Batman Week part 1

For this week, since it's always interesting to talk about one of the greatest superheroes from the DC Universe, I would like to make a marathon, or more, a Bat-a-thon, like James Rolfe called it. If you haven't guessed it by now, I will be reviewing all of the Batman films. Now, I will not be talking about the 40s serial, or the 60s live action series or film. All I will do is touch briefly on the 60s live action serial. It starred Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, Alan Napier as the butler Alfred, Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Jim Gordon, Yvonne Craig as Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl, and a wide array of villains. The most notable ones are Cesar Romero as Joker, Frank Gorshin as Riddler (season 2 Riddler was played by John Astin), Burgess Meredith as Penguin, Julie Newmar as Catwoman for the first 2 seasons, Eartha Kitt for Season 3, Lee Meriwether for the film, David Wayne as Mad Hatter, Vincent Price as Egghead, and Mr. Freeze who was portrayed by George Sanders in his first appearance, Otto Preminger in his second appearance, and Eli Wallach in his final appearance. Since I've never watched the 60s serial or film, I will instead jump to 1989, when director Tim Burton made "Batman."

Steve Englehart and Julie Hickson were the writers before Sam Hamm wrote the first screenplay. In the starring role of Bruce Wayne aka Batman, the cape crusader, we have Michael Keaton. A lot of A-list actors were considered the offer for the role, but Keaton won it anyway. Since this was '89, and the Internet didn't exist, people were actually petitioning to not have Keaton play Batman. All of this petitioning was going on over the film that he did called "Mr. Mom." The year before "Batman," he also did "Beetlejuice" and nobody thought that Michael Keaton would be able to play a serious role, like Batman. However, he did an amazing job. The smirk that he did is something only he can pull off. As Bruce, you can easily know what he's thinking by his curious look and mannerisms. Before the film starts, we get a look into the past of Bruce Wayne as a child, played by Charles Roskilly, when his parents (played by David Baxt and Sharon Holm) get murdered in front of his own eyes by a criminal named Jack Napier, played by Hugo Blick. As the years go on, we can still feel Bruce's pain throughout the movie, which is a trait of his that Keaton also pulls off really well. A great example of his performance is when he tries to tell Vicki Vale that he's Batman but he just can't seem to get the words out. As Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne butler is Michael Gough, who does an outstanding job pulling off this role because he is really believable. Pat Hingle is Commissioner Gordon, another actor who does a great job playing his role. Though I do have to admit that I find it strange having Billy Dee Williams portray Harvey Dent, but I can't complain, any role that Billy Dee Williams plays always has a coolness factor to it. Vicki Vale is the love interest, played by Kim Bassinger, who sure knows how to scream a whole lot in this one, doesn't she? She's a typical damsel in distress, but was kind and insightful, and also cunning and quick. She was supportive, but also had her limits, which made her a realistic love interest.

All of this aside, the man who steals the show is Jack Nicholson as the Joker. He embodies this role so well that whenever someone mentions Nicholson, they immediately remember his role as the Joker. The man is known to playing such crazy roles, that it is hard not to keep your eyes off of him every time he is on screen. With the Joker, there is no exception, he knows how to bring the crazy, hilarious side of the Joker in his role, and that also is a treat. You just laugh every time he says one of his lines, which is something very common with the Joker. How can you not laugh at a Batman villain with a permanent smile on his face? What he wants to do, besides raise chaos and make Gotham City into anarchy, is get back at Batman for dropping him in acid, which turned him into the Joker. He also delivers the line, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" a quote that has been made famous in this film, besides the ever popular, "I'm Batman!" Another famous Joker line in this film is, "Never rub another man's rhubarb!" Probably the funniest Joker scene is when Vicki Vale asks him, "What do you want?" and Joker isn't expecting that question, so he thinks for a moment, and replies, “My face on the one dollar bill.” Now that's funny. The hero-villain relationship is done well in this. Batman wants to get at Joker for killing his parents, and Joker wants to kill Batman for stealing all of his attention and foiling his plans. Throughout the film, they both are trying to find out who each other are. Bruce has to discover that the Joker is the man who killed his parents, and the Joker has to figure out that Bruce is Batman. Every possible encounter of theirs is used here: Batman and Jack Napier, Bruce Wayne and Joker, and finally Batman and Joker. Now that's epic.

Danny Elfman did the score for the film, which is just one of the most memorable Batman tracks ever. One of my favorite internet reviewers, James Rolfe, said that it will always be the Batman theme to him. The music in this film is important, but there are also a couple of songs by "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," or Prince, as I and many others like to call him: "Partyman" and "Trust." People like to say that these songs make the film outdated, like the ridiculous Prince music video, "The Bat Dance." However, it still holds up because some of the cinematography still looks great today. One of the strangest moments I have to say is when Batman is in the Night-Wing, and Joker is standing in the middle with his arms wide open, asking Batman to shoot him. Batman shoots at Joker with everything that he has, but somehow misses. Then Joker pulls out a large gun from his pants, fires one shot, and he is able to shoot Batman down. What happened? I guess that you shouldn't take this film seriously, just enjoy it for the surreal atmosphere, unique style and look at the certain things that don't make sense as comedic.

Overall, even though the film looks outdated with the Prince songs or anything else that people can look at in the film, it still holds up very well today, so go and watch it. You'll love it, I promise you. I consider this one of my favorite comic book adaptations. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next Batman film review for the week-long Bat-a-thon. Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!