Batman (1989)
The 1989 Batman film
is a classic. It set the bar for superhero movies for years to come, and is
still considered to be one of the best in its genre. It accomplished this with
the mind of a great director, a few stunning performances, and by taking its
lead from some of the best stories comic books had to offer at the time. Sitting
here, just a few days from the movie’s twenty-fifth anniversary, I am still
noticing things I never had before, and finding out interesting facts about one
of the movies—based off of a character, who is responsible for the same—that
shaped my childhood.
Non-comic book fan, Tim Burton, debuted with the dark knight with a drastic change from
the last time the character had been on the silver screen, and with a project
that was a complete departure compared to the route the 1966 television show
and film took with the character and his world, and with good reason. Since
that time the landscape of comics had begun to alter, and they were in the
middle of that change still, but the flood gates had opened and readers were
beginning to see one of the most iconic characters of all time in a new light. There
were two graphic novels primarily behind this innovation of the caped crusader,
and when Burton read them, he knew the movie had to happen.
Batman finds its
source material in the seventy-five year run of the character, but its
atmosphere, tones, characterizations, and overall appeal are specifically
influenced by Alan Moore’s The Killing
Joke and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight
Returns. Both comics were a different take on Batman and his world at the
time. The Killing Joke was definitive
for Joker’s character, and Miller’s work sealed Batman as a hardcore badass. What
made both different and stand out though is their tone, the environment of the
world that they painted, with how vicious and unkind Gotham could be, and in
some ways, how similar the hero is to his villains.
“The whole film and
mythology of the character is a complete duel of the freaks. It’s a fight
between two disturbed people.” –Tim Burton
It is an obvious theme, stated clearly at the end of the
film; how Batman and Joker created each other and are therefore connected, one
unable to have been made without the other. These two characters are often
defined as an antithesis of one another, but in The Killing Joke and this film there are several similarities between
the two, leading up to the life-long enemies eventual meeting, and the
aforementioned scene where the dialogue playfully restates the theme with past
exposition. One of the things I noticed upon this viewing is the dichotomous
relationship between how Bruce Wayne and Jack Napier deal with their respective
female counterparts, and that they both seem to be attracted to similar looking
women. Some of these themes are less subtle though, with Burton wanting to show
Batman as a grayer character, more anti-hero than true hero, but concordantly,
certain aspects are a little too subtle in fact, without viewing the film
numerous times or doing research. Burton wanted to give the story a World War
II feel in some parts to amplify characterizations, like when Batman is
centered in a shot in front of the AXIS sign, comparing him to the faction. The
idea is there and kind of works, but is lost on most viewers.
It may sound odd, and takes some of the director’s own words
to make sense out of, but this film presented an almost completely different
view of Batman than had ever been shown before even though most facets were
taken from somewhere in the comics. The hero is darker, brutal and vicious,
killing multiple people, which he tries vehemently in the comics, at the cost
of putting himself in danger in many instances. I remember when I realized that
at the end, Batman could have let Joker get away and saved Vicki Vale, but
makes sure to not let the villain escape by condemning him to a devastating
end. It seems justified though, as Joker killed a lot of innocents himself.
This is also the first time for many viewers that it is pointed out that Batman
has sex, something that had just been done in the comics not long before then. There
are several uncharacteristic acts that fans see from the dark knight here, as on two separate occasions Batman risks
revealing his alternate identity by approaching and in confronting Joker in the
persona of Bruce Wayne. He is actually pretty careless with his secret through
most of the film.
Batman was not the only one coming across as more intense
though, Burton wanted Joker to be more than he was on the pages, discussing why
he was such a great character, and wanting to embrace that. “The Joker is such a great character because
there’s a complete freedom to him. Any character who operates on the outside of
society and is deemed a freak and an outcast then has the freedom to do what
they want.” This change in the characters was not the only thing darker,
Gotham itself was made to be dismal and gray, a foreboding place for good
people. German expressionism was used in the architecture, amplified by the art
deco and bland coloring, other than the neon signs and disruptive eyesores that
were meant to draw attention. Gotham became its own bleak character. These
elements combined made for a dark movie that rivaled its source materials.
It was so dark in fact that it caused the film to draw a lot
of criticism, causing Roger Ebert to call it, “a depressing experience.” Seeing what Frank Miller and Alan Moore
had accomplished with him as their audience, Burton knew that making a
completely different and grittier film would make it something memorable, one
way or the other. On a personal note, comparing t to recent comic book based
films, Batman still holds up as one
of the strongest, and for the first in a franchise, I am amazed that it was not
an origin story, and any previous knowledge needed was handled in short
flashbacks. My one gripe about the film is actually with Vicki Vale, playing
the role of the damsel in distress a bit too much, when it seemed like the
character was much stronger than that. The graphic novel adaptation for the
film was not bad either, and it inspired Batman:
The Animated Series, which is the show that began DC’s longstanding cartoon
reign. Not only did the movie represent a better version of the character in
some regards, but it has left quite the legacy.
