Batman 1989 Retrospect

The Dark Knight, Caped Crusader, or whatever you want to call him turned 80 years old this past May (2019), and not only that, but the premiere film of the famous (or sometimes infamous) 90’s Batman franchise began 30 years ago as well. So, I’ve decided to do something fun and further delay that god awful 1990 Captain America film review (I’ll see you in hell) and focus on a full five-part retrospective of the Burton/Schumacer Batman films.

I completely understand that the further these articles go, the more unpleasant they’ll become. I can’t control that.

There is a short remembrance of this film that I’ve previously posted, which I welcome you all to review, however in part one of this series, I’m going to go more in depth on the film, and talk about various things such as production, performances, scoring, and whatnot.

Onto the film.

1989’s ‘BATMAN’

PRE-PRODUCTION

In the 1980’s Batman was a victim of the comic censorship code, and his comic books suffered the consequences greatly. He went from the completely contrasted character to that of Superman, to a bright blue one-liner with a questionable relationship with his young ward.

It would've been fine without mentioning taking a shower with a young teenage boy.

With no help from the Adam West series, DC publishers actually considered killing off the Caped Crusader altogether, right before the emergence of two comic books that would change Batman’s image for an eternity: Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke,” and Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight Returns.” These comic books said fuck off to the comic code of the day and wrote stories absolutely true to Batman’s character. “The Killing Joke” is especially important in this time, because it was a large influence on the greenlight for a new film centered around the character. After the success of ‘Beetlejuice,’ fresh director and gothic-auter Tim Burton was signed on to direct the film, even though he was not originally a big comic book fan. Burton has been quoted as saying:

"I was never a giant comic book fan, but I've always loved the image of Batman and the Joker. The reason I've never been a comic book fan — and I think it started when I was a child — is because I could never tell which box I was supposed to read. I don't know if it was dyslexia or whatever, but that's why I loved The Killing Joke, because for the first time I could tell which one to read. It's my favorite. It's the first comic I've ever loved. And the success of those graphic novels made our ideas more acceptable." -Tim Burton

With Warner Bros. producing, the director chosen, and the script being written by American screenwriter Sam Hamm, the next step was who plays who in this new adaptation, simply titled: ‘Batman.’

A young Tim Burton (left) doing his best to keep his poor actors motivated.

Unlike the previous ‘Superman’ franchise, the studio pushed for big names in Hollywood to wear the cowl. Names like Bill Murray, Harrison Ford, Tom Selleck, and even reports of Willem DaFoe were all thrown in the air, but one of the producers strongly urged the casting of young comedic actor Michael Keaton. This was a decision that stuck, outraging fans across the nation, because at the time Keaton was the last option anyone would have gone for. This is something we’re all used to today, with fans having been pissed about Ben Affleck as Batman, and the OUTRAGEOUSLY poor casting choice that was Heath Ledger’s Joker (that was a joke by the way). But since comic fans don’t specialize as casting directors, Keaton was in, so then who would be the love interest?

Actress Sean Young was originally cast in the role of Vicki Vale, but due to an injury, had to back out prior to filming. This caused a frenzy at Warner Brothers, with a search for any actress who could commit to the role (with rumors of up-and-comer Winona Ryder in the works), but the role inevitably went to Kim Basinger, who joined production immediately.

Several other characters were cast specifically by Burton such as Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox, Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent *pre-scarring, and veteran B-Horror actor Michael Gogh as Alfred, Batman’s trusty butler.

The casting of the Joker had to be perfect, and many performers such as Tim Curry, David Bowie, James Woods, and John Lithgow were rumored for choices, with Robin Williams lobbying hard for the role. Producer Michael E. Ulsan and even Batman co-creator Bob Kane had originally wanted actor Jack Nicholson in the role since all the way back to 1980. Nicholson accepted with some contractual agreements, and unlike Keaton, was warmly welcomed by fans.

PRODUCTION

So the thunderstorm of production began, and the film was shot at Pinewood Studios in England on an original budget of $30 million, though with all of the locations and nearly the entire backlot of Pinewood, the film’s budget shot up to around $48 million. This film suffered multiple strains, as the set was incredibly secretive, with many outsiders trying to bribe set photographers and publicists for photos, with scene reels even being stolen from the set. Tim Burton referred to this movie’s production as torture (this quote was pre-Alice in Wonderland and Dumbo days, I’m sure). On top of all this, the script was re-written during a writer’s strike, and the original ending had been secretly changed during production, tacking nearly $100k more onto the final budget, and adding confusion and stress to the actors, studio, and Burton himself.

The design of this film was crazy, with its own ups and downs. The Gotham City concept was meant to be a clash of architecture and style, intended to make the city look incredibly ugly. With a touch of Tim Burton’s flare, this turned to be a widely praised element of the film. On the side of things that didn’t work, however, came the Batsuit. Burton wanted the darker all-black suit, and Bob Kane, who was oddly involved heavily during production, approved. This was a problem though, as the Batsuit was created to make Michael Keaton, a man with an average build, look like a giant menacing presence. This created claustrophobia for Keaton, with the suit having a wide mid of horrid sculpted abs, a heavy leather cape, a cowl that prevented Keaton from turning his head, and ears so tall that he couldn’t actually sit comfortably in the Batmobile, causing for a special re-design.

