Batman (1989) - Tim Burton Brings The Bat to the Big Screen with 'SMILE' from Joker

"They turned off the Bat-Signal as the Sun set over Gotham City. A much quieter Gotham City. Down on the streets, music played, people laughed, life went on. And overhead, the gargoyles watched silently from the old Gotham Cathedral. Long ago, it was believed that gargoyles could protect a place from evil. One of the gargoyles moved. It was the Batman."

―Excerpt from end of the film's novelization.

Directed By: Tim Burton

Produced By: Peter Guber, Jon Peters, Benjamin Melniker, Michael Uslan

Studio: Warner Bros., PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, The Guber-Peters Company

Distributed By: Warner Bros.

Release Date: June 23, 1989

Running Time: 121 minutes

Country: United States

Language: English

Budget: $35 million

Box office: $411,348,924

Rating: 7.6/10

Cast

Jack Nicholson as Jack Napier/The Joker

Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman

Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale

Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox

Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon

Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent

Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth

Jack Palance as Carl Grissom

Jerry Hall as Alicia Hunt

Tracey Walter as Bob the Goon

Lee Wallace as the Mayor

William Hootkins as Lt. Eckhardt

Synopsis

After witnessing his parents' murder by a criminal as a child, millionaire Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) grows up to track and apprehend criminals in the guise of Batman. When crime lord Grissom decides to dispose of a troublesome henchman, Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), by sending him on a fool's errand to a chemical factory, Napier battles Batman and winds up falling into a vat of toxic chemicals. Napier lives, but the fixed grin he has acquired as a result of the chemicals leads him to call himself The Joker. The Joker kills Grissom, and then sets his sights on courting Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), a photographer currently dating Wayne. The rest of the movie rotates around the Joker's plan to poison the city's cosmetics supply and his abduction of Vicki.

Production

Tim Burton said that he chose Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman because he thought he could play a dark, tortured Batman and a serious Bruce Wayne. Some people thought that Keaton wasn't built enough for the role of Batman and that he couldn't play a serious because of his comedic roles in the past. However, before shooting Batman, Keaton worked out for two months and spent some time kickboxing with the help of his stunt double. In spite of Keaton's being cast, Alec Baldwin and Charlie Sheen were also considered for the role. The tone and themes of the film were influenced in part by Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke and Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The early Batman comics from late thirties and forties were also an influence. There are also notable similarities to Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera. The climax is an homage to Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Awards

1990 - OSCAR: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Anton Furst & Peter Young)

1990 - ASCAP Award: Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures (Prince For the song "Partyman")

1990 - BMI Film Music Award (Danny Elfman)

1990 - Brit Award: Best Soundtrack

1990 - Evening Standard British Film Award: Best Technical/Artistic Achievement (Anton Furst)

1990 - Grammy Award: Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (Danny Elfman for "The Batman Theme")

1990 - People's Choice Award: Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture (Tied with Steel Magnolias)

1990 - People's Choice Award: Favorite Motion Picture

Review

"The conceptual side of the movie--two rather sick two-sided antagonists having it out in a black and sordid context -- lingers." - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)

"The wit is all pictorial. The film meanders mindlessly from one image to the next, as does a comic book. It doesn't help that the title character remains such a wimp even when played by Michael Keaton." - Vincent Canby (New York Times)

"An exhilarating mix of cartoon lore (though not nearly enough for rabid Batpurists), screen presence (this is pretty much the Jack and Mike Show), psychological murkiness (though it could have used even more) and demented Gothic goofiness." - Desson Thomson (Washington Post)