Batman (1989 film)

Batman
Directed by	Tim Burton
Written by	Characters: Bob Kane Bill Finger (uncredited) Screenplay: Sam Hamm Warren Skaaren Charles McKeown (uncredited)
Produced by	Peter Guber Jon Peters
Starring	Michael Keaton Jack Nicholson Kim Basinger Billy Dee Williams Jack Palance
Music by	Score: Danny Elfman Original Songs: Prince
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	June 23, 1989 August 11, 1989
Running time	126 min.
Language	English
Budget	$35,000,000

Batman is a 1989 Academy Award-winning superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Tim Burton directed the film, which stars Michael Keaton as Batman, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, and Jack Palance.

The film primarily showed the public the original roots seen in Bill Finger and Bob Kane's original stories from 1939, rather than the well known Batman series that was practically a straight face parody to the character. The film was one of the biggest box office successes at it's time and was able to achieve mostly positive reviews. It's the first of the four-part film series and known for it's development hell history dating back to the late 1970s.

Plot

Approaching its 200th anniversary, Gotham City's leaders fear that the high level of criminal activity will deter citizens from attending the celebrations. Gotham's mayor William Borg orders District Attorney Harvey Dent to make the city safe again, in hopes of revitalizing local business. Dent, in turn, targets mob boss Carl Grissom, who sponsors much of the criminal activity within Gotham and has paid off a significant segment of the police force.

Meanwhile, a dark vigilante dressed as a bat has attracted the attention of both the police and the local media. Newspaper reporter Alexander Knox is attempting to investigate, but his questions are deflected by skeptical cops, including Lt. Eckhardt, one of many police officers on the take from Grissom. After stonewalling Knox, Eckhardt is shown taking a payoff from Grissom's second in command, Jack Napier.

Grissom, on discovering that his mistress is involved with Napier, sets him up to be killed by Eckhardt in a raid on Axis Chemicals. The plot is foiled by the arrival of Police Commissioner James Gordon, who wants Napier taken alive, and Batman. Batman captures Napier, but releases him when Bob the Goon holds Gordon hostage at gunpoint. Batman vanishes, and in the confusion, Napier shoots and kills Eckhardt, then attempts to shoot a re-emerged Batman. The latter deflects his shot, sending shrapnel into the formers face. Napier falls over a railing into a vat of chemicals, presumably to his death. Although surrounded by the police, Batman escapes the scene.

Jack Nicholson as the Joker

Batman, as we discover, is actually billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, an orphan who lives alone in the large mansion Wayne Manor, with only his butler Alfred Pennyworth in attendance. At a fundraising party, Bruce meets and falls for famous photojournalist Vicki Vale, recently arrived in town to cover the "Bat Man phenomenon."

Napier, in the meantime, is not dead but horribly disfigured, with white skin, green hair, and a permanent grin (after a botched reconstructive surgery attempt). Already unstable, the trauma has apparently driven him completely insane. Calling himself "The Joker", he kills Grissom and usurps his criminal empire. His first scheme is to spread terror in the city by creating hygiene products that can kill by fatal hilarity due to being tainted with a deadly chemical known as "Smylex," so named because its affects on the nervous system leave a gruesome leer on victims' corpses. (An earlier scene in the Joker's lair reveals "Smylex" to be a Vietnam-era CIA-developed nerve agent. A folder identifies the substance as "DDIO," likely a dioxin compound, supposedly discontinued in 1977). Following the death of a news anchor on-air, the city becomes paralyzed with fear. (an unproduced scene shows that the purpose of the scheme was indeed chaos, but directed chaos – Gotham has faced crime waves, but the Joker has crippled the city's economic and social infrastructure – every hygiene product is rejected due to the potential risks, causing both severe damage to the stock market and horrifying health concerns, as no one dares even use soap!) Making war on several fronts, the Joker then sets a trap at the Gotham Museum of Art for Vicki, with whom he has become smitten; his fellows start to slash and deface the entire legacy of Western Art, but as one of them approaches to destroy Francis Bacon's Figure with Meat, the Joker stops him saying "I kinda like this one". Batman intervenes and saves Vicki, taking her to the Batcave to reveal to her the secret of the Joker's plot – the authorities are failing to put an end to the crisis because they are searching for poisonous products. The Joker has actually tainted hundreds of products at the source with individual components of the poison, and they only kill when mixed – any incomplete set of components is harmless and therefore untraceable. He gives her a complete list of toxic combinations, then renders her unconscious – he knows she photographed him during the rescue, and while he was impressed enough to give her the list instead of the police, he couldn't let her keep the film from her camera. She awakes at home, and after bemoaning the loss of the film, calls her editor with the list, which makes the morning paper. Incensed at Batman eluding him while taking Vale and ruining his poisoning scheme, the Joker vows to eliminate the mysterious vigilante for interfering with his plans.

