Batman (1989)

Whether I want to or not Batman is the movie by which I judge all superhero films. I might have seen Superman (1978) first, but it's hard to say for sure. Superman might be the better film, but Batman is more memorable.

A friend of mine recently told me that he likes a superhero movies to have the hero facing a progressively difficult series of fights until the hero fights the villain. In Batman's climax, he climbs up a bell tower and has to face progressively tougher thugs until he fights the Joker. Tomorrow, I'll ask my friend if he likes Batman. I suspect he does.

Batman is about a boy who loses his parents to crime and decides to become a masked vigilante called Batman. Fortunately the boy, Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), is rich. Batman seems to appear just as his city (Gotham) is teeming with organized crime. Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), the second-in-command of the main crime lord's syndicate, is accidentally thrown into a vat of chemicals by Batman and is reborn as the maniacal Joker. Batman must stop him.


I generally don't like director Tim Burton's films. But re-watching Batman the umpteenth time I see the obvious strength in his work - its unique and memorable quality. With Batman Tim Burton attempts to make the sets, characters, and acting as grandiose as the comic books concepts themselves: Nicolson plays similar to the Joker from the 60s (Cesar Romero). The first time we see Batman he is actually animated, projected onto a miniature. The colour scheme has harsh contrasts; bright greens and purples against dreary shadows. When Joker falls into the vat, there is a cartoonish spin of the camera. There are mimes.


If you asked me on a given day if I liked the stylization of the Batman movie I would say no, but I can't deny how memorable it is. After all, can you really forget the scene where The Joker asks for a mirror, or where Bruce Wayne hangs upside down while Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) sleeps, or the long dining table where Vale and Wayne eat on their first date and Vale shouts "Could you pass the salt," or the batplane's ascent above the clouds before it briefly pauses in front of the moon?

The dark stylization of the film wouldn't work without the moments of warmth. After eating at that preposterously long dining table Wayne and Vale join Alfred (Michael Gough) at a small table in the kitchen where Alfred tells stories of Wayne as a boy. Without Gough's presence the important moments we need to identify with Wayne wouldn't work. It's why he was the only unchanging element in the future Batman films prior to Batman Begins.

I recently re-watched the The Dark Knight. There is a nod to Tim Burton's Batman when Heath Ledger says, "I'm a man of my word." There is a scene in Batman where the Joker is splashed with a jug of water. "Oh God I'm melting, meelllllting~" he cries, referencing The Wizard of Oz. In 10 years, will anyone be referencing Batman Begins? I suspect many have seen Batman Begins more than once as I have. Can you reference four memorable scenes off the top of your head? Will you be able to in 10 years? I'd wager not.