TIM BURTON'S BATMAN - A Quickie Review

This movie was so anticipated they didn't even need the title on the poster

Words cannot describe the excitement, the desperation that gripped me in the summer of 1989. I was 8 years old, Batmania had taken the nation by storm. It was still a time when people stood in lines outside the theater, a time when that line would wrap around the building and you knew, based on that line, something huge had just opened. But being 8, I had to rely on my mom to take me to see it, and she was NOT an easy sell. I didn't see it opening weekend. I'm not even sure I saw it the second weekend. I remember having to nag for days on end to get her to relent, to drop her doubts about the violence and take my sister and me to the movies. I was so excited to go, and I desperately wanted to wear my new Batman t-shirt, but it wasn't clean (I didn't plan ahead in those days) so I took a shoestring and tied a little Batman plush doll (see right) around my neck to show my enthusiasm. I got compliments on it, too.

I was blown away. It was just so freaking fun and cool and exciting and everything I could have hoped for. When it came out on VHS a few months later (November, I think, of '89, which was a really fast turnaround back then. Movies usually took several months, if not over a year to hit the home video market) I would get home from school, sit down, and literally watch 'Batman' from beginning to end. I did this for weeks.

So I'm saying to you, this is a movie I grew up loving. Prince's death a couple of weeks ago inspired me to watch the movie again. I had an old DVD, but now my life demands only the finest in blu-ray for my favorite movies, so I decided to upgrade my catalog and re-examine my first cinematic experience with the Batman. Here we are almost 27 years later, and it still holds up pretty well.

Unlike the 1992 sequel, Tim Burton's idiosyncracies are toned down here, in a grim and grimy adaptation of the Dark Knight. Not beholden to canon or continuity, Burton's film took many liberties with the Batman mythos, but in the context of the movie, they mostly work. There are two main gripes with this film that I have: Vicki Vale and Bruce Wayne's love story is too rushed, and her dialogue with him is very trite; and the revelation that in this world, the Joker is originally a sadistic and narcissistic gangster named Jack Napier, who killed Bruce Wayne's parents, which is just too coincidental. Obviously, people had problems with it because it's a violation of canon, but aside from that, it doesn't really feel like a necessary thing. Batman should defeat the Joker and probably even kill him just based on all the horrific crimes he commits during the movie.

But those are fairly minor gripes and they certainly do not temper my admiration for the wonderful feeling of atmosphere that pervades the entire movie. Gotham is a heavy, dark place, scary, dangerous, full of lowlifes and criminals. It seems like the kind of place that definitely would spawn some kind of avenging angel. Burton does a wonderful job of creating a scenario that seems believable, so that you're not rolling your eyes at a man dressed like a giant, armored bat, and another man prancing around and giggling in clown make up. Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson both bring their A-game to the affair, with Keaton seeming so natural as a brooding vigilante who wears the mask of a millionaire socialite. Nicholson brings a sort of slapstick dark comedy to his role as the Joker (something that would be avoided entirely by Heath Ledger's turn in 2008) which made him the undeniable star of the movie. I mean, the dude has top billing over the man playing Batman.

And I haven't even gotten to the wonderful production design, creating a badass batsuit, the oppressive cityscape itself, and of course, the amazing Batmobile. And there's Danny Elfman's iconic and distinctive score, which is still one of my favorite movie scores. Elfman's music is coupled with Prince's experimental blend of rock/funk/pop, providing a crazy sound mix that totally makes two scenes in particlar; trying to imagine the Joker's vandalism of the museum, or his manic energy during his murderous parade without Prince's music is not only impossible, it's boring.

It's not perfect, and it's not my favorite Batman movie, but I think 'Batman' is a great snapshot of a time and a place in American history, and my own life. And I think it's the best possible movie that could have been made at that time. It holds up very well so many years later.


FINAL SCORE - 7.5/10