DC Saturdays #12 - Batman (1989)

As you can probably deduce from the last few entries on the DC Saturday part of this blog, by the late '80s the company's stock in terms of film tie-ins was falling fast. The Superman series had crashed and burned ignominiously with the dreadful Superman 4 and attempts at spin-offs (Supergirl) and other DC characters being brought to the big screen (Swamp Thing) had had limited success. Safe to say that the release of Batman in 1989 pretty much changed all that.

The last time we caught up with the Caped Crusader was way back in 1966 with the film version of the Adam West/Burt Ward series. Although often knocked for its light-heartedness, it's still the version of Batman that I grew up with meaning I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it. However, it's safe to say that compared to the darkness of the original comics, it's really a different beast altogether. Following the cancellation of the TV series in 1969, the popularity of the character was on the wane throughout the '70s and although there was periodical talk of a new Batman film, it took until the late '80s for things to come to fruition with Tim Burton directing and a cast including Michael Keaton as Batman, Jack Nicholson as the Joker and Kim Basinger as Bruce Wayne's love interest Vicki Vale. The film was a huge critical and commercial success and would go on to spawn three follow-ups - again, a parallel could be drawn with the Superman films from a decade earlier with a solid first film, a second one which successfully built on the reputation of the first, a third where they changed directors and things started to wobble a bit before flaming out completely on the fourth one. But we'll deal with those in the weeks ahead - today, we're looking at where it all began way back in 1989...

The film starts with a couple of muggers attacking a couple walking their son home from the cinema (possibly a false start to make you think we're dealing with Batman's origin story here). As they're sharing out the loot on a rooftop they're surprised by the appearance of Batman who beats them up, leaves them for the cops to collect and tells them to warn all their accomplices that he's around.

We're quickly introduced to a few of the main players in this film - at a conference the mayor announces that he's setting up a new crimefighting task force led by Commissioner Gordon and Gotham's top lawyer Harvey Dent (the future Two-Face). The crime syndicate are led by Mob boss Carl Grissom and his second in command the psychopathic Jack Napier. We see Napier in action early on talking to his mole in the police force Eckhardt and roughing him up when he tries to put him in his place. Earlier, Eckhardt dismisses questions from a press reporter Alexander Knox who is working with photographer Vicki Vale to try and get an exclusive on the mysterious "Batman" much to the amusement of their colleagues.

However, there's trouble at the top in the Mob as Grissom and Napier are both having an affair with the same moll Alicia (Jerry Hall). Angry, Grissom sets Napier up to clear out the safes at one of his front companies, Axis Chemicals, on the premise that the police are about to make the link between the two. However, it's a set-up and Grissom phones Eckhardt with a tip-off instructing him to go in and kill Napier.

Meanwhile, Knox and Vale have been invited to a party at local millionaire Bruce Wayne's mansion and are planning to try and ask the police some more questions about Batman there. Instead though, they end up talking to Bruce himself who asks Vicki out on a date. However, he has to leave abruptly when his butler Alfred informs him that Commissioner Gordon has had to leave the party urgently to deal with a break-in at Axis. This is obviously Bruce's cue to change into Batman and go hunt some no-goodniks down.

Gordon's arrival throws things into confusion as he orders Napier to be taken alive (whereas Eckhardt is under orders to shoot to kill from Grissom). In the event, with his men outgunned, Napier shoots Eckhardt dead then attempts to escape via the roof exit only to be cut off by Batman. After a struggle, Napier ends up knocked off the walkway into a huge vat of chemicals. However, after everyone's gone, we see a hand emerging from the depths.

Napier ends up visiting a plastic surgeon to have his face restored but he's left with white skin, green hair and a permanent rictus grin. He rechristens himself the Joker and his first act is to bump off all those in the mob who've crossed him. Grissom is the first to be paid a visit and shot before another leading member who's got reservations ends up being fried to a skeleton by Joker's high-voltage electric hand buzzer ("Oh I got a live one here!...")

Bruce and Vicki, meanwhile, have become a couple but Bruce's secretive personality is already causing worries for Ms Vale. She tracks him down to a meeting outside Gotham Town Hall where another mob boss is holding a press conference upon inheriting part of Grissom's estate. This, of course, is the cue for Joker to appear at the head of a group of guys dressed as mime artists and stab said mob boss in the neck with a giant quill pen. Ouch.

Joker has also noticed Vicki and become infatuated with her, inviting her for a date (while pretending to be Bruce on the phone) at the Gotham Art Museum which is the cue for a cool sequence where him and his goons turn up and trash the place to the strains of "Partyman" by Prince. Luckily Batman turns up to rescue her and they escape in the Batmobile.

Meanwhile, the Joker's plan is taking place - he's developed a deadly laughing gas called Smilex which he's hidden in various substances around Gotham with the result that people are literally dying of laughter, collapsing with the same rictus grin that the Joker has as we see when he uses it on a newsreader. His masterplan is to hijack the Gotham City 200th anniversary parade by throwing free money to the citizens before flooding the streets with Smilex to cause a massacre. Can Batman get it together to stop him? Well, I'm not giving away any more spoilers, you'll have to watch and see for yourself...

Although if I'm honest it has dated a little bit since I first watched it as an 11-year-old when it was released on video rental (ah, there's a heartwarmingly nostalgic phrase for you) and it's easy to place as an '80s film rather than a modern one, Batman is still damn good and just to say pips the first Superman film to go top of this list. Burton deserves a lot of credit for how he handled this project, deftly balancing it between the cartoony '60s version of Batman and the darker comic version and it's easy to see why this is the film that arguably cemented his reputation as one of the leading lights of gothic style films. Keaton and Basinger are good in their roles but this is very much Jack Nicholson's film - his wonderfully demented turn as the Joker really is a total scene-stealer every time and the amount of killer one-liners he has ("Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?") is brilliant. Don't get me wrong, Heath Ledger was similarly awesome in the role in the very different "Dark Knight" film 15 odd years later but for me, Nicholson really is the ultimate Joker.

As mentioned earlier, Batman was a huge box office smash and the series would go on to be one of the big film franchises of the early '90s. It'll be interesting to chart its rise and fall in the weeks ahead but in the meantime, if you haven't seen this film then you really should.

FINAL RATING: 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇 (8/10)

CURRENT DC FILM TABLE

1. Batman (1989) (8/10)
2. Superman (1978) (8/10)
3. Superman 2 (1980) (8/10)
4. Batman (1966) (8/10)
5. Superman 3 (1983) (5/10)
6. Swamp Thing (1982) (5/10)
7. The New Wonder Woman (1975) (5/10)
8. Superman and the Mole Men (1951) (5/10)
9. Wonder Woman (1974) (3/10)
10. The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) (2/10)
11. Superman 4 - The Quest For Peace (1987) (2/10)
12. Supergirl (1984) (2/10)

NEXT WEEK: A quick detour from the Batman saga as we look at the first in a trio of early '90s Flash TV movies...