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Michael Keaton as Batman

Vicki's apartment is then the scene of a confrontation between the Joker, who has come to woo her, and Bruce, who has come to try and confess about his double-life but not getting very far. After Bruce challenges the Joker to a fight, the Joker pulls a gun and asks him: "Tell me something, friend. Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?" He then shoots Bruce. The Joker then leaves amid his own hoopla, and Vicki is shocked to see that Bruce has disappeared, leaving behind only a metal platter which he used as an impromptu bulletproof vest.

That confrontation confirmed for Bruce that the Joker is actually the man who murdered his parents many, many years ago in Gotham. The final clue was that his parents' murderer said the same phrase to him as The Joker said in Vicki's apartment ("Ever dance with the Devil by the pale moonlight?"). As Bruce grapples with this memory, he is shocked by the sudden appearance of Vicki in the Bat Cave; Alfred having decided that she deserved to know the truth.

Deciding the time has come to end the Joker's reign of terror, Batman tells the confused and torn Vicki that it's time for him to "go to work." His car breaks through into the Axis Chemical plant, where the Joker has been manufacturing his lethal cocktail, and activates its retractable armor while the Joker's goons attack. Dropping four high-powered bomblets from its hubcaps, the batmobile then beats a hasty retreat out of the exploding factory, coming to a dead halt in front of Batman, who had been remotely controlling the vehicle from a safe distance. However, the destroyed factory is far from the end of the Joker's schemes. Taunting his enemy from a helicopter, the Joker heads off, leaving Batman to anticipate his next move.

Deep in downtown Gotham, the Joker has put his own plans in motion to upstage the city's canceled anniversary celebrations with a grand spectacle: a nighttime parade at which he will dispense $20 million in free cash. Vicki and Knox are there to cover the pandemonium, and they notice strange tanks on the balloons. In the middle of his generosity, the Joker begins gassing the crowd. Batman arrives in his bat-shaped jet and snatches the balloons away to carry them out of the city. Furious, the Joker shoots Bob the Goon, his number one thug. Batman returns to make a strafing run on the Joker, who responds by shooting down the jet with an insanely long-barreled revolver. Vicki approaches the downed craft but is captured by the Joker, who leads her to the top of Gotham Cathedral. Dazed but not finished, Batman pursues. At the top of the cathedral, the two adversaries confront each other in single combat.

In a moment of opportunity, the Joker pulls Batman and Vicki off the belfry, where they cling to the ledge for their lives. The Joker's helicopter appears and he grabs hold of a dangling ladder, about to escape. Batman shoots a wire around the Joker's leg, connecting it to a stone gargoyle on the ledge. As the Joker is lifted away, the wire pulls the gargoyle loose and he plummets to his death.

The movie ends with Commissioner Gordon announcing the Gotham police have arrested all the Joker's gang remnants who were not killed by Batman, and unveiling the Bat-Signal supplied by Batman with a note promising to return if the city needs him.

Development

Michael Uslan and fellow producing partner Benjamin Melniker purchased the film rights of Batman from DC Comics in 1979. The early roots seen in Bill Finger's and Bob Kane's original stories from 1939 had always fascinated Uslan. The prevailing perception of the character was still that of the 1960s TV series, thus CBS sparked interest in purchasing the rights for a Batman in Outer Space film, but lost out to Uslan. As part of his presentation to studios, Uslan came up with a nine-page story titled “Return of the Batman." The treatment conveyed a tone similar to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, though written roughly 10 years earlier.

After failing to find a studio, Melniker met Peter Guber, who was interested in what the project had to offer, and joined in 1982, alongside partner Jon Peters. Richard Maibaum was approached to write the script with Guy Hamilton to direct, but both turned it down. Tom Mankiewicz was then hired sometime in the early 1980s. Mankiewicz' script was titled The Batman and featured Bruce Wayne's (very brief) origin. The villains included Rupert Thorne and the Joker with the Penguin showing off a cameo. Commissioner Gordon and Silver St. Cloud both appeared as well as Bruce taking in Dick Grayson after The Flying Graysons massacre. The story ended with Batman and Robin as a crime-fighting team, an obvious set up for a sequel.

Warner Brothers signed a production deal in 1982 with Guber and Peters, and shortly thereafter accepted the distribution rights. When Mankiewicz completed his 1983 script, the film was to be released in 1985 with a budget of $20 million. Uslan wanted a distinguished unknown actor for Batman/Bruce Wayne, William Holden as Commissioner Gordon, Jack Nicholson (always the first choice) as the Joker and David Niven as Alfred Pennyworth. Joe Dante and Ivan Reitman were interested to direct but both eventually left, while the Mankiewicz script labored in development hell. Various script were written, including a comedic version that was to star Bill Murray as Batman and Eddie Murphy as Robin. It wasn't until after the success of The Dark Knight Returns that Warner Brothers decided to establish the film to way Uslan originally intended it to be.

