Title: BATMAN

Date: 6/15/1995; Publication: Magill's Survey of Cinema;

Magill's Survey of Cinema

06-15-1995

BATMAN

Abstract:
Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) has turned himself into Batman in an attempt to rid Gotham City of its crime element. In a twist of events, he discovers that the villain (Jack Nicholson) whom he is pursuing is also the man who killed his parents years before. He is able to take his revenge and win the love of reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) at the same time.


Summary:
Even six months before it opened in late June, 1989, BATMAN was the most talked about and anticipated motion picture of the year, if not, as some claimed, the decade. A ninety-second trailer was reputed to draw fans, who would then leave before the main feature. The Batmania, however, found its greatest catalyst in some three hundred Bat products, especially apparel. In a record summer that featured several sequels to previous blockbusters--LETHAL WEAPON II, GHOSTBUSTERS II and INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (all reviewed in this volume)--BATMAN offered something new, but familiar.

BATMAN broke the opening records set earlier in the month, becoming the first film to gross $100 million in ten days. In the next three months, the film would gross around $20 million in the United States. Its success led pop sociologists to delve into the national psyche for an explanation. What went unnoticed is that, after its phenomenal first week, BATMAN earned at the same rate as the summer's other top ten films. Thus the film's success seems more the result of an extremely well-planned advertising strategy--based on manipulation of the minimalist logo--than of the film itself.

Bob Kane's DC Comics hero had taken enough forms since June, 1939, for the logo to promise something for all tastes and ages. In the 1940's, Batman appeared in the SUPERMAN radio series and two Columbia Pictures motion-picture serials. In the 1960's, a pop art-inspired television series and film gave adults a camp version of Batman, while Saturday morning television offered children an innocuous cartoon superhero. In the 1980's, Batman returned to the dark humor and menace of the early comics in such DC "graphic novels" as Frank Miller's BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (1986). That BATMAN follows suit reassured the hardcore fans who feared another camp version from Tim Burton, director of the kitsch comedies PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) and BEETLEJUICE (1988), and Michael Keaton, the star of the latter film.

The film chronicles the first few months of Batman's career (before Robin), as he irons out his modus operandi and--since he is an ordinary human--his motives. The Writers Guild, however, went on strike during shooting, and screenwriter Sam Hamm was unable to refine the script and compensate for Burton's last-minute changes (Warren Skaaren and others replaced him). As a result, the film narrative jumps from one episode to the next, while the sparse dialogue deflates crucial scenes. BATMAN succeeds on Burton's dark visual wit alone; the film--much like a comic book--has the appearance of successive tableaux, minus word-balloons. Given the emphasis on visuals, it is surprising that BATMAN was not filmed in widescreen format.

BATMAN combines German expressionism with Art Deco to create an archaic, futuristic world similar to the one in Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (1927). The allusion, however, is less to the aesthetics of the 1920's than to such contemporary films as BLADE RUNNER (1982), DUNE (1984), and BRAZIL (1985). While BATMAN borrows the look of these films--cinematographer Roger Pratt also shot BRAZIL--it often lacks their political awareness. In its opening scene, BATMAN strives for a broad social panorama, in a tracking shot of what was said to be the largest set since CLEOPATRA (1963). Rich and poor alike crowd downtown Gotham, a metropolis whose architecture, in the absence of a building code, shoots up for miles, with incongruous addenda sprouting out. Gotham's mayor (Lee Wallace), a mirror image of New York City's former mayor Edward Koch, announces a festival that he claims will solve the city's economic and social ills. Meanwhile, Axis Chemical spews out pollutants, while its owner, Carl Grissom (Jack Palance), also runs a mob operation with the help of crooked police. These scenes reveal a city in desperate need of governmental regulation. What it gets, however, is a festival and Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), a disturbed multimillionaire turned vigilante.

Having discovered that his second-in-charge, Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), has slept with his mistress, Alicia (Jerry Hall), Grissom arranges for the police to capture and kill Napier. Batman foils the ambush but drops Napier into a vat of acid, where he is assumed to have been eaten alive. Napier, however, is swept out into the river. In the next scene, a surgeon unwraps Napier's bandages in a basement surgery; when Napier sees what has been done to his face, he staggers up the basement stairs either laughing or crying--one is unsure, because before Napier had been both maniacal and narcissistic. When he reveals himself, the viewer sees that his mouth has been frozen into a rictus, his skin is bleached white, and his hair is turned green. "Jack is dead," he announces. "You can call me the Joker. And as you can see, I'm a lot happier." His inner self has been released; and the Joker proceeds to take over the mob, and then Gotham.

As in most films, the villain has the juiciest role, and Nicholson-- with Keaton constrained as the tight-lipped Bruce Wayne/Batman-- becomes the focus of attention. In fact, Nicholson's role was expanded during shooting, and a renegotiated contract gave him a percentage of the gross for film and merchandise income. His earnings, estimated at $60 million, were three times higher than Sylvester Stallone's record income for RAMBO III (1988).

The film's color scheme is also built around the Joker, by use of a process known as tonal separation. Entire sets were colored in one tone and lit as if black-and-white film stock were being used, so that the Joker's green hair and garish zoot suits stand out in sharp relief. The visual emphasis on the Joker aligns black-suited Batman with the drab monotones of the status quo, making him even less of an alternative vision.

