Batman

Crime-ravaged Gotham comes under the protection of the mysterious Batman, who manages in his first few appearances to tranform a mob hitman into the psychotic Joker - someone who literally kills for his art. Also, photographer Vicki Vale seeks to discover the identity of the Batman while romancing Bruce Wayne, only to be (quite pointedly) shown that the two figures are the same man.

Batman/Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton)
Joker/Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson)
Vicky Vale (Kim Basinger)
Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl)
Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle)
District Attorney Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams)
Alfred (Michael Gough)
Carl Grissom (Jack Palance)
Alicia (Jerry Hall)
Henchman Bob (Tracey Walter)
Mayor (Lee Wallace)
Lieutenant Eckhardt (William Hootkins)

Year: 1989
Censorship Rating: PG (it's got violence, adult themes and gothic architecture)

Given that "Batman Begins" is mere days away from opening in cinemas (at the time I wrote this review, anyway), I thought it would be worthwhile to go back and look at the original dark take on Batman, as done by Tim Burton. For many people it was the first time that they saw a mainstream superhero done in such a dark fashion and, without its success, I doubt that we'd have as many superhero / comic films available today... for the better and for the worse.

Under the credits the camera swoops around a dark cavernous location. When it eventually pulls back, we can see that it was swooping around the Batman logo - one that is all black.

Onto Gotham City - there are lots of low-lifes on the city streets and the sound of police sirens is a constant street anthem. Leaving the Monarch Theatre, a family (a Father, a Mother and a Son) are unable to catch a taxi. The frustrated Father decides they will walk back to ... well, wherever it is they are going, ignoring the Son as he points out they are going the wrong way. Father decides to head down a dark alley and gets pistolwhipped for doing so. Mother gets mugged. As the thieves run off, she screams.

[So, our first exposure to Gothamites have revealed this: they aren't very bright. Walking down a dark alley in a seedy part of town definitely shows a lack of brains, or perhaps they have no sense for self preservation. More on this later.]

The scream is heard by a dark figure on a rooftop - a figure who's [rather cartoony] shadow shows he has two long pointy ears [all the better to hear with - Batman appears to be quite a distance from the ground, let alone the alley where the mugging occurred].

Up on a rooftop, the muggers go through their newly acquired items. Whiney Mugger doesn't like being on the roof due to stories of "the Bat" who may or may not be throwing petty criminals off rooftops. Tough Mugger doesn't believe in "the Bat" (but is immediately shown to be wrong as a dark bat-like figure drops down a short distance behind them). [The Vocal Reversal Rule in effect - if you don't want something to happen, don't say it out loud!.] Disturbing the muggers, the bat figure strikes a pose, only to get gunned down. The muggers watch, frozen in fear, as the Bat gets straight back up. [Obviously annoyed that they ruined his posing time] The Bat kicks Whiney Mugger through a door, then hangs Tough Mugger over the side of the building. At this point, it's time for introductions: "I'm Batman".

[I never liked this introduction to Batman. He appears on film for the first time, strikes a stupid pose and gets shot down in seconds, crumpling like tissue paper under the gunfire. It's hardly an impressive start. Sure, he gets back up and does his thing, but it doesn't make him look that effective. Good thing one of those bullets didn't accidently get Batman in the head there, or it would have been a very short film. What would have been more effective to have Batman rush through the gunfire to take out the muggers, without it appearing to have any effect on him. But perhaps it wasn't possible to run in this suit. More on this later as well.]

At a press conference held by the new Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent, we learn that mob boss Carl Grissom is the big bad guy (and also get to see the Mayor and Police Commissioner Gordon). At least two people are Watching the press conference on television - they are Jack Napier, Grissom's top enforcer, and Alicia, Grissom's girl [although god knows when they actually mention Alicia's name in this film - she's referred to pretty much all the time as "sugarcakes" and "sweetheart" or other such monikers]. Napier and Alicia are having an affair, with Napier being pretty blase about the risk of being found out. He believes that "Grissom couldn't run this city without [me]" and also comes across as fairly vain.

Back in the alleyways, the police are dealing with the beaten muggers. Lieutenant Eckhart, who 1) is managing the crime scene and 2) is an overweight unpleasant police officer stereotype made flesh, is rudely dismissive of "the bat" sightings (linking them to the result of "drinking Draino"). He gets even more obnoxious when Gotham Globe reporter Alexander Knox shows up to ask about Batman. There have been "eight sightings in just under a month" and Knox wants some on-the-record answers. Serving the overweight unpleasant police officer stereotype well, Eckhart tells Knox to stop writing about Batman.

