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This article is about the film. For the character, see Batman.

Batman is a 1989 American dark noir film directed by Tim Burton and produced by Jon Peters and Peter Guber, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It is the first installment of Warner Bros.' initial Batman film series. The film stars Jack Nicholson as the The Joker / Jack Napier and Michael Keaton as The Batman / Bruce Wayne, alongside Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, and Jack Palance. The film takes place early in the title character's war on crime, and depicts a battle with the Joker.

Plot[]

As Gotham City approaches its bicentennial, Mayor Borg orders district attorney Harvey Dent and police Commissioner Gordon to make the city safer. Meanwhile, reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale investigate rumors of a vigilante called "Batman" who is targeting the city's criminals. Both attend a fundraiser hosted by billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, who unknown to the city is secretly Batman himself, having chosen his vigilante path in the aftermath of his parents' murder by a psychotic mugger during his childhood. During the event, Bruce becomes infatuates with Vale during the event, but cuts short their meeting to secretly pursue Gordon, also attending, when he leaves on police business.

Mob boss Carl Grissom, whom Dent and Gordon are targeting, sends his sociopathic second-in-command Jack Napier to raid Axis Chemicals, unaware it is an ambush to have him murdered for sleeping with Grissom's mistress Alicia. Although corrupt police lieutenant Eckhardt arranges the hit on Napier by conducting an unauthorized police operation, Gordon arrives, takes command, and orders officers to capture him alive. When Batman arrives to prevent Napier's escape, Eckhardt is killed during the confrontation, while Napier himself falls into a vat of chemicals when attempting to attack Batman, and is presumed dead by all. However, Napier survives, but is left disfigured with chalk white skin, emerald green hair, and a rictus grin, resulting in him being driven insane and assuming the name of "Joker". Joker murders Grissom for betraying him, takes over his criminal empire by murdering his syndicate members, and scars Alicia's face to equal his disfigurement.

Batman begins working to find a way of stopping Joker when he begins terrorizing Gotham City through the use of hygiene products laced with "Smylex" – a deadly chemical which causes victims to die laughing with the same maniacal grin as the Joker. Joker soon develops limerence with Vicki and proceeds to lure her to the Gotham Museum of Art, where his henchmen destroy the works of art within. Batman arrives and rescues Vicki, escaping the Joker's men, before taking her to his Batcave, providing her with the information from his research on Smylex that will allow the city's residents to avoid exposure to the toxin. Vicki takes the information to the news and the city is warned about the products that will cause the Smylex and new products are coming in. Conflicted with his love for her, Bruce attempts to explain about his alter-ego when visiting her at her apartment, only for Joker to interrupt the meeting. While Bruce avoids being killed with a serving tray, he realizes that Joker was the man who killed his parents, when he recognizes a question he uses from his childhood.

Vicki finds herself taken to the Batcave by Bruce's butler, Alfred, who had been coaxing the relationship between the pair to bring out Bruce's human side. After exposing his secret to Vicki, Bruce reveals he cannot focus on their relationship with Joker on the loose, and departs to destroy the Axis plant used to create Smylex. Meanwhile, Joker proceeds to lure Gotham's citizens to a parade with the promise of free money, in order to dose them with Smylex gas held within giant parade balloons. Batman foils his plan by using his Batwing to remove the balloons. Joker proceeds to shoot down the Batwing, before capturing Vicki and taking her into a cathedral. Batman, surviving the crash, confronts him, saving Vicki, while proceeding to prevent Joker's escape by helicopter with a heavy granite gargoyle, causing him to fall to his death.

Some time later, Commissioner Gordon announces that the police have arrested the Joker's men and unveils the Bat-Signal. Harvey Dent reads a note from Batman, promising that he will defend Gotham whenever crime strikes again. Vicki is taken to Wayne Manor by Alfred, who tells her that Bruce will be a little late. She responds that she is not surprised, as Batman looks at the signal's projection from a rooftop, standing watch over the city.

