BATMAN (1989)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Action

Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Michael Keaton / Jack Nicholson / Kim Basinger

Plot

Wealthy philanthropist Bruce Wayne spends his nights as the costumed vigilante Batman, protecting Gotham City from the psychotic mob kingpin known as the Joker.

What I Liked

Before this movie came out, most of the general public’s concept of Batman still rested firmly in the old 1960s television series, where Adam West engaged in all kind of campy wam-bam-thwack fun.  Though the character in the comics had gone through plenty of changes since his creation in 1939, he had always been one of comicdom’s most grim heroes.  It wasn’t until director Tim Burton’s take on Batman was released in 1989 that the character received the mature treatment he deserved on screen.

I still remember watching this one in the theaters.  My dad took me on my tenth birthday, July 8, 1989.  I thought it was great then and I still do today.  The fight sequences were thrilling for the time.  The sets were mind-blowingly huge and meticulously detailed.  Danny Elfman's score is a just-right mixture of bombast and gloom.  The script is strong with sharp dialogue and well-rendered characters.  And Burton brings his stylish darkness to all of the above, making Gotham City a fantasy city that is one part Depression-era gangster town, one part 1980s New York, and one part Fritz Lang’s futuristic Metropolis.

On the surface, Michael Keaton might seem like a poor choice to play the most formidable human without super powers in the DC Universe; he was primarily known as a comedic actor prior to this release and was not particularly tall, intimidating, or muscular.  Despite this, he brings an off-beat eccentricity to Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne and is surprisingly convincing as the Caped Crusader as well.  I tried to think of another actor from that era who would have made a better Batman and I came up with no one.  For all that, Keaton is still shown up by Jack Nicholson, brilliantly cast as that merry maker of mayhem, the Joker.  Since “The Dark Knight” was released, I’ve had to listen to people saying that Heath Ledger’s performance outdid Nicholson’s.  That’s simply not true.  Granted, the Joker written and designed by others for Ledger was certainly more compelling than any earlier screen incarnation.  And, yes, Ledger was perfect in the role.  But Nicholson was just as good as the Joker that had been written and designed for him.  Before Nicholson, the Joker had been Cesar Romero’s goofball clown.  Quite simply, Nicholson destroyed that image and made the Joker the best super-villain in movie history to that point.  A great deal of what Ledger did in “The Dark Night” started with Nicholson’s being the first actor to make the Joker a truly frightening and believably psychotic bad guy.  He completely steals the movie from big time stars and talents like Keaton and Kim Basinger, none of them showing even a glimmer of the on-screen charisma Nicholson can generate with something as simple as a smirk.

Plus, the Batmobile in this film is still the coolest-looking of them all.

What I Didn’t Like

Unfortunately, the film has one badly-timed lull in action right as the drama is supposed to be reaching its apex.  After a blazing action sequence where the Joker confronts the Batman and his Bat-Wing head-on in the streets of Gotham City and Batman crashes on the steps of Gotham Cathedral, the Joker kidnaps perpetual damsel in distress Vicki Vale and begins to ascend the cathedral tower.  I suppose the villain’s slow rise up the steps and the hero’s unrelenting pursuit is supposed to also create a mounting tension in the audience.  It doesn't.  Instead, the heart-pounding intensity of the prior scene is followed by a mellow and terribly long climb up some steps.  I clearly remember one man near me falling asleep and snoring in the theater at this point and the ten year old me wanting to get back to the action.  Of course, everything does pick up and the film again reaches an appropriately thrilling crescendo.  Luckily this is the only moment of the film that features such bad timing, but because it occurs at such a key moment in the film it sticks out horribly.

And, as a comic nerd, I was always bothered by the fact that they have Jack Napier kill Bruce's parents.  Joe Chill killed the Waynes!

Most Memorable Scene

Jack Napier’s transformation into the Joker is revealed when he returns to crime boss Carl Grissom’s penthouse/office.  From his shadowy entrance to the scene’s close with a blood-spattered headline, it all points to just how amazing Nicholson is going to be as the film’s most interesting character.  “Wait’ll they get a load of me,” he muses.  Indeed.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5