Eckhart then walks off from Knox, goes around a corner and takes a bribe from Napier [which fails to make either Eckhart or Napier look particularly smart; although perhaps Napier is just crazy arrogant about it. Good thing Knox, or anyone who wanted to talk to Eckhart about the crime scene for that matter, didn't follow the rather large lieutenant that short distance.]. Napier makes an indication that one day he'll run Gotham City; Eckhart says this will never happen because Napier is "an A-grade nutboy and Grissom knows it". After a bit of a stand-off involving gun being drawn (and Bob, Napier's henchman, is shown to be a cut above typical henchman quality in this scene), Napier leaves.

On the steps of Town Hall, the Mayor puts pressure on Dent and Commissioner Gordon to get Grissom (with the motivation being to meet the public promises that the Mayor has been making, instead of for any real public safety issues). Also, the city festival must go on, despite being bankrupt.

At the Gotham Globe, Knox gets razzed by the other reporters for his Batman stories [and we see that the Gotham Globe artist is called Bob Kane in memory of Batman's creator]. Things are looking up for him when he sees a pair of shapely legs at his desk. After a few charming and witty [read: sexist and obnoxious] comments from Knox, we find out that these legs belong to Vicky Vale, who 1) is an award winning fashion / current affairs photojournalist, and 2) "likes bats" and is in Gotham City to see some wildlife. Teaming up, they plan to talk to Commissioner Gordon at the Wayne Benefit [that Vicky, having just arrived in Gotham City, already has two tickets for - how convenient!] about Batman.

[Aside: Knox is "Batman"'s odious comedy relief. He really isn't that funny - one or two lines might raise a smirk, if you're easily amused - which, combined with the fact he pitches a lot of one-liners, makes him irritating to watch. Fortunately, as soon as Vicky starts her relationship with Bruce Wayne, Knox practically disappears from the film.]

In the penthouse of an ominous-looking building [but then, this is Burton's Gotham, so pretty much EVERY building is ominous-looking], Grissom is concerned that Dent might connect his operations to Axis Chemicals, which would be bad for some reason. Grissom asked Napier to personally handle the operation that will see Axis Chemicals trashed. Once Napier leaves, Grissom calls Eckhart.

At the Wayne Benefit, we see 1) Knox komically giving the butler a tip for bringing him a drink and 2) that Vale is wearing the same dress that she wore to her prom back in 1980. Vale asks a man who Bruce Wayne is; he says "I'm not sure" (which will be important in a minute).

Knox tries to get Gordon, Dent and the Mayor to talk about Batman, but without success [and just comes across as incredibly rude when he starts asking Gordon questions as the Commissoner is shooting craps. No wonder no-one will talk to Know if he is this irritating and tactless to everyone!]. Gordon is called away by a uniformed officer - a tip has placed Napier at the Axis Chemical plant. To Gordon's consternation, he is told that Eckhart is in charge of the Axis operation. Gordon leaves the party.

In trying to follow Gordon out [probably just to irritate him some more] Knox and Vale stumble across Wayne's armour collection. The "I'm not sure" man, (who is really Bruce Wayne for those of you not paying attention) just happens to come across them as they loudly [and, because Knox in involved, with little wit] deride both Wayne and his armour exhibits. Wayne introduces himself at an opportune point (the "I'm not sure" thing comes up again here) and they all chat about not much. [Actually, this is just used to show that Wayne already knows about Knox and Vale and we learn that Knox is allegedly talented as a writer and Vale is allegedly talented as photographer. Alleged attributes all around.] Alfred (the butler from before) interrupts this bout of 'character development' to inform Wayne about Gordon's "very unexpected exit". Vale starts to look interested in Wayne on a personal level.

The audience is then shown that Wayne Manor is hooked up with lots of cameras and microphones, which allows Wayne to see why Gordon left the party [while the audience watches the exact same scene from before, from the same angle. It's even better the second time! ... no, not really].

At Axis Chemicals, Eckhart hands out mugshots of Napier and tells the police under his command to "shoot to kill". Inside the Axis offices, Napier finds no documents in the main safe and realises "we've been ratted out here boys". The gangsters immediately run into the cops and a shoot-out starts. Pipes are hit by stray bullets and chemicals start spraying chemicals everywhere. Gordon arrives with more police and relieves Eckhart of his "bust". [You'd think, if Gordon knew Eckhart was corrupt that he would do something about it - I'm sure the Police Commissioner has some sort of powers to deal with bent cops, or even unofficial means of keeping bad cops out of the way. But, hey, it's in the script...] Gordon tells everyone via bullhorn that he wants Napier taken alive. Eckhart slinks away.

