Rocky Gothic Horror Show (Batman - Special Edition (DVD))

Member Name: thehud

Product:	Batman - Special Edition (DVD)
Date:	11/02/03 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping, Dark

Disadvantages: None

Assignment - compare and contrast the jokey camp cartoon humour of the first Batman movie - you know, the one from the Sixties, based on the TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward and lots of Kapow!s - with the dark menace and intrigue of the Tim Burton manufactured nightmarish scenes in the first of the 'new' series. True enough, when Val Kilmer and George Clooney became involved in the dog ends of the latter with Arnie Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman administering the death rites, even the New Truism had descended into high farce to rival West and Ward. However, such falls from grace are pretty inevitable when you milk the idea as thoroughly and unconvincingly as this, and nothing, even Mr Freeze and Poison Ivy, could mar the memory of Burton's creation.

When Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson agreed to go head to head as the Bat and the Joker and Burton got working on his realisation of the Dark Knight legend, a uniquely brooding world was born for our delight. It was as much Gothic Horror as anything else and Keaton carried off things well as the schizoid, flawed 'hero' of the piece, but it was Nicholson who stole all the honours and took most of the plaudits for his larger than life playing of the Joker.

Sporting a hugely listenable soundtrack by Prince, a dependable support cast, including Jack Palance, Michael Gough and Kim Basinger, and some phenomenally dark footage, Batman was a unique film, doom laden and ominous and deeply, deeply satisfying.

The ill fitting and gaudily coloured tights of West and Ward mutated into jet rubber and leather, with Gotham City a sinister daub of steamy, smokey mayhem. It was impressive stuff, as visually stunning as all of Burton's nest stuff. The doomed outsider of Edward Scissorhands was transplanted into the Big City version of The Nigthmare Before Christmas.

It could easily have been a case of style without substance, and few would really have cause for too mu
ch complaint, because the brilliance of the scene setting and the images would have been quite enough on their own, but Burton opted to fill in the blanks by exploring the psychology of the Bat and his alter ego and the impressive paradox of Joker creating Bat creating Joker creating Bat etc etc. The two main protagonists are inextricably linked and we get the further paradox of at times bad guy being far more attractive than the apparent upholder of the law. Neither in truth shows much pity in their own particular quests and Batman is as prepared to mete out death and destruction as his more expansive opponent.

There's a nice sub-text here which you need to fully understand and appreciate in order to get the best out of the Batman experience and things wouldn't have been half as satisfying if they'd gone for the shallow posturings of the Superman movie series - I've always been more interested in the Batman legend than the Superman myth because of this added dimension, the depth of a hero who has his darker side, much like the Spiderman comic creation, oh the angst, the pain.

Bruce Wayne, however, is infinitely more tortured and interesting than Petey Parker ever could be, and so is this movie.

It's a truly wonderful film, taut and dramatic, haunted by sadness and despair, with hardly a second's air time wasted. The Lord of the Rings film was able to keep up the pace over its lengthy lifespan, and the 121 minutes of the Batman movie are similarly breathless and fast paced, with only the jarring romantic interludes between Basinger and Keaton not the utmost perfection. You can almost smell the sleazy menace of Gotham City as you enter the world of the Bat, so splendidly realistic and expertly built is Burton's world.

Batman was one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the 80's, slinking menacingly in during the last twelve months of the decade, and fully justified its hype and expectation, b
reathtakingly seizing the initiative and socking like a piston into our guts ... KA-POW!!! indeed.

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