm seems to have run out of
batteries, whether it be the mixed response to Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, or the disappointing Alice in Wonderland. But in his prime, Burton
helped create surreal, dark, fanciful worlds that were equal parts dreamlike
and realistic.
I think one of the reasons that Batman is usually exempt
from hate from Tim Burton’s detractors is that this movie, ultimately, was
reigned in. After all, Warner Bros. wasn’t going to let him do whatever the
heck he wanted with no oversight with a property like Batman… until this film
was a success, at any rate, but that’s a discussion for the sequel.
I feel that Batman’s tone succeeds because it plays on one
of the central themes of the film: duality.
The 40s and the 80s. Campy and gritty. Batman and Bruce
Wayne.
The movie is all about finding the balance between polar
opposites, and the blend of Burtonesque imagery and the real world creates a
world that succeeds in the same way as Superman: The Movie.
Richard Donner said that Superman: The Movie wasn’t about
putting Superman in the real world, it was about bringing Superman’s comic book
world to life. That’s what Tim Burton brings us in the end: an equally campy
and dark comic book world brought to life.
That’s not to say Tim Burton is proud of this film. Not only
does he dislike the Prince soundtrack that Jon Peters crammed in, he’s still
bitter over the changes to the script, which comes across on the commentary as
he complains that he doesn’t understand why the executives demanded changes to
the script after deciding they liked it.
Tim Burton: "I liked parts of it, but the whole movie
is mainly boring to me. It's OK, but it was more of a cultural phenomenon than
a great movie."
Most of what he sees is compromise and things he could have
done better. In fact, it was his dissatisfaction with Warner Bros.’ meddling
(including changing the entire climax) that led to him getting more free reign
in the sequel. But I’ll talk about that film another time.
Plot
The Joker is just as open to interpretation as Batman. This
film chooses to draw on his earliest appearances by making him into a gangster
at heart who doesn’t just want to watch the world burn, he wants to own it
first.
I see the film’s plot as an allegory for the Batman comics.
They started off with an urban legend vigilante taking on muggers and gangsters…
until the Joker came along, changing things forever.
As the movie goes on, it gets more and more campy and
ridiculous, but so gradually that you don’t even notice it. Heck, as soon as
Jack returns as the Joker, the swears get toned down, just like how the comics
were toned down from their brutal beginnings into more child-friendly
escapades.
The plot is the Joker’s; Bruce Wayne’s love story is more of
a subplot than anything. While an ever-increasing focus on villains would be
the Achilles heel for the superhero genre, you could actually trace it back to
Batman: The Movie, where much of the novelty came from seeing all the villains
interact.
Here, the Joker’s prominence is definitely because Tim
Burton loves himself a deformed outsider.
But the scripting remedies this Joker-focus by actually
interspersing tidbits about Batman’s origin throughout the film. The
scriptwriter actually outright said that “You totally destroy your credibility
if you show the literal process by which Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.”
Oh, the irony.
But the story slowly unlocking the mystery works to the film’s
credit, keeping the Bruce Wayne stuff interesting, when he has very little
growth.
Sure, he avenges the deaths of his parents (or so he thinks,
if you believe the idea that Bruce’s flashback was just a creation of his own
mind), but most of what he does is on-the-job detective work. Avenging his
parents only becomes a focus after we learn about the circumstances behind
their deaths.
Speaking of them, the idea was to cast Adam West and Julie
Newmar, symbolically representing the end of their era, but this never
happened. West was never offered the role, and he went on record saying he
wouldn’t have accepted. Makes sense, considering that this movie was all about
assuring people that his legacy was over.
Theme
As I said, Tim Burton was most interested in the idea of
duality, and it shows. Nearly everything in this film has to reconcile two
sides, whether it be Batman/Bruce Wayne, Jack Napier/Joker, Vicki Vale as a
reporter/Vicki Vale as a love interest, Alfred as an employee/Alfred as a
concerned parent… even the city itself balances the order of the 40s stylings with
the chaos of the 80s stylings.
And with each duality comes a single questions: Is either
half more “true” than the other? Is Batman or Bruce Wayne the “real”
personality? Is Joker Jack’s repressed theatricality in the face of Grissom’s
stern order, or a mental breakdown? Can Gotham’s order prevail in the wake of
its chaos?
And the answer, invariably, is that each side of every
duality is part of a greater whole. Bruce Wayne isn’t simply Bruce Wayne or Batman.
He’s both. For better and worse, the best and worst of both worlds coexist with
each other to form a greater whole that threatens to break apart the farther
each side drifts away.
Characters
Bruce Wayne/Batman (Michael Keaton)
Bruce Wayne/Batman (Michael Keaton)
I’ve already talked about the characters struggles with
duality and humanity, so let’s discuss the performance.
There have been plenty of actors who could only either nail
Bruce Wayne or Batman.
George Clooney? Bruce Wayne.
Kevin Conroy? Batman. (Not that his Bruce Wayne is bad, per se, but he doesn’t
quite nail it in the same way as his iconic version of Batman.)