Napier throws some switches that start overloading systems while the shoot-out continues. Batman arrives [dispensing with the posing this time] and starts to take out gangsters. Batman also gets seen by Gordon, and gets an appropriate "oh my god" response. Napier does some more damage to the chemical vats in attempting to make his escape, while the police keep firing indiscriminately at him [if that's how Gotham cops are trained to bring someone in alive, I'd hate to see what they did when they want someone dead. Fortunately for Jack, they all shoot like Stormtroopers].

Napier flees up the stairs, with Batman close behind. [As before, it appears that Batman can't run in his suit. Given how close he is behind Napier, if he could get up anything beyond a brisk walk, the bad guy would get caught. Instead, Batman is left to flip his cape around in an attempt to distract the audience from the fact that won't allow him to pick up the pace.] Making his way towards an upstairs exit, Napier sees an opportunity to plug Gordon. Batman [who can't run, but perhaps can teleport] swoops done from above and grabs Napier, but Gordon is then held hostage by Bob [and what a great Commissioner Gordon appears to be. First, he makes himself a target by standing, unprotected, in the middle of a wide open area, and then he gets himself taken hostage. It just makes you wonder about the quality of police officer in Gotham City.] Batman lets Napier go, but when Napier turns around after picking up his gun, Batman has teleported away disappeared.

Napier spots Eckhart and shoots him dead [with one bullet and from a good distance away, proving there are some people in Gotham City who can use a gun effectively, and they aren't part of the police force]. Batman then teleports back in reappears and deflects a shot that Napier fires at him. The ricochet hits Napier in the face, who then falls over the side of the walkway. Napier catches himself and Batman leans over as if to help him up, but Napier ends up falling into a vat of chemicals [/ pea soup]. Gordon calls for Batman to halt, but Batman rappels away in a puff of smoke.

Outside, in the waste water, a pale hand rises. [Isn't some sort of environmental code violation here? I mean, can Gotham chemical factories just dump their waste straight into outside areas, without any sort of treatment being required? Anyway...]

The next morning, Knox and Vale are still trying to get information about Batman. Knox offers to take Vale to dinner, but Vale is already booked on a date with Bruce Wayne.

At the dinner, Vale and Wayne sit at opposite ends of a long dinner table. After some banal chatter, Wayne realises how uncomfortable the situation is and they move to ... the kitchen, where Alfred entertains Vale. When Alfred retires, Wayne and Vale chat to reveal that Alfred is the only family Wayne has.

Cut [no pun intended] to an underground surgery. In dirty conditions, the doctor reveals the work he had done on Napier. Claiming poor tools to work with, the doctor also indicates there wasn't much he could do anyway - the damage was just too great. After looking in the mirror, Napier takes the news well, laughing hysterically to himself on the way out. [Hey, laughter is the best medicine, after all.]

At Wayne Manor, Vale and Wayne kiss on the stairs.

Grissom steps out of the shower to find a shadow-covered Napier waiting for him. The mob boss tries to cut a deal with Jack, but "Jack is dead" - stepping out of the shadows we can see Napier is now the garish and ever-smiling Joker. Joker shoots Grissom, laughing to himself all the while - as the Joker says, "What a day!"

Vale wakes up in Wayne's bed to see him swinging upside down on a machine in the corner of his room.

The Joker is upset that a "winged freak" is getting lots of publicity. "Wait'll they get a load of me!" he tells Henchman Bob.

Wayne brushes Vale off using the old, "I'm going out of town but I'll call you later" routine.

The Joker starts his rule of Gotham City. He calls in all the main bosses and tells them he wants to "run this city into the ground". One boss objects and gets a 10 000 volt handshake that fries him as a consequence. Armed men escort the bosses out, while the Joker has Bob go down to the Gotham Globe to spy on Knox. The Joker and the smoking corpse agree that the other mob bosses should be "grease[d]".

Knox and Vale bicker over Vale not doing her job [which Knox is actually right about - Vale has ditched Knox and Batman to obsess about Wayne. Hey, who needs to earn a living when you could go gold digging instead?]. Vale is overly interested about Bruce Wayne, on which little important information seems to exist.Using techniques the come suspiciously close to stalking, Vale sees Wayne leave two roses on the pavement in a decrepit area.