Cast[]

Uncredited[]

  • Chris Andrews as Election Ceremony Patron
  • Ann Barrass as Onlooker in Front of City Hall
  • Willy Bowman as Crimelord
  • Darrell Brook as Gotham City Cop
  • Chris Bunn as Gambler at Wayne Manor Party
  • Micky Clarke as Man Sitting with Cigar
  • Kenneth Coombs as Waiter
  • Priscilla Cory as Candy Walker
  • Harold Coyne as Gotham City Pedestrian
  • Clive Curtis as Goon in Bell-Tower
  • Jim Delaney as Election Ceremony Patron
  • Serena Destouche as Extra
  • Stephanie English as Woman in Green Coat
  • Albert Evansky as Crimelord #3
  • Lynda Fisher as Woman in Gotham
  • Pat Gorman as Cop at Axis Chemicals
  • Kit Hillier as Election Ceremony Patron
  • Barrie Holland as Party Guest at Wayne Manor
  • Lew Hooper as District Attorney Alday
  • Malcolm Johns as Election Ceremony Patron
  • John Ketteringham as Extra
  • Roy Lansford as Party Guest Talking to Vicki Vale
  • Caren Le Berre as Gotham News Girl
  • Lech Majewski as Crimelord #3
  • Paul Markham as Gallery Patron
  • Debbie Mills as Candy Walker
  • Tony O'Leary as Election Ceremony Patron
  • Quentin Pierre as Election Ceremony Attendee
  • Pam Rose as Party Guest at Wayne Manor
  • Rachel Ryan as Amanda Keeler
  • Larry Sheppard as Election Ceremony Patron
  • Master Sken as Swordsman Joker Goon
  • Byron Sotiris as Parade Spectator
  • Donald Standen as Extra
  • Guy Standeven as Man in Audience at Townhall
  • Jimmy Star as Election Ceremony Patron
  • Fred Stroud as Party Guest at Wayne Manor
  • Tip Tipping as Smylex Poisoned Punk
  • John Triplett as Waiter
  • Reg Turner as Police Officer
  • Harry Van Engel as Reporter
  • Christian Wolf-La'Moy as Joker's Car Owner/Taxi Driver
  • Fred Wood as Parade Spectator

Production[]

Development[]

After the financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Warner Bros. hired Tim Burton to direct Batman. Burton had then-girlfriend Julie Hickson write a new 30-page film treatment, feeling the previous script by Tom Mankiewicz was campy. The success of The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke rekindled Warner Bros.' interest in a film adaptation. Burton was initially not a comic book fan, but he was impressed by the dark and serious tone found in both The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. Warner Bros. enlisted the aid of Steve Englehart to write a new treatment in March 1986. It included the Joker and Rupert Thorne as the main villains, with a cameo appearance by the Penguin. Silver St. Cloud and Dick Grayson were key supporting roles. It followed the similar storyline from Englehart's own Strange Apparitions. Warner Bros. was impressed, but Englehart felt there were too many characters. He removed the Penguin and Dick Grayson in his second treatment, finishing in May 1986. Burton approached Sam Hamm, a comic book fan, to write the screenplay. Hamm decided not to use an origin story, feeling that flashbacks would be more suitable and that "unlocking the mystery" would become part of the storyline. He reasoned, "You totally destroy your credibility if you show the literal process by which Bruce Wayne becomes Batman." Hamm replaced Silver St. Cloud with Vicki Vale and Rupert Thorne with his own creation, Carl Grissom. He completed his script in October 1986, which demoted Dick Grayson to a cameo rather than a supporting character. One scene in Hamm's script had a young James Gordon on duty the night of the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. When Hamm's script was rewritten, the scene was deleted. The reason Robin was written out was because in the first year of Batman, he worked alone. Warner Bros. was less willing to move forward on development, despite their enthusiasm for Hamm's script, which Batman co-creator Bob Kane greeted with positive feedback. Hamm's script was then bootlegged at various comic book stores in the United States. Batman was finally given the greenlight to commence pre-production in April 1988, after the success of Burton's Beetlejuice When comic book fans found out about Burton directing the film with Michael Keaton starring in the lead role, controversy arose over the tone and direction Batman was going in. Hamm explained, "they hear Tim Burton's name and they think of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. They hear Keaton's name and they think of any number of Michael Keaton comedies. You think of the 1960s version of Batman, and it was the complete opposite of our film. We tried to market it with a typical dark and serious tone, but the fans didn't believe us." To combat negative reports on the film's production, Batman co-creator Bob Kane was hired as creative consultant. The controversy finally died down when it was announced that Jack Nicholson himself would be playing the Joker.

