In 1978, Warner Bros.' SUPERMAN became the first modern superhero movie, but the formerly lucrative film property collapsed under financial and creative disputes. Batman, the second most popular character for DC Comics, had been a successful media franchise in 1960s, thanks to the campy television series starring Adam West, but his popularity had begun to wane. Following the success of SUPERMAN, there had been talks about making a Batman movie, unrelated to the television series (which got a film of its own in 1966), but in a similar, campy vein, and none of those plans received much attention after the Superman series fell out of popularity. In the mid-eighties though, new writers like Frank Miller and Alan Moore reinvigorated Batman sales with darker, grittier interpretations, reminiscent of the first Batman stories by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in Detective Comics before the Comics Code Authority cracked down on "lurid" material in comic books. These new Batman stories came in the form of special series and graphic novels like The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke, which rekindled an interest in the film project at Warner. Tim Burton, a young director, formerly an animator at Disney before being fired for his use of resources on short films deemed too dark to be marketable, had recently made two features distributed by Warner, PEE-WEE HERMAN'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) and BEETLE JUICE (1988), both of which had been wildly successful and made on low budgets, and Warner was ready to offer to him a big budget.
In June 1989, BATMAN breathed new life into the business of summer blockbusting after several years of disappointing returns. It became the first film to gross a full $100 million in ten days, and eventually grossed over $400 million worldwide, as well as over $750 million in merchandising. It was more than a movie, it was a behemoth of business and a cultural icon that saturated society. For the following decade, it was followed by three sequels and many imitators as every studio in Hollywood aspired to a similar success, and Tim Burton was the hottest brand in Hollywood for a good while.
Actually though, the film really isn't all that good. It received positive reviews upon release and still has many fans, and maybe it's presumptuous of me to say so, but I suspect that most of its legacy relies on nostalgia. However, the industrial and artistic influence of the film is entirely undeniable, though it's important to recognize that influence as more of a stepping stone to greater things, than as a great thing in itself.
SUPERMAN introduced the concept of the modern superhero film, but later films, such as SPIDER-MAN, have looked more to BATMAN for inspiration. Probably its greatest contribution to the current industry was its more hard-edged, adult-friendly approach to the superhero film. Although PG-rated films that would earn a PG-13 rating today were widely accepted as family films in the 70s and early 80s, outrage over violence/gore in films like INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and GREMLINS resulted in the creation of the PG-13 rating, and the new PG-13 films, that would have been a "kid-friendly" PG before, were unsuitable for children. Comic books were largely derided as 'kids' stuff,' but BATMAN proved older audiences would still turn out for PG-13 superhero movie, and kids and families remained largely undeterred. While some critics and family organizations criticized the film as too dark and violent for a "children's character", the approach has become the mainstream, and it's the PG-rated superhero films and blockbusters that turn heads. BATMAN identified the relatively new PG-13 rating as the box office "sweet spot".
BATMAN also provided the prototype for today's supervillains, although not without some controversy. SUPERMAN was a pure showcase for Superman; after only ten years since his breakout role in BONNIE AND CLYDE, as well as having received multiple Academy Award nominations and one win for Best Actor in THE FRENCH CONNECTION, Gene Hackman had introduced the concept of the veteran actor as the supervillain from the get-go, but as Lex Luthor, he was largely overshadowed by Christopher Reeve's Superman, acting as little more than catalyst to give Superman an excuse to showcase his superpowers. For the title role, Michael Keaton, best known for his comic roles and having starred as the title character in Burton's BEETLE JUICE a year before, was chosen in one of the most famous cases of "dark horse casting" ever, creating outrage amongst fanboys, although the decision was later mostly vindicated in the finished film. For the role of Batman's most famous nemesis, many actors lobbied and many were considered, but it was legendary actor Jack Nicholson who nabbed the part, and with one of the sweetest deals ever negotiated. Not only did Nicholson receive a $6 million salary, but he also received a portion of the profits (an amount rumored around $60 million), an incredible level of control over his shooting schedule (including all Lakers home games off), makeup artist approval and top billing. The portrayal of the Joker was startling in contrast to the Joker families were more familiar with from the television series, as played by Caesar Romero as a whimsical prankster, more of a mischief-making sprite than a true criminal. Nicholson's Joker famously electrocuted a crime boss into a charred skeletal corpse by way of a deadly hand-buzzer, killed a man with a quill pen throwing knife to the throat and poisoned dozens of citizens with a chemical that leaves their corpses bearing ghastly grins. Furthermore, the Joker was given far greater attention throughout the film, making the film almost more of a showcase for a whimsical sadist, although understandably, considering Burton's notorious taste for dark whimsy. It was after the Nicholson Joker though, that supervillains became as, or more important than their hero. Of course, I'm not going to B.S.; I'm sorry, but much as I love old Jack, anyone who tries to explain why the Nicholson Joker is as good as Heath Ledger's in THE DARK KNIGHT is kidding themselves out of nostalgic affection.