Outside City Hall, a mob boss is quizzed by the press about his take-over of Grissom's businesses. (Conveniently, Knox, Vale and Wayne all end up at City Hall to see this bit). [Also, Knox shows the Gothamite tendancy of not having a sense of self-preservation by being insulting towards the mob boss while questioning him. It's like Knox wants to get beaten up!] Mimes start showing up [which is never a good sign]. Suddenly the Joker appears, kills the mob boss with a quill to the throat [let's assume it was poisoned] and the mimes open fire with machine guns to cover the Joker's escape. Wayne is dazed by Jack Napier's / the Joker's appearance and slowly follows him, getting grazed in the arm by a bullet on the way. Vale runs to see if Wayne is okay; Wayne leaves.

The Mayor indicates that the city festival will go on, while reporters ask if Batman was involved in the killing.

[Aside: What, did the dozens of witnesses (including police and members of the press) who saw a man in clown make-up kill a mob figure not make a statement? Really, does the Joker look like a bat to you? A lot of people saw who the killer was - Jack Napier - who would be recognised despite his paler yet happier appearance.]

[While I don't put it past the media to add an unnecessarily connection into a story to sex it up a bit, it is a huge leap for the Joker to kill someone, then have it linked to Batman... who, now I think about it, was seen as a myth by everyone but Knox until the Joker killed someone. Suddenly everyone believes he exists. That makes no sense to me at all.]

The Joker is unhappy that "a man dressed up as a bat gets all my press". [Yes, you'd think committing murder so publicly would drown out speculative news stories for at least the first day, but there you go.] He starts to make plans.

Wayne comes home to have Alfred primp up the relationship he has with Vale. After a little consideration, Wayne gets onto the job at hand - finding out about Napier.

Vale continues to stalk Wayne.

On a desk, a CIA file is surrounded by photos of dead, smiling people. The Joker is cutting out photos (looks like he is making a collage) when Bob come in with the photos he's taken of Gotham Globe employees. Spying Vale, the Joker is smitten and plans to make her his girl. A little while later, at Axis Chemicals, the Joker oversees the mixing up of ... something.

In a newsroom, a female anchor reports on the death of two models. As more reports of deaths come in, she starts to laugh uncontrollably, eventually collapsing dead and with a big smile on her face.

With this death, a television ad for "new and improved Joker products" comes on. (The products themselves are basic hygiene products - diodorant, hair spray, make-up: that kind of thing). Joker indicates that the special ingredient, Smilex, will kill those who take it and that you won't need to buy Joker products since "chances are, you've bought them already".

Wayne reads Napier's police file and finds out that Napier had aptitudes in art and chemistry.

In another news report, two very haggard looking anchors indicate how the Joker product crises is going. In another short scene we see the Mayor is in a tizz about the Joker and how it will impact on the still planned city festival.

Vale leaves a message for Wayne that she will be 10 minutes late in meeting Wayne at the museum. This is strange, because Wayne has no plans to see Vale then.

The Joker puts on flesh-toned make-up to conceal his true appeareance from his lunch partner. We also get to see that Alicia (Grissom's ex-squeeze - remember her?) is now wearing a Phantom of the Opera-esque mask on her face.

At the museum, Vale waits and waits and waits for Wayne. Finally, a gift shows up marked "Urgent" in crayon. It contains a gas mask and a note that Vale should "put this on right now". Purple gas leaks into the museum, killing everyone bar Vale. The Joker arrives and, with his crew, start 'redecorating' the artwork to the strains of a Prince song. After a 'dance / redecorate bit' of this, Joker makes his way over to Vale.

He introduces himself, saying he is "the world's first fully functioning homicidal artist". As an example of his work, he brings out Alicia, who is show to be disfigured under her mask. (We can also make the assumption her mind has been shattered by the Joker's treatment, given how meekly she follows him around.) Vale is upset by this and just manages to avoid catching similar treatment when the Joker squirts acid in her direction. It is at this point that Batman crashes through the skylight, scoops Vale into his arms and swings to safety by heading out of the art gallery. They escape to the [not-at-all-phallic-looking] Batmobile and immediately enter a high-speed chase with the Joker's men.

[Aside: Two things: 1) Kim Basinger really doesn't act well in this film, or at least badly enough in some segments to really stand out. Her 'absolute terror' at seeing the Joker kill a building full of people comes across more as an 'feeling of discomfort at seeing an old boyfriend' look, while in other parts she's just wooden. Still, given how little she really has to do - look pretty while the hero and villain fight over her - perhaps it's a little hard to put in an inspired performance.]

