Batman and Tim Burton feel like two elements within the pop culture mainstream that everybody could agree would go together as well as peanut butter and jelly. With Batman’s dark gothic tone, style and themes being a perfect match for Burton’s way of directing, as well as his keen eye for capturing harsher stories with an element of craziness to them which is what the cape crusader has dabbled in plenty of times throughout his lifespan, the two were practically destined to work together which eventually came to fruition in 1989 when Burton released his movie. At the time, the reception was pretty positive, the box office was quite fruitful (earning $411 million against its $48 million budget) and the fact it was heavily responsible for the creation of the highly beloved animated TV show created in 1992 definitely puts it in the good books in terms of adaptations, and whilst there was definitely a bit of push back from sceptical people at the time, it wasn’t enough to overshadow the good that came with this film. In the sullen streets of Gotham City, the vigilante of the night known as Batman (played by Michael Keaton) is still viewed fearfully by the general public and the police, due to his harsh often lethal treatment towards criminals. With all of this spurning from the death of his parents at a young age by a random mugger, he vows to wipe the streets clean on any threats while masquerading as his alter ego, millionaire Bruce Wayne during the daytime. On one of his crime-fighting outings, he unknowingly causes the rise of the criminal known as The Joker (played by Jack Nicholson) who was once a crazed mobster named Jack Napier who was coated with chemicals, disfigured his face to a pitch-white complexion and has driven him mad, turning him into the maniacal clown prince. Now running the mafia and with Gotham at risk of a chemical toxic attack, Batman, along with photojournalist Vicki Vale (played by Kim Basinger) who has taken an interest in both Batman and Bruce Wayne, have to work together to stop the Joker from moulding his gruesome ‘’artistic piece’’ on Gotham. Set during the perfect time for a Batman movie and with a lot of perfect choices made in choosing the people to work on this kind of story, the film manages to create an enjoyable, memorable, gloomy, atmospherically rich film with some great actors, memorable characters, and a ton of great imagery to result in an overall solid film.

The funny thing about this film is that despite the already mentioned perfect pairing of Burton and Batman, the movie doesn’t truly feel that much like a Burton film. Everything down to the way its shot, to the production design, to the themes and darkness shown on-screen, the film feels much more like a studio guiding Burton’s hand in places, as the usual elements are there but very muted and repressed in order to keep the production at least half child friendly. Even with this in mind, the film doesn’t shy away from the fact that it takes some interesting liberties in what it changes from the classic Batman story, with altercations made to the general backstory of a lot of the characters coming from screenwriters Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren. While most comic book fans were not happy with many of the changes, the story itself does weave itself around these changes in an organic way and creates something that is quite difficult in content to a traditional Batman story but is very much alike it in spirit. It may take its own direction and own ideology on what Batman is and what he represents, but the atmosphere, personality and overall vibe of the film is pure Batman. From the very first frame showing off Gotham and the caped crusader himself in an all-too-familiar situation, this film has a perfect idea of how to construct and film a Batman story while showing through its tweaks to said familiar scene that it’s going to play a little with the expected. It’s dark and grim, filled with heavy shadows and moody lighting, but also filled with a ton of character, personality, action, and enough subtler notes to know its home to more than a mindless punch-fest with plenty of nods to the depressing and tragic nature of the characters, and the overall gothic vibe that this world exudes. Throughout its entire two-hour length, the 80s vibe and characterization of this film is so rich and popping that it holds the audience for the entire time, and Burton’s style of direction allows the film to be a little off-kilter and weird in moments, but still overall digestible and still home to several softer scenes that play up the atmosphere and tone in a quiet or even bombastically crazy manner. Despite this, the actual narrative itself is surprisingly pretty weak, with not much overarching meat to chew on outside of anything done with the Joker, with the expected components like the lead’s backstory, development of the romance and even the overall motivation and purpose of the story being present, but not actively looked into. Since the film was in production for so long with many options of actors and directors and many versions of the script being made, rejected and then rewritten, it’s good to see that they were able to get the energy of the character down first and foremost.

