Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren, from a story by on Sam Hamm, based on characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger
Starring: Micheal Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Billy Dee Williams, Micheal Gough, Pat Hingle, Jack Palance
Running Time: 121 minutes
Genre: Action, science-fiction, fantasy, superhero
In Gotham City, reporter Alexander Knox (Wuhl) is investigating the mysterious "Batman" terrorizing the city's criminals. No-one takes Knox seriously except photojournalist Vicki Vale (Basinger). The trail leads them to eccentric billionaire Bruce Wayne (Keaton). Meanwhile, the city's police department are desperate to bring down powerful crime boss Carl Grissom (Palance) and his ruthless enforcer Jack Napier (Nicholson). Realising that Napier is having an affair with his girlfriend, Alicia (Jerry Hall), Grissom sets him up during a raid on a chemical works. Batman intervenes and badly injures Napier, who is presumed dead. Shortly afterwards Gotham City's underworld is taken over by a mysterious and deadly new criminal known as The Joker, who plans a horrific revenge on the good people of Gotham City.
This is kind of a difficult film because it gets a lot right, and when it's good it's brilliant, but it gets a lot wrong, and when it's bad it is terrible. At the time it came out Batman was probably best known to general audiences from the campy 1960s TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward, but in the world of comics writers such as Frank Millar, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison were bringing a much darker and grittier version of the Dark Knight with critically acclaimed stories such as The Dark Knight Returns (1986), Year One (1987), The Killing Joke (1988) and Arkham Asylum (1989). The film combines both aesthetics, despite the gloom and surprising levels of violence, a lot of it is as camp as anything in the TV series. As you would expect from Tim Burton, the film has a lot of visual style. Borrowing a lot from the shadowy world of traditional film noir, Gotham City is an almost surreal blend of 1920s, 1940s and 1980s styles. Micheal Keaton does a great job as Bruce Wayne and Batman, although his casting was controversial at the time, with some fans deeming him not muscular enough for the role, as well as the fact that he was best known as a comedy actor. He makes Bruce Wayne a strange and slightly sinister character (although to be fair, it is a little strange to dress up in an animal costume and beat up criminals every night), however it is slightly odd the amount of times that Batman get his ass kicked in the film. He's knocked over a couple of times and gets knocked out and unmasked once by a gaggle of random goons (which include Mac McDonald, best known as Captain Hollister in Red Dwarf (1988-present)). However Jack Nicholson is perfect as The Joker. However, the film's biggest flaw is that it totally demystifies The Joker, because it gives him a definitive origin, whereas the character works better when he is ambiguous, as well as forcing a connection between the Joker and Batman. Kim Basinger is good as Vicki Vale, although she is not given enough to do. The film's unsung hero, however is Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox. It's an interesting idea to have a superhero story told from the point of view of an investigative journalist and Knox adds a lot of humour to the story, and he is the main character early in the film, but then he pretty much gets written out and abandoned.
The film was released to huge publicity in the summer of 1989, and, when viewed with later Batman films, seems like kind of an oddity. Tim Burton openly stated that he had no interest in comics, and the filmmakers don't really seem to connect with the Batman mythology and it's characters.
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