The remainder of the film features photographer Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) and journalist Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) tracking down Batman, while Vale and Wayne have an affair. At the same time, the Joker poisons the town's hygiene products and pursues Vale, whom Batman saves several times. As in his earlier films, Burton works best with mise en scŠne. Action sequences and confrontations are underdeveloped and poorly choreographed. In one scene, Wayne-- persuaded by his butler and confidant Alfred (Michael Gough)--arrives at Vale's apartment to reveal his true identity. The Joker, however, breaks in, shoots Wayne (who has hidden a silver tray under his shirt), and leaves without Vale. (Since Batman had just rescued Vale from the Joker in the previous scene, it would make more sense for the Joker to have reclaimed her.)

Before the Joker shoots Wayne, he recites a nonsensical question he asks all of his victims. It is this phrase that leads Wayne to realize that it was a young Napier who shot and killed his parents when he was a child, a brutal act that led Wayne to create Batman. When the Joker takes over the media waves and issues a challenge to Batman for the day of the festival, Batman is compelled to accept and exact revenge.

The Joker lures citizens to the festival with the promise of throwing $20 million from his parade float, only to release poisonous gas from parade balloons. Batman, in his Batwing, attacks the Joker's float and snares the balloons. In his next run on the float, however, the Joker shoots the Batwing out of the sky with a long-barreled pistol. While Batman recovers, the Joker grabs Vale and drags her to the top of Gotham's abandoned cathedral.

In a scene reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO (1958), Batman pursues them up the dilapidated staircase. Once at the top, he dispenses with the Joker's henchmen and at last confronts the Joker one-on-one. When the Joker accuses Batman of having made him what he is, Batman responds, "I made you, but you made me first." In this reply lies the crux of comic book myths, in which hero and villain are complicit in each other's existence, and also revealed to be more alike than not in their unstable makeup. Little, however, prepares the viewer for this confrontation, since the previous near-fights fail to generate the sense of a grudge match. Moreover, the final fight is so one-sided that all residual tension dissipates, especially when the Joker appears to know that he killed Batman's parents. Yet, the Joker cannot possibly know this, because he does not know Batman's identity.

In the end, the Joker falls to his death, and Vale and Wayne agree to continue their relationship. In the last scene, Alfred drives Vale to Wayne Manor, telling her that Wayne will be a little late. Although she previously objected to Wayne's vigilantism--which she identified as a manifestation of psychological problems and conservative individualism--Vale now seems to accept Batman. So too does Wayne, who gives Gotham a Batsignal with which to summon Batman. In the last shot, Batman stands erect atop a building, facing the projection from the Batsignal, awaiting a sequel. (Reviewed by Chon Noriega.)


Country of Origin: USA

Release Date: 1989

Production Line:
John Peters and Peter Guber for Guber-Peters Company; released by Warner Bros.

Director: Tim Burton

Cinematographer: Roger Pratt

File Editor: Ray Lovejoy

Additional Credits:
Production design - Anton Furst
Art direction - Terry Ackland-Snow - Nigel Phelps
Set decoration - Peter Young
Special visual effects - John Evans - Derek Meddings
Makeup - Paul Engelen
Costume design - Bob Ringwood - Linda Henrikson
Sound - Don Sharpe
Music - Danny Elfman
Songs - Prince

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 124 minutes

Cast:
The Joker/Jack Napier - Jack Nicholson
Batman - Michael Keaton
Bruce Wayne - Michael Keaton
Vicki Vale - Kim Basinger
Alexander Knox - Robert Wuhl
Commissioner Gordon - Pat Hingle
Harvey Dent - Billy Dee Williams
Alfred - Michael Gough
Carl Grissom - Jack Palance
Alicia - Jerry Hall
Mayor - Lee Wallace
Bob the Goon - Tracey Walter

Review Sources:
Chicago Tribune. June 23, 1989, VII, p. 40
The Christian Science Monitor. June 29, 1989, p. 10
Films in Review. XL, October, 1989, p. 480
Life. XII, Spring, 1989, p. 84
Los Angeles Times. June 23, 1989, VI, p. 1
The Nation. CCXLIX, July 17, 1989, p. 100
The New Republic. CCI, July 31, 1989, p. 24
New York. XXII, July 17, 1989, p. 45
The New York Times. June 23, 1989, p. C12
The New Yorker. LXV, July 10, 1989, p. 83
Newsweek. CXIII, June 26, 1989, p. 72
Rolling Stone. June 29, 1989, p. 38
Time. CXXXIII, June 19, 1989, p. 60
USA Today. June 23, 1989, IV, p. 1
Variety. CCCXXXV, June 14, 1989, p. 7
The Village Voice. July 4, 1989, p. 69
Vogue. CLXXIX, June, 1989, p. 128
The Wall Street Journal. June 22, 1989, I, p. 12

Named persons in Production Credits:
John Peters
Peter Giber

Studios named in Production Credits:
Guber-Peters Company
Warner Bros.

Screenplay (Author):
Sam Hamm
Warren Skaaren
Bob Kane

Color

Video Available.

Genre:


Crime, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Award Citations:
Academy Awards - Winner - Art Direction - Anton Furst
Academy Awards - Winner - Art Direction - Peter Young

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