After evading the bad guys for a bit, the Batmobile is forced to stop by construction blocking the road. Exiting the car, Batman and Vale head into an alleyway on foot. [And here we see Batman run. For the 3 seconds we see a full body shot of Batman running, we can see just how awkward the suit must be. It looks like he can't turn his body naturally, so ends up running like puppet ie all legs, with no arm or shoulder movement. This is obviously why the camera switches to just watching his feet while he runs.] Batman tries to use a grappelling hook to escape to the rooves, but Vale lies about her weight. Batman is forced to drop back to the ground, which sends Vale to safety but drops him just beside a Joker goon squad.

On the ground Batman fights the goons for a bit, but looks to have been overcome and shot. As the goons move to take off Batman's mask, Vale snaps some photos and her flash distracts the goons, giving Batman the chance to leap up and perform a beatdown on the bad guys. Vale takes photos of the fight from her protected vantage point.

Once the [slightly awkward-looking] fight is over, Batman catches up with Vale (who secrets the film she has just taken in her underclothes). Batman has his Batmobile pick them up and they head off to the Batcave. While Vale tries to get a good look at the man under the mask, Batman explains how the Joker has poisoned the hygiene products - its certain combinations that are deadly, not any one product. Vale points out that 1) Batman is "not normal" [well, duh!] and 2) that this information could have just been sent to the press. Batman confesses to Vale that there is "something else you have that I want". Batman flashes his cape and ... Vale wakes up in her apartment with her Batman film missing. Vale gets the Batman's findings out about the Joker products, which annoys the Joker - he decides that he needs to "clean [his] claws" on Batman.

[Aside: One thing I really liked was how the costume really made it hard to see who Batman was. By covering the facial landscape around the eyes and nose, a lot of information about what someone looks like is removed, meaning that although you knonw it's Michael Keaton under the mask, it isn't that easy to make him out. Much better than just having a secret identity protected only by a pair of glasses, anyway.]

Back in the Batcave, Alfred suggests to Wayne that Vale is "quite special" [which is such an alleged attribute that it isn't funny. Or maybe Alfred has something for women with no personality who stalk men after one date] and that Wayne should do more to woo her. So Wayne goes to see Vale, who is annoyed to see him after feeling a bit used after their date. Wayne gets her to "shut up" about what happened and tries to explain the different sides to his personality. They are interrupted by the doorbell - it's the Joker and his goons, bearing music and a gift. (Wayne is seen to grab a silver tray when he sees the Joker arrive.) The Joker reveals that Alicia has killed herself, but that "you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs".

Wayne reappears into the room, which causes much consternation in the Joker. After a brief introduction, Wayne goes into a brief, rough version of Jack Napier's history. After a little bit of histrionics from Wayne, the Joker shoots him ("You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?") with a low caliber pistol, mainly for being Vale's other man ("Never rub another man's rhubarb!"). The Joker exits. Vale goes to help Wayne, only to find he's vanished, leaving behind a silver plate with a low caliber bullet in it. Vale opens the Joker's present [having absorbed the Gothamite lack of self-preservation culture, obviously - there could be anything in that box, yet she blithely opens it] and faints when confronted with a dead flower jack-in-the-box.

Back at the Gotham Globe, Knox has been doing the digging on Wayne's past and has found out that "your friend Wayne is really screwed up". Knox reveals to Vale that Wayne's parents were killed in front of him when he was a child.

In the Batcave, Wayne looks over his parents' file. Alfred indicates that he doesn't want to spend his "few remaining years" grieving over what happened to the Waynes and that Bruce could suffer a similar fate if he isn't careful.

In front of City Hall, the Mayor issues a public announcement that the City's anniversary parade is going to be cancelled on the grounds that public safety can't be guaranteed. The Joker starts his own broadcast, saying that he'll have his own public parade at midnight and, what's more, he'll dump $20 million in cash on the streets. The Joker also invites Batman to a one-on-one fight at the parade.

Back in the Batcave, Wayne reminisces about his parents' death (which we see in flashback). [A nice short flashback at that, and one that always looks like a flashback. "Daredevil", I'm looking at you...] Alfred shows Vale into the Batcave and interrupts Bruce's ruminations.

