BATMAN (1989) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

batman (1989) movie

Genre              |   Action Adventure

Classification   |   PG 

Running time   |   125 minutes

Released         |   23 June 1989 

cast

Michael Keaton ... Batman / Bruce Wayne
Jack Nicholson ... Joker / Jack Napier
​Kim Basinger ... Vicki Vale
Robert Wuhl ... Alexander Knox
Pat Hingle ... Commissioner Gordon
Billy Dee Williams ... Harvey Dent
Michael Gough ... Alfred
Jack Palance ... Grissom
Jerry Hall ... Alicia
Tracey Walter ... Bob the Goon
Lee Wallace ... Mayor
​William Hootkins ... Eckhardt

director

Tim Burton

writer

Bob Kane ... (Batman characters)
 
Sam Hamm ... (story)
 
Sam Hamm ... (screenplay) and
Warren Skaaren ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Roger Pratt ... director of photography

music

Danny Elfman

film editor

​Ray Lovejoy

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​411,508,343  

Australia                 $​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​​​​251,348,343 ​

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movie minutiae

​Don Johnson and Dale Midkiff were considered for Harvey Dent. Billy Dee Williams took the role with the expectation that he would be brought back to play Two-Face, and reportedly had a contract clause added reserving the role for him. During casting for BATMAN FOREVER (1995), Warner Brothers decided they preferred Tommy Lee Jones, and bought out Williams' contract. Williams voiced the character in THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2017).

​When discussing the central theme of Batman, director Tim Burton explained, "the whole film and mythology of the character is a complete duel of the freaks. It's a fight between two disturbed people", adding that "The Joker is such a great character, because there's a complete freedom to him. Any character who operates on the outside of society and is deemed a freak and an outcast, then has the freedom to do what they want. They are the darker sides of freedom. Insanity is in some scary way the most freedom you can have, because you're not bound by the laws of society."

​Tim Burton recalls being nervous on an early days of shooting in part because this was his first big film, but it was compounded by working with Jack Palance. During filming, he was having trouble shooting a scene with Palance. When filming a scene with Palance, Burton called out "Action!", and a few minutes later, Palance didn't show up in his shot. Burton later cut the take and walked on the set, only to find out that Jack had a hearing problem. The deaf, but irritated Palance asked Burton, "I've made more than a hundred films, how many have you made?" Burton said, years later, that it was a "whiteout" experience he would never forget. Despite this incident, Burton adds that "he was good for the part. Can't think of anybody else who could be Jack Nicholson's boss."

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related movies

BATMAN RETURNS (1992)

BATMAN (1989) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

BATMAN (1989) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Having witnessed his parents' brutal murder as a child, millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) fights crime in Gotham City disguised as Batman, a costumed hero who strikes fear into the hearts of villains. But when a deformed madman who calls himself "The Joker" (Jack Nicholson) seizes control of Gotham's criminal underworld, Batman must face his most ruthless nemesis ever while protecting both his identity and his love interest, reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger).

BATMAN (1989) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 7 March 2016

​​Pop Movee Rating

 
The announcement in 1986 that Tim Burton would direct a Batman feature film was not met with the greatest enthusiasm from ardent fans of the comic book character. When it was revealed that Michael Keaton, an actor who had become known for his comedies, would play the titular character those same fans became apoplectic with rage. In the days before social media, it was hard to gauge mass critical opinion as quick as it is these days, but there was a sense of despair among comic book fans that neither man was up for the job. Fans were still dubious even after the production gained some favourable momentum when Jack Nicholson’s addition as The Joker became public knowledge. The noise around the headline appointments became a non-issue when it became clear that Warner Bros, BATMAN’s financier and distributor, weren’t making a movie solely for comic book readers. BATMAN signalled a new era in Hollywood movie event marketing, where the studio pushed the character far beyond comic book audience and into mainstream cultural awareness.

From late 1988, information began to surface in the public domain about the type of movie Tim Burton was working on. First of all, there was news about the production’s physical presence at Pinewood Studios in England, with the vast Gotham City exterior sets capturing widespread media attention. The film’s stars started to use industry opportunities to generate enthusiasm among their peers; one such story recounts Jack Nicholson telling MPAA Chief Jack Valenti at the 1988 Oscars that he felt there was “no top” on BATMAN in terms of its anticipated box office performance. Nicholson said that his comment spread like wildfire through the Oscars crowd that night and, by the end of the ceremony, he was getting all kinds of approaches to corroborate the rumour. The critical piece of the marketing that really caught hold in the public’s imagination was the reveal of the film’s poster, featuring the stylized ‘Bat” logo. The poster became a symbol for both the film and the popular culture frenzy that erupted around its release. Warner Bros also leveraged the synergies of their broader entertainment empire, drafting Prince to write and perform a number of songs to be featured in the film. Such was the output of material from the musician, Warner Bros was able to release a whole album. Without exception, BATMAN established a blueprint for modern Blockbuster movies that has been adopted and refined by the entire entertainment industry since its release in June 1989.

