Review of Batman (1989) by Adam M — 06 Apr 2016

Setting the signal for all dark superhero tales to follow, Tim Burton sets the standard for visionary directors taking us from comic strip to screen. For some lunk-headed reason, movie fans ask you to choose between his comic-centered adventure and Christopher Nolan's comic-skewing actioner like it's a Sophie's Choice type situation. If you can love The Beatles AND The Rolling Stones, then you can love both very different visions. Plus, Nolan-only devotees really don't want to force that issue because, without Burton's dark defining modern classic, there wouldn't be a Batman Begins. Sure, some aspects come off cartoonish, but the auteur who gave filmgoers the stylish and darkly humorous gems Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice got asked to begin Batman but, at the same time, rein in his outlandish verve. Plus, he had to do all of this in a comic book movie at a time when people didn't really make comic book movies. Given the indelible results, it looks like the Dark Knight takes King in this endgame.

In Tim Burton's PG-13-rated adaptation of the classic DC Comics character, the Dark Knight of Gotham City (Keaton) begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being the clownishly homicidal Joker (Nicholson), who takes over the top crime syndicate and the city by proxy.

Everything, from the offbeat casting of Keaton to Danny Elfman's soaring score to Anton Furst's brilliantly Gothic set design to the marketability of Nicholson, makes for one of the most influential films ever. The result sits before you in every comic book flick that darkens the doorways of cinema. Michael Keaton gives the audience brooding and tortured in good measure, but betrays a winning twinkle in his eye that grounds Bruce Wayne. Remember, this is the talented actor who turned out the wily iconic poltergeist Beetlejuice and did a phenomenal turn as an addict perhaps beyond recovery in Clean and Sober in the same year: 1988. You have to have weapons-grade chops to go up against film legend Nicholson, who gets top billing here. He goes appropriately big once the white-faced madness sets in, but it's his ultra-cool killer turn as pre-Joker gangster Jack Napier that draws you into with a sexy menace.

Bottom line: Batman TRULY Begins.