[Aside: this is a huge "it's in the script" moment. Sure, the narrative has been sure to point out that Alfred wants Bruce to take-up with Vicky, but Alfred has also served Wayne faithfully for years and HELPED HIM BECOME BATMAN... well, at least in the comics, and their is some evidence of it in the film as well. Suddenly though, Alfred thinks, "Hey, stuff the whole 'secret superhero' thing - I want to be butler to some Wayne toddlers before I die" and just shows a woman that Bruce has spent a minimal amount of time with into the secret part of his life. The only reason it happens is because the script makes it so - otherwise, Wayne might have some secrets from his one-night stand / stalker Vale and they might not end up together. And we can't have that... but at least "Batman Returns" was decent enough to make a joke out of this scene.]

Vale talks about their one night together and love at first sight and how she wants to be let in. Wayne says he has to be Batman but wants to love her, but must stop the Joker. [I got the distinct impression from this scene that if Bruce and Vicky did get together, it wouldn't be long before Vicky was all, "You don't spend enough time with me - you're always down in this cave or out on the town in that fetish gear you call an outfit. If you want to be with me, you'll have to cut down on the Batman thing." And by 'cut-down', she would mean 'give up'. She just screams "I'm needy and clingy" - as if the stalking thing hadn't already pointed out some issues - which are two things that aren't going to go well with Bruce's rather independent lifestyle. So it's pretty obvious what happened to Vale between "Batman" and "Batman Returns".]

At Axis Chemicals, the Batmobile knocks open the gates, shoots the place up a bit and then drops a few bombs before driving back out. Batman waits for the car outside, only to be mocked by the Joker from the safety of a helicopter.

On the streets of Gotham, the Joker leads a parade that is complete with large balloon figures, while his henchmen hand out cash, all to the tune of a fairly uninspired Prince song. Lots of people line up for the cash.

[Aside: and the lack of self preservation that all Gothamites have can be seen in full force here. Let's see - a man, linked to several murders and a mass public poisoning, holds a parade ... and people show up. Sure, the money is tempting, but it's the equivalent of Michael Jackson beating his current child abuse case and suddenly opening a large Michael Jackson Child Care Centre and Kindergarten that has low low child care prices and is near your house. Sure, it has its financial appeal, and you don't really know if what they say about him is true, but would you take the risk to add a few hundred dollars to your bank account?]

[And yes, the reference to Micheal Jackson above will date this article quicker than anything else on the page.]

Vale and Knox show up and we get to see Knox say "Take the pictures" to Vale... while she is already snapping away. [Way to go Knox! Good to see you're on the ball. Also, we get to see through Vale's camera lens and she doesn't really seem to be taking shots of anything that would be useful.]

The Batplane streaks towards the parade. On spotting Batman, the Joker and his goons put on gas masks before the Joker uses a remote control to release gas from his parade ballons. Vale sees [just what the heck is she taking photographs of, anyway? I don't think close-up shots of balloon valves would be usable to anyone, anywhere, ever, but anyway...] she realises that the Joker is using lethal Smilex gas on the crowd. Knox uses a face mask [which should still see him poisoned, but OCR's are functionally immortal] and a baseball bat to make some henchmen let go of their balloon. Vale gets back into the car [which isn't what I'd call airtight or good protection from lethal gas, but hey - she's the hero's girlfriend and isn't directly being threatend by the villain, so of course she's going to live]. Amidst the panic and death, Vale drives the car out of danger, with Knox clinging to the bonnet. In stopping the car, she ends up flinging Knox into the garbage and into unconsciousness [which is arguably intentional - did she really have to jam the breaks on that hard, or was that her getting back for all the sexist crap she had to put up with from him?].

Batman flies (in the Batplane) around, collecting up the poison gas ballons and cuts them free [so they go sailing into the stratosphere, still lethally dangerous. Let's hope they don't come down on a non-superhero defended city, hey Batman?]. The loss of his balloons angers the Joker so much that he shoots Henchman Bob with his own gun!

Batman goes for an attack run on the Joker using miniguns and missiles, but every one of them misses the stationary Joker [nice shootin' Tex]. The Joker in turn downs the Batplane with one bullet fired from an infeasibly long-barrelled pistol. Vale runs up to the crashed Batplane, but there is no sign of Batman. Instead, she finds herself kidnapped by the Joker, who arranges with his goons to be picked up at the top of the Gotham City Cathedral. Shortly after Vale and the Joker head off, a battered Batman appears and starts to follow them.

Joker and Vale start the climb up the long, winding wooden staircase of the cathedral. Downstairs, Batman stumbles due to his injuries and knocks some pews over - this alerts the Joker that he is being followed.

