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Monday, November 29, 2004
Batman: Drama Queen?
On Saturday I attended a midnight showing of the 1989 Batman film directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton as The Bat. I had seen the film on TV and VHS previously but seeing it on the big screen and judging it by its own merits instead of comparing to certain Batman comics (like the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run or Frank Miller runs, both influences on the film) I came away thinking that it is one of the better superhero movies, although not without its flaws.
I don’t want to go over what are good and bad about the film. Instead I want to write about an observation about Batman that was crystallized for me during the film. Its one thing about the world of this fictional character that I think the film got really right. That is the over-the-top, operatic motif of that is so much to Batman. Basically there’s a lot about Batman that only seems to be there because it looks cool on a comics page, a movie screen or your television.
In the film this is rationalized for the Joker character when he declares himself a “homicidal artist.” If the carnage he creates is meant to be art then it makes sense that he would have silly things like a gun with an absurdly long barrel or a loud purple and green car that matches his wardrobe. But what about Batman himself? The idea of scaring the criminals he goes after leads one to the big black costume but does everything else have to have a bat-motif? Seemingly every gadget he uses, his car, many of his sidekicks they all have some kind of Bat-thing going on. You’d think he’d come up with something with a wolf or alligator theme just to throw people off. It all comes back to that scene of a man who wondering how he’ll fight crime only to be inspired by a bat crashing through his window. It looks awesome but if you thinking about it too much (and it seems I have) it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
I must say that what’s great about an impressive Batman story. If one is really good it’s easy to let go and enjoy the fact that you get a superhero story with all these cool visuals. I love the look of the Silver Age stories where all of these huge objects are just lying around Gotham City, many of them ending up in the Batcave (God bless you Dick Sprang). If it’s used dramatically the Batsignal looks awesome. You’ll be so impressed you won’t think to yourself “wouldn’t a hotline be easier?” Of course in the 60’s television show they did have a hotline and even then it couldn’t be any phone, it had to be a red phone that flashes as well as rings. Batman might get pegged as a more down-to-earth or street-level superhero than Superman or Green Lantern but I think there’s enough bizarre things in Batman’s realm to refute that.
Another part of Batman that I do have a problem with is that here’s this rich guy who goes around in a psycho-sexual get-up and beats the crap out of people poorer than him without anybody, or most people at least, connecting the two different identities. I wish there were more instances of Batman realizing that the real criminals are those that Bruce Wayne meets in the boardroom or the politicians he comes across at upper class parties. They’re the ones who cultivate this environment that drives so many in the lower class parts of Gotham to crime. Then I realize how much of a stinkin’ liberal I am and go back to my Al Franken Show mp3s and Molly Ivins books.
I suppose some days you just can’t get rid of a thought.
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