Although by today, superhero films have become noticeably real world-grounded, to the extent where some of them go well out of their way to be real world possible, but for a short while, it was the highly-stylized, Academy Award-winning production design of BATMAN that the competition strove for. Among the stylistic influences most noted in that art direction is German Expressionism like the films of Fritz Lang, especially METROPOLIS, which, interestingly enough, would later be a major plot influence on THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. The city of Gotham is designed like a city of night, with only a scarce few daylight scenes, clashing architecture that emulates fascist designs, as if the city is as villainous as its criminality, or as darkly conflicted as its defender. The time period in which the film takes place is totally indiscernible, with all the Batman tech, modern conveniences and contemporary fashions here and there, but many characters dress like figures straight out of a 1930s-1940s noir, as well as similar archetypes. The longest-lasting influence of the BATMAN aesthetic though, has been its approach to costumed crime fighters and criminals. Early serials, television adaptations and the Superman film series had all translated their characters' colorful costumes directly, spandex and prominent outer briefs intact. Frankly, they all looked fairly silly, and smartly, Burton dismissed the blue and grey spandex as lacking in an intimidation, and the new Batsuit more closely resembled armor. Thanks to that decision, Spider-Man's eyes are visors, the X-Men wear leather, Iron Man's suit looks more like a human tank and Captain America looks more like a soldier than a ballerina.While BATMAN has been very influential, and the formula has stood the test of time, the film itself has not. It was a case of a marvelous masterpiece of marketing to a stylish but messy movie, not unlike what many of today's blockbusters, sometimes called "event films" are accused of being. I'm not a Tim Burton-hater by any means; I consider such movies as SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET and BIG FISH to be absolute masterworks, but in blunt honesty, Burton does not have many strengths of his own in terms of character development, originality or structure. Anyway, BATMAN clearly has more than a few strong voices going on in its production; it's a prime example of a major studio-made film. Probably worst of all are Prince songs added blatantly for the purpose of enhancing marketability, i.e. "featuring all-new songs by pop superstar, Prince"; that kind of thing. Burton seems to have been aware of the out-of-place nature to the generic, upbeat pop numbers, and so used them in context as "incidental music", as opposed to placement in the score. Even still, it's really just to stupid for the Joker to have one of his henchman cranking out the tunes on a ghetto blaster while they destroy museum paintings, and the product placements were only later topped in their idiocy by BATMAN & ROBIN, especially MasterCard. Somewhat typical of Burton movies, there's a good deal of scattershot editing, but a lot of that is clearly due to production constraints and studio hampering, such as the infamous scene where Alfred brings Vicki Vale into the Batcave, but that scene was later ridiculed briefly in BATMAN RETURNS. Being an action movie, there's also quite a bit of importance to the action scenes, but action is clearly not one of Burton's strengths and yet, he applies his aesthetic style to those scenes, to their detriment. As such, in addition to everything else, the action is more quirky and kitschy than anything else; I'm sorry, but beatnik ninjas whose swords are pointless because they're too busy doing flips lack any implication of threat.
BATMAN (1989)
2 1/2 out of 4 stars
Directed by Tim Burton
Starring: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Michael Gough
PG-13 for unspecified reasons (action violence)
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