BATMAN (1989)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Tim Burton

SCREENWRITER: Sam Hamm, Warren Skaaren

FILM STARS: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, Jack Palance, Jerry Hall, Tracey Walter, Lee Wallace

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Craig Shaw Gardner

TYPE: Novelisation

PUBLISHER: Futura

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1989

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above (based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1939)

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1989

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Sci Fi

WORDS: Ever now and then I just have to load something up I don’t care about, movie or book. In this case it’s a throwaway novelisation on the first of the Batman reboot films. It’s hard to get excited about superhero films, and what little excitement I had has been dissipated by the bad taste left in my mouth after the superhero film deluge that followed.

Superman The Movie (1978) kicked off the new era of superhero movies, or at least superhero films with a budget. But, in pre CGI days, the films were hard work an intensive and so,. relatively few followed. This Batman from 1989 was one , and it was a big hit. I,  like every other person of my generation, grew up watching the 1960s TV show, with Adam West as Batman, on reruns in the 1970s. What was there not to like? It was fun, hokey and filled with great guest stars (and it was a little subversive aimed at adults as well as kids (teens) at times). The show was a hit and , inevitably, a film followed, Batman (1966). It was hokey ,tongue in cheek fun … how can’t it be with Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith and Frank Gorshin all overacting on purpose as the three criminals. Not having seen the 1940s serials (with Lewis Wilson (1943) and Robert Lowery (1949) as Batman respectively), back then, this is the Batman I recall. Loud 60s colour and very tongue in cheek

But, inevitably, audiences grow up and they can’t be seen to like the simple things they did as youths. They have to make everything serious. With that mindset came this Batman (and they also ruined the simplicity of Star Wars, Tron, Battlestar Galactica,  and many other films with their updating and strained seriousness). Luckily, despite Michael Keaton being square jawed and heroic, and the film noir landscapes being dark and, errr, film noir-ish, the Joker, played by Jack Nicholson, had dark humour amongst his nastiness. The film straddled the original comic book, which wasn’t dark but was serious, and the 60s TV show which bordered on goofy respectful parody. The subsequent films in the first series with George Clooney and Val Kilmer as Batman leaned one way or the other, but only slightly, from that path laid down in this film.

Sacrilege for some coming … Christopher Nolan destroyed the rest for me. OK, the Batman (Dark Knight) reboot by Nolan with Christian Bale as Batman  was based on the dark Frank Miller graphic novels but ho hum …. FFS it’s a bloke in a cape. How serious can we get about a bloke in a cape in contemporary times? Pretty serious apparently. And it seems that’s the way it’s been travelling ever since with Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson.

So be it. I won’t have to waste time analysing this much more. This is one little black duck who won’t try to intellectualise a story about a man in a cape who catches bad guys.

This first film is still perhaps the best. The refreshing performances (Michael Keaton cast as Batman was a bit out of left field … and he does well), lack of CGI, funny and smart asides and in joke references make it a winner. Do I have to watch it again? No, but I might. Do, I have to read the novelisation. Probably not.

Author, Craig Shaw Gardener wrote a lot of original fantasy novels and paid the bills (I suspect) with novelisations  … The Lost Boys (1987), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Batman Returns (with Sam Hamm and Daniel Waters) (1992) and non-film novels based on licensed properties like Batman, Spider-Man, Buffy, Angel and Battlestar Galactica.

You gotta eat.

Scenes from the film in the book

LINKS

TRAILER

The Batman main title them by Danny Elfman