Outside, the police show up, led by Gordon. He sets up some spotlights and gets a squad to enter the cathedral.

Vale and the Joker enter the belfry at the top of the stairs. The Joker uses some of his acid-squirting lapel flower to burn through the nuts holding a church bell in place - it crashes down through the stairs (just missing Batman) and blocks the police from coming up.

Batman gets to the top (thus allowing a mildly funny "bat in my belfry" joke from the Joker). He fights off a few goons [how'd they get up here? Does the Joker carry around a pack of Insta-Goon: Just Add Water in his pocket?] while the Joker and Vale dance around waltz-style. With the goons defeated, Batman takes some time to beat the snot out of the Joker. The Joker says Batman made him what he is; Batman counters that the Joker "made him first". The Joker says he was "a kid when I killed your parents".

[Aside: The "I was a kid when I killed your parents" line has sparked a lot of arguing amongst, well, the kind of people who argue such things on the internet because it 1) indicates that the Joker knows who Batman really is, and 2) is a really lousy line in the script that serves only to justify the pain Batman is currently dishing out to the Joker. It's certainly bad scripting. There is no other indication before this moment that the Joker has sat down to work out who Batman really is, so it just comes out of the blue - never a mark of great writing. For me, it smacks of someone saying, "We have to remind the audience that Jack Napier killed the Batman's parents, thus creating the Batman, who later turned Napier into the Joker - it's one big circle! Look how clever this is!".]

[Also, by having this line here it makes Batman's murderous, sadistic rage - which it is, given how Batman is just brutally playing with the outmatched Joker - more justified because of, you know, the dead parents thing. While I can agree that him thumping on the Joker is acceptable for what he did to Gotham City (I mean, how many people must have died in the parade at least?) it makes Batman look a lot more like a petty thug when all he's doing is living out a childhood revenge fantasy. As I said in "Daredevil", I think it weakens a character when a film makes their personal revenge against a sole villain more important to the narrative than the whole host of other bad things we've seen that villain do on screen.]

Anyway... Vale and Batman [improbably] end up handing from the side of the cathedral after being pulled over by the Joker, with the Joker [somehow managing to have safely landed after being thrown over] standing on the ledge above them. The Joker's helicopter arrives and drops a ladder for him, but Batman uses one of his grappling hooks to tie a stone gargoyle to the Joker's leg. Despite a valiant attempt, the weight is too much and the Joker ends up falling from the ladder. Batman and Vale try to climb up onto the ledge, but it breaks. After falling quite a distance, they are stopped [with neck-snapping suddenness] by another Batman grappling hook.

On the ground, the police gather around the Joker's lifeless body (which comes complete with laughing toy).

To wrap up, City Hall has a press conference to announce that the bag guys are finished. Vale dumps Knox like toxic waste [that's gratitude for you - who did all the journalistic work for you Vale?] and the audience gets to see the Batsignal. Alfred picks up Vale and tells her that Bruce will be late tonight. The movie closes with Batman posing and the Batsignal visible in the background.

Arguably the two most recognisable superheroes in the world are Superman and Batman. Both are DC Golden Age characters, both are iconic / archetypal and both have enough sub-text surrounding them that their mythos can be drawn out in hundreds of different ways. As such, it is very fitting that both characters have had films about them that have had a huge impact on the public consciousness. Superman's titular film in 1978 amazed audiences with the special effects that made you believe a man could fly while also making what is a near-god figure very human. Batman's 1989 effort also amazed audiences, but for very different reasons.

What leaps out from "Batman" is its gothic appearance and atmosphere, courtesy of director Tim Burton. For audiences who's familiarity of Batman was probably most drawn from the 1960's television show, the change no doubt came as a shock. Although it can be argued that Burton's characterisation of Batman wasn't Bob Kane's Batman, there would have been few fans who would have seen "Batman" as a disservice to what appears in the comics. Burton managed to make his Batman accessible and formidable (well, kinda sorta - he can't really run, he fights awkwardly but he poses well) at the same time, while excellent casting (Jack Nicolson especially) managed to get people to ignore some of the more absurd parts of the movie.

Going back to the Superman link, this version of Batman managed to catch the public imagination and be a successful movie (as "Superman" had). It started that most blessed of Hollywood studios - a movie franchise (as "Superman" had). After a comparably strong sequel, the movies in the Batman franchise descended into some of the worst of modern cinema (unfortunately, just like Superman) but managed to crash out at movie #4 - "Batman and Robin". (Who knows what would have happened had the planned Batman #5, rumoured at one time to star Madonna as Harley Quinn and Howard Stern as the Scarecrow, been given the green light.) Finally, both Batman and Superman have new films in the pipeline at the moment. "Batman Begins" and "Superman Lives" are both due in 2005, hopefully wiping the slate clean and starting a fresh take on two of the greatest superheroes in comicdom.