Filming[]

The filmmakers considered filming Batman entirely on the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, but media interest in the film made them change the location. It was shot at Pinewood Studios in England from October 1988 to January 1989. 18 sound stages were used, almost the entirety of Pinewood's 95-acre backlot. Locations included Knebworth House and Hatfield House doubling for Wayne Manor, plus Acton Lane Power Station and Little Barford Power Station. The original production budget escalated from $30 million to $48 million Filming was highly secretive. The unit publicist was offered and refused $10,000 for the first pictures of Jack Nicholson as the Joker. The police were later called in when two reels of footage (about 20 minutes' worth) were stolen. With various problems during filming, Burton called it "torture. The worst period of my life!" Hamm was not allowed to perform rewrites during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike. Jonathan Gems, Warren Skaaren and Charles McKeown rewrote the script during filming. Hamm criticized the rewrites, but blamed the changes on Warner Bros. Burton explained, "I don't understand why that became such a problem. We started out with a script that everyone liked, although we recognized it needed a little work." Dick Grayson appeared in the shooting script but was deleted, as the filmmakers felt he was irrelevant to the plot. Bob Kane supported this decision. Originally in the climax, the Joker was to kill Vicki Vale, sending Batman into a vengeful fury. Jon Peters reworked the climax without telling Burton and commissioned production designer Anton Furst to create a 38-foot (12 m) model of the cathedral. This cost $100,000 when the film was already well over budget. Burton disliked the idea, having no clue how the scene would end: "Here were Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger walking up this cathedral, and halfway up Jack turns around and says, 'Why am I walking up all these stairs? Where am I going?' 'We'll talk about it when you get to the top!' I had to tell him that I didn't know."

Music[]

Main article: Batman (soundtrack)

Reception[]

The critical reaction to Batman was mainly positive.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 6.56/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An eerie, haunting spectacle, Batman succeeds as dark entertainment, even if Jack Nicholson's Joker too often overshadows the title character."

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • People were very excited about the film that they were calling movie theaters to find out when the trailer for Batman was playing, buy tickets to a random movie, watch the trailer and then leave. People were also stealing all the Batman posters from Bus Stations and the printing company had to send out replacements.
  • After this film, everyone was able to recognize Tim Burton's name.
  • Batman was the second comic book character to be adapted for the big screen, the first one being Superman.
    • Although several Batman films were released as early as the 1930's, this was the first one since the tv show was released.
  • In the early scripts, Robin was going to be in the film but he was eventually written out because in the first year of the comics, Batman worked solo.
    • During Robin's planned appearance, a redesign of the costume was created that would fit the film, which is the suit used for the third Robin, Tim Drake, who was named after Tim Burton.
  • The success of the film lead Warner Bros. Animation to create the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, which began the larger DC Animated Universe,
    • Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm stated the show's Art Deco design was inspired from the film.
  • A toyline based on the movie was made by ToyBiz, with figures of Batman, Joker, and Bob the Goon being made, as well as various vehicles and playsets.
    • Kenner would make their own toyline based on the film the following year, called Batman: The Dark Knight Collection.



External links[]

  Burton films
Features

Pee-wee's Big Adventure ·' Beetlejuice · Batman · Edward Scissorhands · Batman Returns · The Nightmare Before Christmas (film) · Ed Wood · Mars Attacks! · Sleepy Hollow · Planet of the Apes · Big Fish · Charlie and the Chocolate Factory · Corpse Bride · Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street · Alice in Wonderland · Dark Shadows · · Frankenweenie · Big Eyes · Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children · Dumbo ·

Other

The Island of Doctor Agor · Doctor of Doom · Stalk of the Celery Monster · Luau · Vincent · Hansel and Gretel · Frankenweenie · Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp · James and the Giant Peach ·Batman Forever · Batman & Robin · The Jar · Conversations with Vincent · The World of Stainboy · Kung Fu · Mannequin · Bones · Here With Me · 9 · Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter · Alice Through the Looking Glass


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