But Michael Keaton succeeds in genuinely tying the two
personas together into a messed-up enigma.
Bruce Wayne and Batman are both masks here, and the true
Bruce is the one who sits in the Batcave, pondering both Vicki Vale and the
Joker, in the same way that Clark Kent is only himself when you take away both
the costume and the glasses.
Michael Keaton also added a few now-iconic touches to the
character too. “I’m Batman” was originally “I am the Knight,” and Keaton
even decided to lower his voice as Batman to help disguise Bruce Wayne’s
identity, which has since become traditional. Michael Keaton also brought a lot of ad-libs to enforce
Bruce Wayne’s oddness, such as the bit where he remembers to turn on the charm
during dinner, or when he just leaving things lying around when he’s done using
them.
Michael Keaton: "It makes all the other stuff even
weirder and darker because you're thinking, 'This guy's off.'"
Keaton is remembered as one of the oddest Bruce Waynes due
to these quirks, and it helps him stand out from subsequent actors who like to
portray him as greatly exaggerating self-absorbed, drunken billionaire
behavior.
But while Keaton’s performance is remembered fondly by many,
including myself, he was a far cry from the "muscles on top of muscles and
scarred from nightly combat" described by the script. Apparently, 50,000
letters of protest were written to Warner Bros., and even Bob Kane criticized
the choice at first.
But look at everyone who came after. Kilmer. Clooney. Bale.
Affleck. While some are more highly-regarded than others, Keaton probably still
tops most people’s lists in terms of Best Batman. Him or Kevin Conroy.
Jack Napier/Joker (Jack Nicholson)
Every actor to play the role has done their own thing, for
better and worse.
Cesar Romero’s Joker was a showman; he was always
performing, playing the ringleader to a circus of mayhem.
Heath Ledger’s Joker was a conman, playing the fool when he
really had everything planned out in advance.
Mark Hamill’s Joker was a comedian; there was always a joke
or a gag to his actions, and everything he did was subject to his own dememnted
laws of humor.
Jack Nicholson’s Joker was just a creep who did things to
make himself laugh.
Jack Nicholson: “The thing I like about The Joker is that
his sense of humor is completely tasteless."
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| “What about me?” |
|
| “…I’ll just let myself out then.” |
Yeah, you do that.
Jack Nicholson has described the role as the least demanding
of his career, since his Joker was pretty much defined by his spontaneity.
Apparently, no two takes were quite the same.
But what led Jack Napier to lose his mind?
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| Perhaps. |
Was he always just a bad seed? No doubt.
He was shown to be vain before the accident. Did the loss of
his looks warp his mind? Perhaps.
But Jack Napier was clearly frustrated. He was the man in a
purple suit in a room full of dark coats. He spent his evenings with Grissom’s
lady, while not even seeming interested in her. And his attempts to take over
the operation met with little support.
Jack Napier was a ticking time bomb of frustration. And
turning into a chemically-induced clown… well, that was simply the last straw.
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| Not exactly the best life choice in general, though. |
 |
| As heretical as my statement may sound. |
This movie drew on the Joker’s origin in The Killing Joke,
and would be the only time the Joker’s origin was shown onscreen until the
animated adaptation of The Killing Joke. The name Jack Napier was taken from
the old word (jack-a-napes), as well as being a reference to Alan Napier, a
former Alfred.
While the exact details of Joker’s backstory are debated by
fans, the general consensus is that some guy wearing a red hood fell into some
chemicals and popped out as the Joker. But even some die-hard fans of the Joker’s
mystery prefer to think of the story as non-canon.
It was a bold risk to definitively show an origin for the
Joker, but again, Tim Burton was very much interested in telling the Joker’s
story.
Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger)
Sean Young originated the role, but was cut after she broke
her collarbone while filming a scene on horseback. The scene was cut, and Kim
Basinger was quickly brought in, turning the redheaded Vicki into a blonde.
Ironically, Vicki Vale only had red hair because of a coloring error in her
first appearance. She was originally supposed to be, you guessed it, blonde.
Fun Fact: Kim Basinger was actually the third choice.
Michael Keaton vetoed Michelle Pfeiffer as Vicki Vale, since he had been dating
her at the time.
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| Heh. Irony. |
But Basinger delivers a natural performance that wouldn’t be
out of place in an 80s romance, or a 40s Cary Grant film, meaning that she acts
as a grounding presence for the film’s tone as well as being a grounding presence
for Bruce Wayne as a human being.
Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough)
Michael Gough might not be as famous and well-regarded as an
actor as Michael Caine or Jeremy Irons, but he’s a veteran of numerous classic
horror films, which is why Tim Burton cast him in the first place.
Of course, I will always remember him as Alfred, first and
foremost.
While many versions of Alfred are comfortable snapping back
at Bruce and telling him off when need be, this version prefers to let Bruce
confront things himself. He won’t speechify to Bruce about how he’s going about
things all wrong, but he will ask a simple question or make a simple statement
that leads Bruce to see exactly what point Alfred is trying to put in his head.
More of a classically wise mentor than an actual father figure.