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Issued poster for the film

One of the writers who contributed was Steve Englehart, known primarily for his comic book writing in Detective Comics around the late 1970s. His take on Batman brought the feel of the original roots seen in the late 1930s. Englehart was hired to write a basic story treatment, which was met with positive feedback from Warner Brothers, though when asked if he could write the screenplay, Englehart was told no. To this day, he claims that 70% of what appeared in the finished film came originally from him.

After the surprising success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Warner Brothers handed the director’s position to Tim Burton. Burton was not satisfied with the Mankiewicz script, calling it too jokey and cynical. He and then-girlfriend Julie Hickson wrote a 30-page treatment. Sam Hamm stated that when he was hired as a writer for Warner Brothers, the Batman project was "just lying around, although it was about to be unloaded." Impressed with his knowledge of the character, Burton hired Hamm to write the script while he went to direct Beetlejuice. Hamm and Burton decided not to tell an origin story, citing that "you would destroy your creditability if you show the literal process by which Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.

Robin appeared in early drafts but was deleted because Burton and Hamm felt he was irrelevant to the plot. Fortunately for them, Warner Brothers also agreed, and saved the character for the second installment. Hamm turned in his script just days before the infamous writer's strike of 1988 began, and was unable to write any more drafts due to his involvement. Burton liked the script, but thought something was missing. As such he brought in Beetlejuice co-writers Warren Skaaren and Charles McKeown to do rewrites. Their draft introduced the Joker's role as the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents, a revelation Burton wanted from the beginning. Hamm, staying true to the source material, had refused to use the idea.

Filming

Batman was filmed at Pinewood Studios in England during the winter of 1988–89. The entire backlot was turned at a cost of $5.5 million, into a vision of Gotham City that was described in Sam Hamm's script, "as if hell had sprung up through the pavements and kept on going." Anton Furst was hired as the production designer, whom personally Burton had tried to hire for Beetlejuice, though Furst was committed on High Spirits. Burton had the opportunity to use Warner Brothers studios in Los Angeles, but opted to shoot in England merely to escape American press. For the design of Gotham, Burton and Furst studied photographs from Blade Runner and New York City. Burton also credited Jack Nicholson as being very supportive.

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Tim Burton directing Michael Keaton

Kim Basinger reportedly had an affair with producer Jon Peters, leading to speculation that this affected the decision to cast her. Jack Nicholson was aware of the whole situation, and was also unhappy with the way Peters and Peter Guber were treating Tim Burton. After a fierce argument with the producers, Nicholson went to Basinger and flat out said, "Tell that guy who's cock you've been sucking for the past couple of months that he's an asshole!". The Joker was originally supposed to kill Vicki Vale in the climax, rather than bringing her up into the cathedral tower. After Peters saw The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Peters insisted on a rewrite that included the cathedral scene. This cost an additional $100,000, at which point the film was already over budget.

Music

Main article: Batman (album)

Peter Guber and Jon Peters originally wanted Prince to write the Joker theme, with Michael Jackson doing the love theme, while Danny Elfman would then combine the style of the two songs into the film score. Burton protested against the idea and Jackson left, while Elfman was able to write what Burton calls, "a dark, orchestral piece."

Prince was given the opportunity to write two songs, though Burton claimed he "snowballed" and wrote enough songs to have an album of his own. Elfman stated that Peters was skeptical about him writing the score due to the fact that he hadn't "scored an action flick." Burton had Elfman play the main title march, to which Peters literally started dancing. Elfman also states that Burton handed him The Dark Knight Returns to get a better understanding of the character.

The theme score went on to be used once more, while being served as the basis for the theme tune to Batman: The Animated Series, which premiered in 1992, although the theme was later retooled.

