Batman is a visual sensation, director Tim Burton's homage and love letter to the silent horror movies he saw in his youth and with the stunning Academy Award winning Gothic set and production design from the great Anton Furst, Burton's Gotham is without doubt one of the most distinctive and awe inspiring settings ever created on film. The script calls it "The City of the Future" but the Gotham depicted in this movie exists in a timeless state with Gothic European architecture, statues that would usually only exist in Greek mythology, enormous and impossible skyscrapers right out of Fritz Lang'sMetropolis and very little pop culture references, clothing or technology that could age the movie. That is except of the course the dating but strangely fitting Prince Soundtrack that accompanies the film, something which Burton had no say in. Gotham is a depiction of New York if it had gone to hell. Like Blade Runner, it's a place where buildings have been built without thought of it's effect on the people who live there.
I'm convinced that if this young and at that time very naive director had the power he would have made Batman a silent picture, accompanied only by Danny Elfman's memorable orchestral soundtrack. Despite the countless screen re-drafts, he was not interested in coming up with a plot that would satisfy audiences or get to the dramatic core of the characters, he was much more interested in what they represented. Characters gestures rather than their dialogue. The way they moved and looked on film. Batman as the duality of light and the dark, two personalities which Tim Burton could relate himself to easily and the film certainly feels more toward the loner archetype of Batman, who in this film you never get a sense feels all that comfortable as Bruce Wayne. He would explore the monstrous characters much closer when given less restrictions and supervision from Warner Bros. in Batman Returns but for now they were still Bob Kane's characters but very much with a Burton edge to them. Nothing indicates Burton's idea of suggestion - his imagery and style over substance mentality - more than the last ten minutes of the film as the controversially cast Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson battle each other on the top of a Bell Tower, a scene straight out of a 30's silent movie and would work fine... and possibly better with the dialogue on mute, and the score loud and thunderous. Batman moves stiffly, jolted... carrying a faceless expression. He is the archetypal German Expressionistic villain but in Burton's world the dark white eyed character is the hero. With much criticism, Nicholson's visual and "bigger than the movie" representation of the Joker is clearly positioned as the main character, receiving top billing on the poster's credits (and enjoying far more royalties for the film, still picking up paychecks nearly a decade later with Batman & Robin) and easily enjoying more screentime than the Batman. I woudn't be surprised if many an audience member decided to cheer for The Joker towards the finale, he seems more enjoyable to be around, not brooding like Bruce Wayne. Burton's excuse for the small screentime of Batman was that he believed if the character were to ever exist then he wouldn't make his presence known and would live in the shadows constantly, he is meant to be an enigma. And you know he probably has a point. The Batman as depicted in Burtons' two films are easily the most mysterious ever placed on film and only a couple of words in the dialogue would give you any kind of sense of why he does what he does. But I actually think that is a very accurate depiction of the character from the comics and I give kudos to this, but maybe it should have been Bruce Wayne who got more screentime over The Joker. Keeping Batman a mystery was a plus, but forgetting about Bruce Wayne was not. And no I didn't believe in the forced love angle between him and Basinger, the pair had no chemistry, which has to be blamed on the scripts poor development which gave them no chance to have the material for a romantic spark. In Michael Keaton, Tim Burton struck gold with his casting of the lead character. Keaton, with a background for comedy having starred in the pretty lame flicks Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously, Gung Ho and actually as a pretty good audition for The Joker in Burton's Beetlejuice. His casting by many was seen as an outrage. 50,000 letters were sent to Warner Bros. offices worried that the film was going to be yet another hoaky depiction of the character like the Adam West t.v. show of the 60's and not more like the recent surge in Bat popularity with the works of Frank Miller (Year One, The Dark Knight Returns) and Alan Moore (A Killing Joke). West in fact had lobbied long and hard at WB to be given the part but Burton knew exactly what he was doing with Keaton. He cast a likeable lead, someone you understood straight away. He was an easy guy to get behind. He wasn't like Superman, often unsympathetic because of his powers, he was just an ordinary guy but with something in his eyes that suggested something darker beneath them. He had a great vulnerability about him and as Burton has said many times, he was someone who would need to wear a Batman suit for you to be scared of him.
The casting of The Joker was an obvious one. He was always going to be played by Jack Nicholson and he was Bob Kane's first and only choice for the role. It may have been a shame the Batman movie wasn't made directly after Stanley Kubrick's The Shining because at that age and stature, Jack was the walking Joker out of the comics but by the late 80's Nicholson was such a huge star and was not in the greatest shape anymore. Jack played Jack playing The Joker, instead of just being Jack playing The Joker. He wasn't scary, not all that interesting and despite an energetic performance it was a very selfish one. He never gave anything to the other actors in the scenes with him, he was just having a ball. It was an enigmatic performance and it engulfed the film and really slowed it down from going anywhere but it did help make Warner Bros. an unheard of $400 million worldwide in the late 80's. It would remain the studio's highest grossing film until they struck gold again over a decade later with the first Harry Potter movie. Despite Burton's inventions and the originality that exudes through the film, Batman is something of a disappointment as a satisfying summer blockbuster. Burton's "look at me, look at me" style of directing where he just has so much raw energy and can't seem to calm his movies down (when you see his depiction of Ed Wood, it could easily be a metaphor from himself) at this stage of his career helped the energy of the film but it was also a hindrance. He was very much the kid in the candy store, getting to play with "all those wonderful toys" and it wouldn't be until Ed Wood or some say even later till Big Fish, that he would become a director who could tell a story past his gorgeous visuals. I have a lot of time for Tim Burton. He is one of my favourite directors. I've always been someone who appreciates visuals, I think it's my growing up on comic books and video games, I have a great fondness too for silent movies. I like images I can feel and Tim Burton's Batman was one of the first films I ever remember seeing as a child. It was the first movie I ever bought on VHS (actually it was bought for me). I got the batcave and a little set of Batman and Robin characters (which I always found strange because Robin wasn't in the movie!!) and a really cool Burton Batmobile from the film. Yes, I was very young when Batman was released but I loved it and was terrified at it at the same time.
It's easy to talk down about the movie's flaws but what I keep coming back to time and time again is Keaton's wonderful performance, the incredible set design and feeling of a real working Gotham and Tim Burton's sheer enthusiasm as a director. And even the mystery and aura around the characters. You find out little about them. It's not a perfect film and is by no means the definite version or even the best Batman film out there but there is something about it that's memorable and will keep bringing you back time and time again. This is the second of our long running Spotlight on Tim Burton series. Next up will be Ray DeRousse's take on possibly Burton's most fondly remembered film Edward Scissorhands. You can read Chris Daniels' article on Beetlejuice by clicking HERE.
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