But it was this version of Batman that started it all. It's dark, it has some psychological depth to it (but really, not enough to get too caught up in) and it provided the perfect start to the franchise.

Which isn't to say that "Batman" is a perfect film. In many ways, it's a perfect example of style over substance, which is Burton's specialty. Apart from Gotham City looking great, a lot of the movie's positive events come from the actors involved. Micheal Keaton does a great job in playing both the Bruce Wayne and Batman roles, neither of which has a huge amount of dialogue. Jack Nicolson's Joker steals the movie, mixing the right amount of Caesar Romero camp and sociopathy to create a character who is uniquely unbalanced. Nicolson's Joker has unfortunately spawned a whole host of imitators, none of whom were able to measure up but have become common enough to be annoying (eg the Riddler from "Batman Forever", Russel Tresh in "Generation X"). Still, it's great to see him in full flight here.

Unfortunately, the other main characters aren't so good. Robert Wuhl's Knox isn't funny and also gets short-changed the second that Vicky Vale is interested in Wayne (not that I'm shedding any tears over it, but he seems set to be a main character until he suddenly vanishes for most of the film). Kim Basinger is (as previously mentioned) pretty wooden and does a lot of things that just happen in the movie. I mean, she just happens to catch Bruce Wayne's eye as well as the Joker's and just happens to stalk the Dark Knight with no ramifications and just happens to be let into the Batcave by Alfred and who's actions just happen to have almost no impact on the movie. In many ways, she's less a character than a female body shoved into a very masculine film just so Batman can get a girlfriend. Sure, there was a vague stab at some characterisation - Vale possesses her own dualism, being both a fashion photographer and one who photos the victims of massacres - but this is never explored.

To finish, a personal gripe (I acknowledge it's my problem, and knowing is half the battle): what strikes me as most unneccessary and detrimental to "Batman" is the now-requisite personal revenge story - Jack Napier killed Bruce Wayne's parents, so now Batman has to take out the Joker. It's a lazy writing tool and one I'm sick of seeing. I mean, the Joker is a sociopathic mass-murderer who is also head of all crime in Gotham City. That's enough of a reason for Batman to take him down. It's not like Batman was going, "Hey, that Joker's pretty evil and is against everything I stand for, but now I know he killed Ma and Pa, I'm going to try EXTRA HARD against him!" Nope, it was unnecessary in "Batman" and unfortunately has grown out into a lot of other superhero films that obviously wish they were "Batman" too. In my opinion, this bit of originitis-B makes Batman a weaker character on film, which is truly a pity.

But these are, in reality, all minor things. "Batman" is still one of the best superhero films around. It's just a pity that it sired (or even shares shelf space with) "Batman and Robin".

Talking about this bit is hard, since Batman has gone through numerous iterations and a lot of comics, so the below is just my opinon about how close the movie Batman is to the modern comic page Batman.

"Batman" does quite a good job in sticking to the mythos of the comics, even if it made Gotham City a darker place than it appeared at the time on the page. Sure, a few minor other changes were made, but it sticks to what Batman is - someone suffering a huge case of survivor's guilt who dresses in bat-suit. The only thing that really departs from the comic Batman to the film Batman is his willingness to kill. Although he doesn't kill anyone directly in the movie, he's more than happy to put villains into situations that might kill them. This is a big change, since the comic book Batman doesn't let anyone die, but it does fit with the darker theme of the movie and is more practical for a vigilante.

As for the Joker, the origin looks to have been lifted from Batman: The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore. Although The Killing Joke is arguably stronger in having a no-name, basically good man transformed into the Joker by several freak acts of fate, the creation of the movie Joker is handled well and allows for the Clown Prince of Crime to get started quickly, rather than have to build up a gang from scratch.

All in all, the movie is different from the source in some ways, but still emminently recognisable.

"Batman", minor faults aside, is still one of the best representations of a comic book superhero available on screen.

Alfred letting Vicky Vale into the Batcave is hugely funktastic; likewise the scene where Batman misses the Joker with everything the Batplane has, only to be brought down by a gun that has a barrel that is too long to actually work.

Date of review: 14 June 2005