Batman

1989 Directed by Tim Burton

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being the clownishly homicidal Joker, who has seized control of Gotham's underworld.

Jack Nicholson Michael Keaton Kim Basinger Robert Wuhl Pat Hingle Billy Dee Williams Michael Gough Jack Palance Jerry Hall Tracey Walter Lee Wallace William Hootkins Richard Strange Carl Chase Mac McDonald George Lane Cooper Terence Plummer Philip Tan John Sterland Edwin Craig Vincent Wong Joel Cutrara John Dair Christopher Fairbank George Roth Kate Harper Bruce McGuire Richard Durden Kit Hollerbach Show All…

Alternative Titles

Betmen, बैटमैन, Бэтмен, 蝙蝠俠, Бетмен, Netopierí muž, Батман, Tim Burton’s Batman, Batman (1989), Batman 1

fantasy action

126 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Matt Singer ★★★★ 26

"Alfred, could you come here for a sec?"
"Yes, Master Bruce?"
"Did you let Vicki Vale in the Batcave?"
"..."
"Y'know I'm trying to maintain a secret identity here, right?"
"Yes, Master Bruce."
"Kinda hard to do that when YOU LET RANDOM WOMEN IN HERE."
"Yes, Master Bruce."
"And this was AFTER I told her we had to go out of town and YOU immediately told her we weren't going out of town! HOW DUMB DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO MAKE THAT MISTAKE?"
"Yes, Master Bruce."
"Look, I hate to do this. You're a good guy, and you make a really good bowl of chowder. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go."
"But... Master Bruce..."…
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★ 12

My favorite part of my billionth viewing of Batman: When Joker’s goons shoot Batman, rather than lift up his mask to see who he is, they decide to check if the man disguised as a giant bat carries photo ID. Bob the Goon literally says “Check his wallet.” Check his wallet! This is probably why he’s Bob the Goon, not Bob the Theoretical Physicist.
Review by Sam Van Hallgren ★★★★★ 28

Count me among those few who prefers this to any of the Nolan films.
After revisiting for the first time in at least a decade (and likely two decades), I discovered a film whose power comes from a rare alchemy of artifice, absurdity and horror. It starts with the score. Elfman's work is one for the ages and does a lot of heavy lifting early in the film (specifically making Nicholson's Jack Napier about 80% more sinister in those early scenes). Secondly, the set design - with special adoring emphasis on that first shot of Gotham, all dark, smudged pastels, like something out of Caligari or Metropolis. The opening scene when we're introduced to Keaton's Batman is impeccable. His "I'm…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 20

*Was a 78, now a 96*
Tim Burton's Batman is such a fascinating relic because of what it recalled and what it seemed to embody. Its references, from The Wizard of Oz to King Kong and Public Enemy; to The Band Wagon and Vertigo, not to mention its array of expressionistic modes; are immense, in a sense operating as the ultimate detective comic-book romance horror movie. It has everything you could want in an intro picture, being both a grand backlot studio pageant and a tortured battle for individual expression. The analog dexterity of the model work, matte paintings, optical effects, in addition to the tangibility of the set-design, suggests a pinnacle of what blockbuster product would evolve into if…
Review by Coolnilk ★★★★ 9

With potential news of Keaton reportedly coming back to play Batman on-screen once more in the upcoming The Flash film, I wanted to personally revisit this collection of Batman features from scratch as it has been a while since I've last seen any of them.
Of course, it goes without saying that Burton's initial take on the Caped Crusader himself is relatively a complete knockout, and he truly did set the prevailing standard for comic book films that were released after this one as this film was more on the brooding side of matters, and it didn't rather completely rely on the campiness of superhero flicks that were released prior to this.
In any case, Keaton's and Nicholson's cinematic portrayals…
Review by san ★★★★ 2

*sees michael keaton play a bird-type superhero*
me: nice birdman reference
Review by Alor ★★★★½ 8

Absolutely LOVE everything about this film. The music, the look that Tim Burton created for Gotham City, the costumes.. everything!! It's like a comic book came to life
I love 'The Dark Knight' and Heath's performance in it and i really loved Joaquin's performance in 'Joker' too.. but i just feel like the character of Joker fits better in this type of Batman movies. It's an old school comic-book-like story, it's fun and almost cartoon-ish at times. And Jack Nicholson.. oh wow. He was born to play this role. The way he was moving and talking in every scene, his facial expressions, everything was perfect!!
Closest thing i've seen to Jack's performance was Cameron Monaghan in the show "Gotham"
Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★ 1

batman be like get in alfred 🚙 we going shopping 👛😙🛍
Review by Ivica_Pusticki ★★★★½ 3