BATMAN’s release forever changed the way that comic book films were regarded by movie studios. Few examples existed before 1989 of genuine attempts to create comic book-based films that were grounded in reality and could be considered “dramatic” or “realistic”. The 1978 SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE was the closest mainstream release, but even this film couldn’t completely escape its source material origins, as the likes of Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty hammed it up for the cameras. With BATMAN, Tim Burton and his collaborators chose to take their story to a much darker place, borrowing ideas, concepts & themes from both Alan Moore’s THE KILLING JOKE and Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. The public responded to Burton’s film, becoming the clear box office winner of 1989; opening with a $40 million plus weekend and going on to make $251 million in North America and $411 million globally. Keep in mind, these are the 1989 numbers; not the inflation adjusted numbers. By comparison BATMAN, other 1989 releases such as INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) opened in a similar number of theatres in the US and did $197 million, while GHOSTBUSTERS (1989) 2 was an even wider release but could only muster $112 million in North America. BATMAN RETURNS (1992) and BATMAN FOREVER (1995) continued the character’s run as the pre-eminent character within the genre, the rulebook was rewritten in 1997 with the release of MEN IN BLACK (1997) starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones based on the Lowell Cunningham comic books. The film did $250 million in the US and nearly $600 million worldwide, while BATMAN AND ROBIN (1997) was a shadow of its predecessors with $107 million domestically and $130 million elsewhere. The diminishing global returns of the fourth film was less than the 1989 film’s domestic performance and saw Warner Bros shelve the Batman franchise for nearly a for several years. It wasn’t until the release of Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN in 2002 that a genuine contender emerged to challenge the lasting impression left by BATMAN’s release.

There are three key factors that set BATMAN apart from the majority of its competition in the comic book movie genre. The first is the darkness of the story; one which tells the tale of two psychologically damaged men, each responsible for the other’s pain. In Batman/Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), you have a character within a character, whose way of dealing with his pain is to rid Gotham City of crime and criminals through fear and intimidation. Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), on the other hand, blames Batman for his misfortune and decides to amplify his criminality by becoming The Joker and embarking upon a grand plan to trick the citizens of Gotham City into killing themselves. Neither man is entirely stable and the success of the film’s story is to have Keaton and Nicholson act as a reflection to each other’s characters. This type of psychological contemplation was not what anyone was expecting to find in a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster, especially in a franchise where previous incarnations had revelled in campiness and felt the need to literally depict comic book exclamations on the screen just in case the audience wasn’t paying attention. The 1989 film pays very slight homage to its 1960s television counterpart, but, for 99% of the movie, Burton keeps the story focussed on the genuine inner-turmoil of the characters.

The second factor that makes BATMAN stand out is Jack Nicholson. In terms of sheer performance, the only equal Nicholson has is legendary character actor Jack Palance, who plays Napier’s boss Carl Grissom. The off-beat character traits that Palance delivers in such a small role are so memorable that Nicholson takes the opportunity to borrow one of Palance’s lines later in the movie when addressing Bob (Tracey Walter), one of his goons. Nicholson’s colourful Joker wardrobe, his mannerisms and his inclusion of pop culture references create a lasting impression upon viewers. The role  was the culmination of two decades worth of “crazy” characters Nicholson had created, ranging from George Hanson, R.P. McMurphy, Jack Torrance, Garrett Breedlove to Daryl Van Horne. What is peculiar about BATMAN is Michael Keaton being cast as the suppressed Bruce Wayne/Batman. Prior to being cast by Burton for BATMAN, Keaton’s feature film resume was made up of comedies such as Ron Howard’s NIGHT SHIFT (1982), MR.MOM (1983), JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY (1984) and BEETLEJUICE (1988), where he played the outrageous afterlife entity Beetleguese. In BATMAN however, it’s Nicholson who gets to chew the scenery and leave a lasting impression upon the audience.

The third factor that made BATMAN different and unique was its Art & Production design. The late Anton Furst is credited with the realisation of Gotham City and everything that existed within it, from the interior decor to the exterior streetscape. Like other landmark genre films, such as BLADE RUNNER (1982), what makes BATMAN different is the creation of its own reality. Burton didn’t rely on redressed standing backlot streetscapes, he had Furst design everything from the ground up and then had it built at Pinewood. Remembering that BATMAN was made at a time before green screen technology had become common and the only way to achieve the vision he had in his head was to have it designed and fully constructed. Hence, the reason why the BATMAN exterior sets became such a talking point during the film’s production; they were 1:1 scale sets that could stage full-scale actions sequences both day and night. What made them unique was Furst’s design aesthetic, an industrial look that featured heavy, monochromatic buildings, lots of criss-crossing metal fabrication and the always-present of subway steam much like New York City. BATMAN was recognised with an Oscar for Furst and Peter Young, winning for Art Direction/Set Decoration and the sheer scale of its art and production design made an impression upon everyone who saw it.

If BATMAN had never been made, would the comic book inspired movie be as prevalent and successful as it is today? The answer is probably yes, but the timing would have been different. Would the Batman comic book have been eventually adapted into a feature film? The answer is also yes. The evidence for these answers is confirmed by the existence of the Christopher Nolan trilogy of Batman movies. Eventually, someone comes along and adapts a story like Batman into a feature film. Bryan Singer adapted X-MEN (2000) and Sam Raimi adapted SPIDER-MAN (2002); Marvel even adapted IRON MAN (2008) (and, as we know, turned it into a hug hit). What is of interest with all of these films is the approach they took with their adaptation… They all used the formula that Tim Burton and writer Sam Hamm took with BATMAN, which was to take their subject matter seriously and consider their audience with a degree of respect that had not been expected of a comic book inspired movie to that point in time. Without branding everything that has come after BATMAN as formulaic, there is certainly a debt of gratitude that should be acknowledged to a movie that broke new ground for popular entertainment on so many different levels.

BATMAN (1989) USEFUL LINKS

Batman (1989 film) - Wikipedia
Batman (1989) - IMDb
Batman (1989) - Rotten Tomatoes

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