A Review by Forrest Humphrey
For our look at filmmaker Tim Burton I decided to revisit Batman, the 1989 classic that followed Christopher Reeves Superman films from the previous decade in proving comic adaptations could make huge money. It (and its sequel “Batman Returns) also happens to be my favorite Batman films to this day despite their flaws (especially the sequel). But why is that? Why do I still stick by this film even though “The Dark Knight” stands tall above it in terms of being one of the most universally praised comic films ever by both fans and critics? Lets dig into it.
I'm going to start off simple: The cast. Or at least its two headlining stars, Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, two of Hollywood's biggest juggernauts. Keaton is still getting high profile roles to this day, and there's no questioning the man is a talented performer. His Bruce Wayne is more affable and personable than later renditions of the character but certain scenes still hint at mental troubles below the surface, which for me at least make the character more enjoyable to follow. And then we have Jack Nicholson as the Joker, do I really need to say more? Well I'm going to. Nicholson made a career in playing scary, unhinged characters and he brings all of that here in a scenery devouring performance that packs in quite a bit of humor and charm along with the character's expected insanity and is far more in line with more classic versions of the Joker I enjoy than the more modern, anarchy spreading interpretation.
Next is the set design. While later Batman films kept the character more grounded and gritty, this had the effect of making Gotham City look, well, like any other generic American city like Chicago or New York. Burton embraced the more styalized, gothic architecture of Gotham that is a hallmark of the books and I adore the film all the more for it. That's what Gotham is to me: gargoyles, old stone architecture and a giant moon that always seems to be full and this film gives me that.
The third major reason is Danny Elfman's score. Lets be honest, there is no piece of music as synonymous with Batman to this day as Elfman's iconic, instantly recognizable theme, right up there with John Williams also-iconic theme for Superman a decade prior. Elfman is one of my favorite composers and he has a talent for music that needs to be both dramatic and foreboding.
Of course, the film is hardly perfect. As much as I adore Nicholson's Joker I fulyl agree with everyone that making him the killer of Batman's parents was a stupid twist that ruins one of Batman's core themes: stopping anyone from suffering a similar act of random violence in the future. This twist turns the film into a revenge movie, a change that doesn't really work. And well, any time Keaton is in the suit you can tell how stiff it is, something even Bale would struggle with many years later and it makes the hand to hand combat fall flat on its face more than once.
I would never argue this is an objectively superior film to at least the first two Nolan films, that'd be silly. But stylistically this is much more what I want out of a Batman movie. Its gothic, its quotable (I can still quote almost anything Nicholson says), its got a great score and a hell of a cast, and its just a good time with a bag of popcorn.
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