Who had the idea for this photo? Seriously. Stop.

POST-PRODUCTION

Once filming commenced, Burton recognized how essential a tremendous score would be for this film, so he hired collaborator and Oingo-Boingo frontman Danny Elfman to write the soundtrack. Elfman was hesitant, but moved forward with inspiration from the comic books. Elfman was originally asked to collaborate with musician Prince for the score, an offer he turned down, as both Elfman and Burton agreed that the idea was too commercial for Burton’s style. So the studio commissioned Prince to write and record his own tracks for the film, while Elfman still headed the original scoring. He stated years later:

“Having to step down, and refusing to do that — it was the roughest decision, still, in my entire career. Nothing has come close to having to potentially walk away from the biggest opportunity in my lifetime, and then having it come round full circle back to me. It was the most depressing feeling, like an "I’ve blown it, I’ve f---ed up my life" moment, followed by the most empowering "I did this for a reason and it's come back to me and now I can do the things I wanted to do in the first place" moment.” -Danny Elfman

Even if you’ve seen the movie hundreds of times, if you haven’t sat down and listened to Elfman’s scoring alone, I suggest you do yourself a favor. Comic book and movie fans alike have agreed that it is one of the most outstanding components of this film, and many superhero films today fail to live up to the expectation that is a superhero theme.

Months before the film was released, the teaser was met with critical love, and moviegoers would pay for cinema tickets just so they could watch the Batman trailer. This promoted heavy marketing tactics that set the standard for blockbusters today. This summer was met with a whopping $750 million in merchandise sold, prompting “Batmania,” as dubbed by reporters. Comic book fan Kevin Smith referred to this period:

“People were cutting it (the Batman insignia) into their fucking heads. It was just the summer of Batman and if you were a comic book fan it was pretty hot.” -Kevin Smith

Though the marketing raked in millions in revenue, Tim Burton felt sour about it all, as he was an artistic and independently-motivated director whose film was turned into a corporate mammoth. Upon release the film was met with financial success, and reviews ranged from highly praised to poorly received. Tim Burton himself said that the film was boring to him, as it was “more of a cultural phenomenon than a great movie.”

Batmania

THE FILM

As this is not a normal review, I’m not going to get into the details of all my thoughts regarding this film. This is simply a retrospective on the film itself, but I do want to talk about it for a little bit.

As a whole, this film was a big reason as to why I got into filmmaking. I’m not someone who plans to make a living in the superhero film market, as I think it’s gotten a little too big, and may suffer the fate of the westerns. Nevertheless, comic books and their characters have been a staple in my life for as long as I can remember, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve watched this Batman film.

It’s regarded that Michael Keaton’s backlash was completely turned on its head; he gave a spectacular performance as Bruce Wayne and Batman. His acting chops were criminally underestimated, and thanks to this film, he was able to break free from a lot of comedic roles. That being said, any actor that plays a superhero suffers a blow to their future career, and I think Keaton’s performance in 2013’s ‘Birdman’ may have been a little inspired off of true events.

The rest of the performances were stellar, as I consider Jack Nicholson’s performance as the Joker as one of my favorites, as well as the establishment of a character like Vicki Vale contrasting to that of Lois Lane in the previous Superman films. All this being well and good, this movie is not without its faults.

The script itself takes big liberties with these properties. While I enjoy the direction of the character as a whole, Batman 100% murders people in this franchise, and it’s not something that the big heads behind this film were afraid of doing. Even though Batman started his comic book life by throwing goons off of helicopters, at this point he was established as having a “no-kill” rule. This is even present in “The Killing Joke,” where the entire motivation that the Joker has is to try and break people of their morality, and guess what, he loses (depending on what you believe in the last panel).

Jack Napier/The Joker was also a character that was written with clunky changes. In “The Killing Joke,” we finally get a look at Joker’s potential origin story, and in this film, we see a different take on it, but it is an origin story nonetheless. If you ask me and many other comic fans, Joker shouldn’t have an origin, he should just kind of pop out of nowhere like a pimple or cancer. But, we get one. The key problem with this interpretation is that Jack Napier started off as just a straight psychopathic murderer, and the only change he suffered when becoming the Joker was a change of appearance. It left little character to be developed.

Also it was a stupid movie to make Joker the murderer of Bruce’s parents. Come on, guys.

Taking all of this into account I will still hold that this Batman film was what it needed to be, and more than that, it needed to happen. Whether you like or dislike the film, it set the commercial standard of Batman being a dark character, by presenting non-comic book fans with a new take on the character. The dark and gothic tone mixed with the troubled themes of monsters vs monsters and inner torture, while providing us with a pacing that focuses on the villain just as much as the hero, are the elements of this film that still make it watchable today. This film is right up there with the Nolan franchise of nearly two decades later, and to many, this interpretation of Batman and The Joker are regarded as superior.

Overall rating: 8/10 (maybe I’m a lil biased)

This film ignited a legacy of Batman films to come, with the next in the franchise being 1992’s ‘Batman Returns,’ also produced by Warner Bros. and directed by Burton. That film will be the main focus of the next installment of this retrospective. For now, feel free to comment on this film with your personal take, and I’ll be glad to read anything you have to say about it. Until then, my name is Nathan D. Gonder, signing off.