Cast

• Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman: The son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, whose lives are taken before his eyes. Over the years, he swears to avenge his parents' death and eventually adopts the alter-ego Batman. His mission becomes further complicated when he's forced to deal with the homicidal maniac known as The Joker.
• Jack Nicholson as Jack Napier / The Joker: A former right-hand man for crime boss Carl Grissom, he becomes transformed into the sadistic maniac known as The Joker after a chemical-related mishap at Axis Chemicals.
• Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale: A freelance photojournalist and love interest of Bruce Wayne.
• Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox: An ambitious investigative reporter at the Gotham Globe.
• Pat Hingle as Commissioner James Gordon: The Gotham City police commissioner.
• Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent: The newly elected District Attorney of Gotham City, Dent swears to derail the city's criminal activity along with Police Commissioner Gordon and the mysterious vigilante Batman.
• Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne’s trusted and faithful butler who, after the death of Bruce’s parents, guides Bruce and watches him grow up to avenge his parents' death.
• Jack Palance as Carl Grissom: The last crime boss of Gotham City before The Joker seizes control of the criminal underworld.
• Jerry Hall as Alicia Hunt: Mistress of Carl Grissom who carried on a simultaneous affair with his major domo Jack Napier.
• Tracey Walter as Bob the Goon: The Joker's right-hand man after the fall of Carl Grissom from power.
• Lee Wallace as Mayor William Borg: The Mayor of Gotham City.
• William Hootkins as Lt. Max Eckhardt: A corrupt and powerful cop in the Gotham City Police Department who is involved in collusion with Carl Grissom as well as Jack Napier.

Batman confronting The Joker

For the role of Batman, The Los Angeles Times reported that Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen and Pierce Brosnan were all being considered. Gibson did confirm he was offered the role, though turned it down because he "didn’t want to put a spandex suit on." Michael Uslan stated that Dennis Quaid, Kevin Costner and Harrison Ford were his three favorite choices, while Entertainment Weekly reported that Ralph Fiennes and Daniel Day-Lewis were in the running. Burton always felt that an unknown actor would be perfect for the role. He claimed that the audience wouldn't take a famous actor seriously if he were to were the Batsuit. This was very similar as to how Richard Donner visioned the casting of Christopher Reeve in Superman. However, after the casting of Jack Nicholson, Burton felt that the supposed unknown actor would have his performance stolen. He dropped the idea and cast Michael Keaton, after working with him on Beetlejuice. Adam West, star of Batman thought of himself as a better choice.

For the role of the Joker, Robin Williams was under serious consideration and even offered his services. Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, John Lithgow and James Woods were all being considered as well. Preeminent among them, however, was Jack Nicholson, who was always the first choice dating back to the early '80s, despite the fact that he was by now considerably older than the character originally called for. Nicholson received $6 million for the role, and was also allowed to demand minor script changes, which Sam Hamm agreed to on the condition that they didn’t change the overall tone and flow of the film. Not only did Nicholson receive $6 million up front, but also a percentage of the box office gross up to $60 million, to this day the highest salary ever paid for a movie role.

Sean Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale, but broke her collarbone in a horse-riding mishap just one week prior to filming. Kim Basinger was cast at the last minute, beating out a "handful" of other actresses.

Release

Box office performance

Batman opened in the United States on 21 June, 1989 and became the first film to break $100 million in its first ten days of release. It eventually became not only the top money-maker of 1989 but also garnered a phenomenal hype titled "Batmania".

Home video

The film was first released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1989.

The film's first release on DVD was in late 1997, shortly after that format debuted. It was a single-disc release that could be viewed in either widescreen or full-screen but not featuring any bonus material, save for sparse production notes and cast information. Also, the scene selection menu was not comprehensive, allowing direct access to random scenes while others were left inaccessible.

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The Batman Motion Picture Anthology: an 8-disc box set containing all four films

To coincide with the release of Batman Begins on DVD, Warner Brothers released Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin with new DVD treatments. The two disc special edition of the four films were created with newly restored audio/video, a remastered Dolby Digital audio track, and a second disk of bonus material. Each title is available both individually and as part of The Batman Motion Picture Anthology.

Reaction

Batman received mostly positive reviews at the time of its release and currently holds a 72% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The negative reviews were garnered to the fact that most felt Jack Nicholson "stole the show" and received more screen time than Michael Keaton. Most comic book fans praised the film, especially those who had read the earliest Batman stories by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, whose dark mood inspired the film. Furthermore, Keaton changed many doubters' minds about his casting to become hailed as one of the best actors to play the title role. Despite a mostly positive reaction, many fans complained that The Joker is portrayed as the killer of Bruce’s parents, while in the comics it was an ordinary thug.

Batman won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (awarded to Anton Furst and Peter Young), making it the only Batman film to win an Oscar thus far. Other competition for the award included The Abyss, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Driving Miss Daisy, and Glory.

Jack Nicholson was nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical.

External Links

• Batman at IMDb
• Batman at Rotten Tomatoes
• Batman at Box Office Mojo
• Sam Hamm's First Draft
• On Set Photos
• Promo Shots
• Posters and Promotional Material
• Pictures of the set, Batsuit, Batmobile, and cast of Batman
• Keith Short - Film Sculptor Sculpted the Batmobile for this film

See Also

• Batman (video game)
• Batman (pinball)