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Subj: THAT scene in Burton's first Batman film ... Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 at 07:11:37 pm EDT (Viewed 376 times) | Reply Subj: Re: Chiming In Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 at 05:48:28 pm EDT (Viewed 538 times) | ||||||
Yes, Christopher Nolan's Batman is objectively better in nearly every way, even before Burton went completely off the fucking rails with Batman Returns, but in spite of all its considerable flaws, Burton's 1989 Batman reminds me of what a powerful artist he can be, to the point that his sheer balls almost make up for his shortcomings of plotting and characterization. For as much as Burton is held up as the gothic champion of freaks, weirdos and misfits, it's worth noting that his approach to introducing Batman is exactly mathematically opposite to that of Nolan, because while Nolan introduces us to Batman by giving us a first-person perspective on Bruce Wayne's journey toward becoming Batman, Burton presents us with Bruce Wayne after he's already become Batman, and portrays both Bruce Wayne and Batman as complete strangers to the audience, whom we're meant to mistrust almost as much as the Gotham criminals who fear his wrath. For Nolan, Batman is a dark-lensed Joseph Campbell hero on a journey toward becoming himself. For Burton, Batman is the first clue toward unraveling a decades-old murder-mystery that hinges on one question, asked by (of all people) Robert Wuhl, when he turns to Kim Basinger's Vicki Vale, after revealing to her what really happened to Bruce Wayne's parents, and wonders aloud, "What do you suppose something like that does to a kid?" Which leads to one of the most controversial aspects of Burton's Batman: THAT scene. THAT scene is proof positive of the weaknesses I ascribed to Burton's plotting and characterization, because its payoff revelation represents a cheap turn of contrived coincidence that ruins the tragically senseless element of random, unreasoning chaos that took Bruce Wayne's parents from him and made him determined to become such an unyielding, uncompromising force of order. Batman feels compelled to force the world around him to make sense, with his bare hands if necessary, precisely because he could never manage to make sense out of the tragedy that's defined his entire life. Of all the superheroes out there, Batman is the one who should never learn that his greatest archenemy was responsible for his parents' deaths (which, to be fair, was one of the few major failings of Nolan's Batman as well). And yet ... I'm not gonna lie. First time I saw this scene play out in the theater, when I heard the faceless gunman ask, "Tell me, kid ... you ever dance with the Devil by the pale moonlight?", my brain automatically went, "Holy shit" ... and then, when the faceless gunman stepped out of the shadows, and his face split into that terrifyingly wide and familiar grin, I actually said out loud, "Holy SHIT." It's a scene that SHOULDN'T work, and yet, the acting, the atmosphere, the pacing, the music, the cinematography ... every aspect of what went onscreen NAILS it, from the spilling of necklace pearls and movie popcorn, one after the other, to Michael Keaton's absolutely haunted facial expression once he finally connects the two murderous smiles. There's a reason Tim Burton's Batman was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and it's the same reason why it's in my DVD collection as an adult. | |||||||
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