Classic Movie Review: 'Batman 89'

I was 13 years old in 1989, the perfect age to have my mind blown by a Batman movie. I was rather obsessed with the 1966 television series, which I watched everyday in reruns on one of my local television channels. I didn't have many Batman related toys, and I wasn't a comic book collector, but that didn't prevent me from being as wrapped up in the marketing hype as any other teenager at the time.

I was at Batman '89 on opening weekend at a theater in Davenport, Iowa, and waited well over an hour for the chance to get a ticket, and another hour while we waited for the one screening we could actually get a ticket to. At that time, I don't believe I had seen that many people in a single indoor space outside of a sporting event.

Lines at my local theater were out the door, around the side of the multiplex, and into the back of the large building in the parking lot. Once inside, the sea of bodies seemed to cover every inch of the floor. Policemen were on hand as if they anticipated a Batman-related riot. The cops were flanking the ticket taker and the velvet dividers that were all that kept the audience from rushing into the individual theaters.

That was the level of ludicrous anticipation for Batman '89. I personally would not witness such a scene at the movies for another 10 years when Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace filled an even larger and brand new theater in my hometown. Batman '89 was the first event movie of my lifetime where I was sentient enough to realize the significance.

30 years later the memory has never let up. That sea of people, that ache of anticipation, and the angry, borderline riotous, impatience of waiting to get a look at this moment of our collective popular culture. Few memories of my childhood, even seeing my first movie, E.T, can compete with the vivid, unforgettable images of that day 30 years ago when Batman debuted.

I can recall being entranced by Batman 89. Tim Burton's strange, offbeat take on the character wasn't all that far removed from the Batman television series I had loved throughout my childhood. Perhaps a tad more serious than the silly Adam West version, Batman '89 was still big and broad with a touch of silly here and there.

The strangeness of the production design carries aspects of what the television crew created, only darker, and with a larger budget. Batman '89 also isn't devoid of camp. Take for instance the scene where Batman takes time to fly his Bat-Plane up to the moon to show off the Bat-Symbol for no good reason. It's a moment of pure camp, and something that would not have been out of the realm of something Adam West's Batman would have done.

The same can be said of the choice to hire comic actor Michael Keaton to play Batman. Though Keaton is perhaps the most serious of the actors in Batman '89, he does cut an odd figure as Bruce Wayne and as Batman, a slight, more vulnerable version of the character. Keaton's Batman is far more tortured than West's Batman, but that both men are not big, muscular brutes gives them a common trait as does Keaton's oddly mannered line delivery, which is oddly reminiscent of West's clipped accent, minus West's cheekiness.

Then, of course, there is Jack Nicholson. Nicholson's Joker is all his own. Sure, the character is specifically taken from the Batman comic book, but you don't honestly believe Jack Nicholson ever looked at a comic book do you? It's easy to believe that Nicholson received a broad outline of the character, and then set about doing his own thing. In doing his own thing, Nicholson evokes far more Cesar Romero than Frank Miller, comic book ideas of The Joker.

This Joker's aims are more broadly adult than what Romero was able to bring to the television show, but the broad strokes are similar. Both Romero and Nicholson created indelible portraits of the character that stand aside from the comic book versions of The Joker. Each performance is influential, while not appearing to have been all that influenced beyond broad ideas and costuming.

This standing apart from the comics, whether intended by director Tim Burton or not, I believe, is part of why Batman '89 has stood the test of time, and remained iconic. This version of Batman isn't roped to years of burdensome comic book lore. You don't have to have done any homework to get what is happening, or to have the material mean something to you.

Batman '89 is universal in themes of good and evil, and yet has the singular touch of a visionary director. Tim Burton may not be one of my favorite directors, but he is unquestionably a director of a specific vision. The look of a Tim Burton movie is unlike that of any other director, and that singular quality combined with the universal themes, and an indelible Jack Nicholson performance, are the kinetic elements needed for an explosion of classic cinema.