Darkness. Shadows. Tension. An intense, claustrophobic, clammy blackness. That's the feel of Tim Burton's epic realisation of the Batman legend.
Tim Burton is famous for black humour, for darkness, for evil and his horrific animated creation, The Nightmare Before Christmas demonstrated clearly Burton's outlook on life. He liked the offbeat, the left of field, the evil and he was extremely good at it. His credentials were in every way perfect when the decision was taken to bring The Dark Avenger to life on the silver (or should that be black?) screen.
Burton had made a number of small films in the early 80's including 'Vincent' (1982), 'Hansel and Gretel' (1982), 'Frankenweenie' (1982) and 'Faerie Tale Theatre: Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp' (1984), but it was not until 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure' in 1985 that he really came to prominence. Three years later he teamed up with actor Michael Keaton on the amazing 'Beetlejuice' movie when he got the chance to really show off his wares. There are many similarities between the dark scenes and black humour of that film and 'Batman'.
Of course, after 'Batman' in 1989, Burton made a career out of such dark little masterpieces, making the follow up 'Batman Returns', 'Edward Scissorhands', 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', 'Ed Wood', 'James And The Giant Peach', 'Mars Attacks', 'Sleepy Hollow' and right now 'Planet Of The Apes'. It's a memorable and distinctly left field CV that he has built over the years, but it's 'Batman' that really captures the Burton vision.
The Batman stories had been brought to the cinema before, first in 1943 with an episodic adaptation of the comic strip, and then again five years later, but the most famous depiction was back in
1966. Then, however, it was the camp, lycra vision that had been pasted in gaudy technicolour on the television previously starring Adam West as Bruce Wayne. It was a cult classic, as was the TV series, but was always cheap and shallow and played as much for laughs as thrills.
Burton’s vision was of a faithful and evil reproduction of the Batman featured in the novel 'The Dark Knight Returns', by Frank Miller. The character is altogether a darker one than the besuited lawman depicted in the original DC Comics strip. The West version had been all cartoon and lightness with 'ZAP!' and 'POW!' splattered all across the action. It had a certain dumb appeal but was shallow nonsense. Burton's portrayal was of something far more creepy, eerie and DARK. The Gotham City of the Burton film feels extremely claustrophobic and oppressive and the mood is very much one of 1940's film noir. The cityscape is awesome with its giant, starkly black buildings, jutting up to the skies like the horrific black castles of a thousand Hammer horror movies.
He built a universe, a separate dimension, one where the day rarely intruded, and he peopled it with freaks and demons.
Burton put it thus: "I've always felt that you couldn't even pull apart light and dark, they're so intertwined. I felt that way growing up, and I feel that way now. Sometimes I'll watch something that people don't see anything weird about and I'll find it deeply subversive and scary and dark. And then People will look at something I've done and go,'That's really dark', and I don't see it. It's like the end of Vincent when they said they wanted him to live and walk off with his dad. That felt darker to me, because the other ending felt more beautiful and more about somebody's sprit, and to make literal was, I feel, making it darker, ultimately. So what is perceived as light and dark is completely open to interpretation."
The casting got it absolutely spot on with the manic twosome Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in the lead roles of Bruce Wayne/Batman and the Joker and they seared across the screen, with the rubber and leather of the Bat treading the thin line between good and evil and being unafraid of stepping over. Keaton was good in the film, with his paranoid, vulnerable portrayal of Wayne, but it was the armour plated Batman costume that really captured the imagination; that and a tour de force performance from the manic Nicholson in one of his all time greatest roles.
The chemistry between the two is awesome and the tension palpable as Burton plays games with the psychology of the piece, with the binding together of the two good/evil demons. The Joker created the Bat and the Bat created the Joker, and they were inextricably bound together as Adam and The Creator from then on. In some odd, strange way they need each other in order to exist, this modern day Frankenstein and his Monster, but which is the master?
The black and awesome Gotham (shouldn't that be Gothic?) City of the film is completely overrun by crime and gangsters. The man terrorising the city is the leader of the mob, Carl Grissom, played dead straight and expertly by the veteran hard man Jack Pallance. Grissom's main man is Jack Napier, played by Nicholson, but he's becoming a bit too powerful for Grissom's liking and he is all set to polish him off. However, as the confrontation approaches, Batman appears on the scene and Napier ends up falling into a vat of chemicals, which have a terrifying effect on him, disfiguring him and creating a psychotic killer, nicknamed the Joker for his manic, fixed leer. True to comic book depiction, The Joker has green hair, a deathly white pallor and ruby red lips, transfixed in a death mask of horrific glee.
When he was a small boy, the young Bruce Wayne had been going to the theatre with his parents. The youthful Jack Napier gunned the couple down and was about to do the same to Wayne, asking the immortal question "Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" as he readies himself. Help is coming, however, and Napier flees the scene of the crime. The incident had a life changing impact on Wayne, prompting him to dedicate his life to fighting crime and his own brand of very grim justice.
Thus after the Joker had given birth to the Bat, the Bat created his arch enemy and an unholy war had begun.
After that, the Joker sought to enslave the city and the rest of the film is devoted to his nightmarish battle with the Bat, culminating in a bitter fight to the finish in the gothic surroundings of Gotham Cathedral.
Nicholson takes all the plaudits for his lunatic and energetic playing of the Joker. His one man demolition job at the museum, all lovingly choreographed to the ironic sound of the Prince song 'Party Man' is a highlight of this film. He looks like he’s loving every minute of it and his character is just so much more interesting than Tim Earnest But Grim. He goes on to disfigure his girlfriend (played expertly as the stereotypical dumb blonde by Jerry Hall) with acid.
Michael Keaton gives a satisfying performance as the schizophrenic and distirbed central character, the grim Batman and the millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne. The death of Wayne’s parents had a deep seated impact on him and tipped him over the edge. He is now two separate people, with the rubber and leather changing much more than just his appearance.
Kim Basinger is the love interest as Vicki Vale but has only a minor impact and Michael Gough, the former star of many 60's horror films, has a cameo role as Wayne's assistant, Alfred.
All in all, this is a lavish and impressively DARK movie. It was variously criticised for being too comic book, to have naff special effects, to miss a number of tricks and to be weighed down by shallow performances, but I think that is being hypercritical. Tim Burton created a monumental epic when he created Batman and Nicholson played his role with the relish he brings to all his best films, like the nightmarish The Shining and the gleefully depressing One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
As a whole, this is a classic realisation of the spirit of the Dark Knight and is probably the best attempt yet made of bringing a comic book hero to life. The Batman costume and the Batmobile are excellently conceived and bring the legend starkly to life. Burton sometimes becomes more interested in form than substance, but the whole is a brooding, lurking, menacing, intense little gothic masterpiece.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
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to become Batman a mysterious figure in the eyes of Gotham's citizens who takes crime-fighting into his own hands. He first emerges out of the shadows when the...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
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emergence of a new super hero, who intends to inspire fear into the hearts of the evil, and hope into the hearts of the honest citizens of that city! Who is Batman?
Advantages: good acting from a few, good story, funny bad effects! Disadvantages: Wooden acting from the villians, some may be disappointed by the effects
Oct 2nd, 2000
(Nov 28th, 2001)
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