Synopsis
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.
Batman
1989 Directed by Tim Burton
Cast
Michael Keaton Jack Nicholson 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…
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Alternative Titles
Betmen, 蝙蝠俠, बैटमैन, Батман, Бэтмен, Netopierí muž, Бетмен, Tim Burton’s Batman, Batman (1989), Batman 1
Popular reviews
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"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..."…
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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.
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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…
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*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…
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"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.
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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…
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I just want to talk to Michael Keaton about his decision to play Bruce Wayne as an alien completely baffled by ordinary human behavior.