I decided to watch Batman again as a moral support to Michael Keaton and him being robbed at the Oscars! IMO he should have jump on the stage, grab Redmayne and ask him "You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"!
Anyway...Batman is still awesome! Love the soundtrack, love the effects, look of the movie...everything! Although I still prefer Batman Returns just for an inch...
Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★

Tim Burton’s Batman observed the comics' guide in restoring Batman from the sixties television show campiness to the character's noirish origins by being influenced by the work of Frank Miller and Alan Moore. The production design from Anton Furst is what considerably disseminates the tone of the movie, and there’s a short amount that is recognisably prototypical Burton about it; his particular imprint is better observed in its sequel, Batman Returns.
The movie efficaciously conjures up an alternative reality; one that consciously nods to a time early in the title character's crusade on crime, and which chiefly adapts the origin tale for the Joker which initially appeared in Detective Comics #168 The Man Behind the Red Hood from February 1951. The movie furthermore was one of the first to generate two soundtracks, one of them featuring songs written by Prince while the other containing the score by Danny Elfman.
Review by matt lynch ★★★½ 1

"Never rub another man's rhubarb!"
Visually radical, technically dazzling, tonally schizophrenic, and closer to those infamous Schumacher sequels than you'd probably care to admit. Can't imagine something like this getting released today, much less being a keystone piece of intellectual property.
Review by Tasha Robinson ★★★ 7

What still holds up: Jack Nicholson's incredibly creepy laugh and Joker makeup and butt-wiggling triumph dance.
What doesn't: Kim Basinger's Vicki Vale, a conundrum of a woman who charges into war zones as a hard-hitting photojournalist, but also squeals with terror ten thousand times in this movie, pretty much every time anything happens. She also has a floofy princess bedset and keeps a big teddy bear in her bed. And needs rescuing every five minutes. But she's important and special and magical, which is why Alfred is really, really emotionally invested in her and Bruce Wayne boning more, which is kinda creepy.
What never worked in the first place: Michael Keaton's blank-faced, living-in-a-dream performance as Bruce Wayne, who appears to…

Recent reviews

Review by Bianca ★★★½

as arlequina quer os vilão e os coringa
Review by Dillon ★★★

I love that Tim Burton put Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice and then thought “he would make a great batman”
Review by David Fear ★★★★★

First time with Noah.
Review by astrosloth ★★★★

Jack nicholson is very good as funni clown man
Review by shagrrotten ★½

November 25, 2014
Jesus, what a bore. I knew Tim Burton didn't know how to shoot action, but it'd been so long since I'd seen this that I'd forgotten what garbage it is. Burton shoots in his usual static shots of everything, which to me give the movie a feeling of the world not existing beyond the frame of what's currently on screen. I felt this a little in Zack Snyder's devotion to the frame of the comics in Watchmen, but this is a whole other level of lack of vision. Also on Burton is the movies awful pacing, as Bruce Wayne isn't even seen until 20 minutes into the movie when every other major character, and many minor ones,…
Review by Benjamin ★★★★

It's hard to judge a film with this score as anything other than great.
Review by RayGunn ★★★

So Batman...kills people? Other than that it’s pretty good. Because of this movie we got Batman: The Animated Series and indirectly the entire DCAU so I’d say I care more about what this movie did to pop culture than the movie itself.
Review by Pausans Papusa ★★★

Relmente me gustó mucho esta película. Pero lo mejor de la película solo es Jack Nicholson como el Joker.
Michael Keaton es un Batman clásico, pero sigue dando que desear.
Bruce Wayne en esta película es tan irrelevante que te olvidas que él es Batman.Pero bueno, Tim Burton y su falta de cómics.
Aun así una banda sonora increíble de mano de Danny Elfman. Uno de los soundtracks más emblemáticos de la historia.
Review by Brandon Steele ★★★★

I needed a palette cleanser; I couldn't let John Carpenter's VAMPIRES set the tone for my morning.
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No one handled the Bat as masterfully as Tim Burton. More than 30 years later, Michael Keaton is still my favorite Bruce Wayne and Burton's depiction of Gotham remains, in my opinion, the ultimate.
But Jack Nicholson...holy shit, Jack Nicholson. Yes, Heath Ledger's 2008 reinvention of the character was a revelation, but Nicholson scared the shit out of me when I saw this as a kid and you can't argue with those results.
Review by richardv65 ★★★★

1 outta 2 of the most uniqe batman movies ever so far
Review by zo

I remember this being better than it is but I think it's just the last 30 ish minutes that make it good maybe the last half idk I think I remembered how good batman returns is and got confused but I'll be rewatching all the 90s batman movies in the next week so I will confirm or deny once I get there lol
btw I did enjoy it
Review by Jackson ★★★½

No nipples?? :/