Ever Dance With the Devil in the Pale Moonlight?

I remember getting out of the car, walking up to the theatre and in front of the ticket window was the Batmobile. Not the old 60’s version, but the new, sleek, jet-black Batmobile. I didn’t know the word when I was eight, but that car was sexy. And now, as I watch Batman again, almost twenty years later, I realize the word isn’t sexy; it’s stylized.

I’m not going to dwell on the shortcomings of the film or turn this into an “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Tim Burton’s Batman” blog, but I can only talk about my memories of the movie as a kid and how I look at it now. It is one of those great movies like Temple of Doom, which should be for kids, but is decidedly not. There are plenty of campy touches especially in the sound effects with punches that sound hollow and bullets that whiz by like in an old western. But, Tim Burton being Tim Burton fought tooth and nail with the studio to make a much darker version of the Caped Crusader. From someone who admittedly never reads comic books, but was inspired by The Killing Joke, his film strikes a fine line between the personal and the professional.

Apparently, there was a huge outcry against the casting of Michael Keaton in the movie. The internet did not exist then and I don’t really remember any of it, but I can understand why people were suspicious and also, why they were satisfied. His is great as Bruce Wayne, but in all of the movies, I’ve never seen anything as compelling as Keaton trying to tell Kim Basinger that he is Batman. He captures the true essence of Wayne in the scene, wrestling with his dual identity and who he can let into his world. There wasn’t as much of that even in Begins. I have always been a big Keaton fan and to me, Batman may not always be Keaton, but Keaton will always be Batman.

"My life is really... complex."

One cannot talk about the film without talking about Jack. The Oscar winner goes over the top for this role, playing off his public persona and previous performances. But enough about Jack Palance, Jack Nicholson is the star of the film, as expressly written in his contract giving him top billing and a huge percentage of the film’s gross profit, approximately sixty million dollars. He chews through the scenery, has the best lines in the script and did I mention he made sixty million dollars off this movie? He was the definitive Joker character, but even Mark Hamill in the cartoon was better than Nicholson’s incarnation.

"Love that Joker!"

I really loved Kim Basinger in the movie and especially Robert Wuhl, as the more intrepid reporter Frank Knox. That they never brought back his character is another shortcoming of the series, right up there with not bringing back Billy Dee Williams, opting for a different three named actor to flesh out that role.

The final climax is one which never was really topped, not even in Begins. Everyone knew that Bale could beat Neeson, but in this movie, Batman is in mortal danger and having already saved the city, fights for himself. Instead, he would go on in other movies to always save someone else or, (I can’t believe I’m typing this) save Gotham City from freezing. Batman is bloodied, beat up and about to exact revenge on the man who (allegedly) killed his parents. It never got that personal again for Batman until Begins. Even in Forever, they really missed out on the parallels between Dick Grayson and Bruce that forged a real relationship and trust between the two that doesn’t exist in the film. They tried to make a big deal out of family in the fourth film, but it felt false and forced, all alliteration aside.

My thoughts kept returning to The Dark Knight though and I was struck by how many themes in this film are to be revisited in the new one. Of course, there is the obvious comparison’s between Nicholson and Ledger’s performances, but I think we can lay those to rest now. I’m talking about issues like corruption, organized crime, a love triangle and the city’s ambivalence towards Batman. Plus, you add in beefed up roles for both Alfred and Gordon, toss in secondary characters like Lucius Fox, Scarecrow, the Gordon kids, Mike Engel and more, it’s no wonder the film is almost three hours long.

As I watch the film again, I’m filled with a sense of nostalgia. It’s feeling that has permeated me lately with the impending release of The Dark Knight. Because Batman is timeless, the movies make me feel like a kid again, only this time, I’m going into it a much wiser and older kid. I can’t wait.