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| And the Celestial Toymaker secondly. |
Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams)
Harvey Dent was originally a more important character who
would have actually become Two-Face in the finale. No joke, chemicals were
going to bleach half his face, and they were going to do some kind of race
angle with it in the sequel or something.
When this was dropped from the ending, so too was the
character from the sequel.
As is, Billy Dee Williams is a fine actor, but his character
could be completely cut out of the movie with little impact on anything.
Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl)
Knox is a stranger to the comics who was originally a
romantic rival for Vicki’s affections. This was eliminated in later drafts,
which also allowed the character to live, since the writers took a liking to
him and there was no real need for him to die.
I can take him or leave him. His presence mostly gives Vicki
a sounding board when she’s not around Bruce Wayne.
Bob the Goon (Tracey Walter)
Nicholson suggested bringing in Tracey Walter to play a henchman, and the result is... well, I don;t know how or why, by Bob the Goon is basically the Phil Coulson of this movie, being a nearly-nameless character who still manages to endear himself to the audience despite his small role.
Bob the Goon. Gotta love him.
Visuals
Anton Furst was responsible for the look of Gotham City,
and… my God, it’s gorgeous. German expressionist cinema, 1940s art deco, and
statues stuck in a blender. Equally heavy metal and sophisticated, it was
quickly incorporated into the comics after the events of “No Man’s Land,” where
Gotham was ravaged by an earthquake.
The film was shot on a backlot, which you don’t see anymore.
This definitely adds to the movie’s timeless feel, since the backlot makes the
city feel like it exists in its own little world.
The model work might look a little Thunderbirds
(appropriate, since the guy in charge of them worked on that show), but it was
an aesthetic choice to evoke the intricate city miniatures in the German cinema
Tim Burton so dearly loves.
The Batsuit itself was black, sculpted rubber. End of story.
That was the plan from the beginning.
No spandex. Fake muscles. Black rubber. No grey, no blue,
black. Again, this looked so good onscreen that it was briefly incorporated
into the comics… where it didn’t look quite as good, so it was phased out.
Michael Keaton was unable to hear in the suit, which also
made him a bit claustrophobic, but he and Tim Burton decided to try and use
that to augment his detachment from the world; like the suit was a place he
could hide from the world and act anonymously. His own personal internet, if
you will.
The Joker’s makeup still holds up to this day, apart from a
few scenes were you can clearly see the individual sculpted rubber pieces on
his face, or a few bits of his hair they missed with the green dye.
This version of the Batmobile is probably the Batmobile to
many people,, possibly only surpassed in recognition by the Tumbler from The
Dark Knight Saga. Unlike Adam West’s car, this was the first one to look like
it was made specifically FOR Batman, rather than being a heavily modified
version of something you could imagine on the road. The turbine has since
become iconic enough to still be found in the comics to this day occasionally.
Music
Danny Elfman, as a composer, is hit-and-miss, in my opinion. When it comes to effort, at least.
The Nightmare Before Christmas? Classic. (No joke, I'm listening to "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" as I type this.)
The 1990s The Flash theme? I love it, but it sounds like a
rejected Batman theme.
The Spider-Man theme? Classic.
The Goosebumps theme? A random collection of whimsy and
Theremin.
Seriously, Elfman, you couldn’t have given us an orchestral
version of the TV theme?
But the Batman score is sweeping, whimsical, deep, and
perhaps a little edgy. No wonder a rearranged version was used for Batman: The
Animated Series. Heck, a few notes from it play when you level up in the Arkham
games.
The Prince stuff, while the songs are perfectly good, were
basically crammed in, and it can show. But I can’t help but love the Joker
bringing his own pop music on a boom box as he vandalizes an art museum. I wish
the song specifically written for the Joker (“Dance with the Devil”) had made
it into the film. Apparently, it was cut for being “too dark.” Wrap your head
around that.
But seeing as how the main villain is an eccentric man with
bleached skin, I can’t help but think of the irony if Jon Peters had succeeded
at bringing his first choice, Michael Jackson, onto the project.
Best Actor: Michael Keaton
No contest. The best actor to play Bruce Wayne. Period.
No contest. The best actor to play Bruce Wayne. Period.
Best Character: Joker
In every scene, he does something unexpected and wonderful, and I love it.
In every scene, he does something unexpected and wonderful, and I love it.
Best Line
Batman: “I’m Batman.”
Batman: “I’m Batman.”
Yeah. I’m serious. It’s the most iconic line from the movie.
So iconic that people don’t even think of it as dialogue, but Batman’s
catchphrase.
Final Thoughts
The film bridges the Adam West era and the Christopher Nolan
era, and contains elements of what makes both eras work, providing the best of
both worlds. It's just as dark as it is campy, which stands out among modern
beliefs that superheroes have to be one or the other.
It’s surreal and realistic, gritty and grandiose, filled
with solid performances and good writing. It might be my favorite Batman film, which is saying
something since I absolutely adore most of them.
Next time, Burton stops holding back. For better and for
worse.
See you then!
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