10 Reasons Tim Burton's Batman Movies Are Still The Best
6. The Production Design
Gotham City is as much of a character in these movies as anyone else, and while it might be based on New York, its a place that couldnt really exist either. The city is a noir nightmare, filled with endless skyscrapers, retro 1930s design and gothic statutes. Which is handy for Batman, as it gives him lots of places to hide. Batman was one of the first movies to really recreate a distinctly comic book world on screen. Its basically an art deco magazine come to life, and also a tribute to the German Expressionism films that so influenced Burton in his career, like The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. This can be seen in the huge cathedral during the climax, or the vast emptiness of the Batcave. Even Batman creator Bob Kane was impressed when he saw the set, stating it looked exactly as hed visualised it back in the 1930s. But even though its a fantasy, somehow it still feels like a real, lived in universe. So it's no wonder production designer Anton Furst won an Oscar for his work. Gotham never looked as pretty, or ugly, as it did in Burton's work. The Gotham seen in The Dark Trilogy was shot in Chicago and Pittsburgh, two places that look a lot like... Chicago and Pittsburgh. Which was fine for the grounded approach, but they're nowhere near as artful.