The cast for this film is packed with a lot of famous names, all of which feel like they are perfect for the world of Batman. Every one of them puts their A-game into their roles despite how minimal they are, and that added douse of 80s charm and Burton’s directing, allows each character to leave a distinct identity even if they are given no less than three scenes to work with. Michael Keaton as Batman was a pretty controversial choice to start off with, since he was mainly a comedy man who Burton had originally cast after he worked with him on his previous film, Beetlejuice, and this track record made people scoff at the idea of him being able to play a role as dark and brooding as the Dark Knight. Thankfully, people were pleasantly surprised that they were not only able to get a pretty good Batman out of his portrayal, but many even see him as one of the best interpretations of the character, with his commanding presence, simple yet effective voice, and subdued yet still relatively unhinged portrayal as Bruce Wayne providing a nice contrast, it led to a different but very iconic version of the character. Whenever he’s seen in the costume, he is the epitome of what Batman stands for; the mere image of him staring off into the distance or just driving the Batmobile perfectly showcases what the character is without needing to rely on endless reams of dialogue. It never feels like some playing Batman, it feels like it IS batman on-screen. This is offset by an equally great performance from Jack Nicholson as the Joker, also managing to capture the mere spirit and energy of the character through every line delivery and action. While his motivation is a bit more nuanced as well as strangely simplistic at the same time compared to other versions and the odd factor that he is given more screen time, presence and even development than Batman in his own movie, he is one of the best versions of the character. The side characters in this film are equally as charming and breath a lot of believable life into this very strange world. Vicky Vale is a fun love interest who can sometimes fall into the typical ‘damsel in distress’ archetype (matched with a whole lot of screaming), but she is at least given a decently likeable character to make her feel like more than just a tool and her and Keaton do share some good scenes together, Alfred played by Michael Gough is incredibly endearing and provides a warm comforting familial touch to the picture, Pat Hingle is a good choice for Commissioner Gordon and despite Billy Dee Williams only getting a literal scene as Harvey Dent, he leaves enough of an impression and it would’ve been interesting to see what he could’ve done with the character (if he wasn’t later replaced with Tommy Lee Jones which is its own awkward can of worms). Even small practically silent roles like Joker’s main henchman, Bob and his girlfriend, Alicia Hunt (played by Tracy Walter and Jerry Hall) have some greats scenes throughout the movie that are able to provide a whole entire backstory on characters that practically have no lines of dialogue, which is truly impressive.

From an atmospheric aspect, Gotham City is captured perfectly; the grimy nature and semi-politically heavy environment matched with the timeless feel makes it a pretty cool place to spend the full movie. With that said though, the actual architectural design for the majority of the film is largely just good at working for the film rather than looking genuinely ‘wow’ worthy. It has some nice production design by Anton Furst, and it’s not to say that the locations look bad, but with the darker lighting and simple camera shots done by Roger Pratt, it’s easier to forget them and even see through the obvious models and stages. The action is in a very similar boat; while it has a fun campy vibe to it with the quick editing and fist fights having a stage play-esque pace to them, it doesn’t quite have that large weight that Batman’s moves should have on an audience member, though the various mobster deaths are enough to leave one taken aback a bit. The theme song done by Danny Elfman is easily the best Batman theme ever created and effortlessly complements the titular character perfectly; with its calm, moody and morose melody coupled with the various fast-paced heavy percussion instrumentals making for one memorable piece of music. The original music done by Prince isn’t as memorable unfortunately; while it’s nothing bad and could have been a much more annoying celebrity tie-in, it doesn’t fit with the film’s tone and comes across as pretty forced.

Batman is an amazing character and much like what happens with most timeless famous characters, they have a lot of versions done about them to varying results, and this is thankfully one of the better ones. This movie came out during a time when comic book movies weren’t being treated very seriously and none had really tried since the original Richard Donner Superman, so for this film to attempt a serious portrayal of a character that had himself gone through his own form of censorship throughout the years (The Adam West Batman was considered the true Batman of the era), its truly impressive what this movie accomplished and inspired for later comic book movies down the line. While the later movies in this line up may flounder a bit, this is one that may can still hold onto. With an amazingly accurate atmosphere and tone, great actors, fantastic theme song, great villain and an overall impressive feel to the whole thing, Batman entered the big screen with a pretty impressive start. It isn’t spotless and has elements that many could arguably don’t really match what Batman is supposed to be, but as a stand-alone movie, it’s a pretty awesome flick.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,