Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Directed by Tim Burton, it is the first installment of Warner Bros.' initial Batman film series. The film was produced by Jon Peters and Peter Guber and stars Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, 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 his conflict with his archenemy The Joker.
After Burton was hired as director in 1986, Steve Englehart and Julie Hickson wrote film treatments before Sam Hamm wrote the first screenplay. Batman was not greenlit until after the success of Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). The tone and themes of the film were partly influenced by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The film primarily adapts and then diverges from the "Red Hood" origin story for the Joker, having Batman inadvertently cause gangster Jack Napier to fall into Axis Chemical acid, triggering his transformation into the psychotic Joker. Additionally, Batman co-creator Bob Kane worked as a consultant for the film.
Numerous leading men were considered for the role of Batman before Keaton was cast. Keaton's casting was controversial since, by 1988, he had become typecast as a comedic actor and many observers doubted, he could portray a serious role.[7] Nicholson accepted the role of the Joker under strict conditions that dictated top billing, a portion of the film's earnings (including associated merchandise), and his own shooting schedule.
Filming took place at Pinewood Studios from October 1988 to January 1989. The budget escalated from $30 million to $48 million, while the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike forced Hamm to drop out. Warren Skaaren did rewrites, with additional uncredited drafts done by Charles McKeown and Jonathan Gems.
Batman was both critically and financially successful, earning over $400 million in box office totals. Critics and audiences particularly praised Nicholson and Keaton's performances, Burton's direction, the production design, and Elfman's score. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release. The film received several Saturn Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination for Nicholson's performance, and won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. It also led to the development of the equally successful Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), which in turn began the DC Animated Universe of spin-off media, and has influenced Hollywood's modern marketing and development techniques of the superhero film genre. The film was followed by three sequels: Batman Returns (1992), with both Burton and Keaton returning; Batman Forever (1995), which featured Val Kilmer in the lead role; and Batman & Robin (1997), which featured George Clooney in the role.
Plot
Reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale investigate sightings of the "Batman", a masked vigilante targeting Gotham City's criminals. Both attend a fundraiser hosted by billionaire Bruce Wayne, who is secretly Batman, having chosen this path after witnessing a mugger murder his parents when he was a child. During the event, Wayne becomes infatuated with Vale.
Meanwhile, mob boss Carl Grissom sends his sociopathic second-in-command Jack Napier to raid Axis Chemicals and retrieve incriminating evidence. However, this is secretly a ploy to have Napier murdered for sleeping with Grissom's mistress Alicia Hunt. Corrupt lieutenant Max Eckhardt arranges the hit on Napier by conducting an unauthorized police operation. However, Commissioner James Gordon arrives, takes command, and orders the officers to capture Napier alive. Batman also appears, while Napier kills Eckhardt as revenge for the double-crossing. During a scuffle with Batman, Napier topples off a catwalk and falls into a vat of chemicals. Although presumed dead, Napier survives with various disfigurements including chalk white skin and emerald-green hair and nails. He undergoes surgery to repair the damage, but ends up with a rictus grin. Driven insane by his new appearance, Napier, now calling himself "the Joker", kills Grissom, massacres Grissom's associates, and takes over his operations.
He then starts terrorizing Gotham by lacing hygiene products with "Smylex" – a deadly chemical that causes victims to die laughing. The Joker soon becomes obsessed with Vicki and lures her to the Flugelheim Museum, which his henchmen start vandalizing. Batman rescues Vicki, takes her to the Batcave, and provides her with all of his research on Smylex, which will allow Gotham's residents to escape the toxin. Conflicted with his love for her, Wayne visits her apartment intending to reveal his secret identity, only for the Joker to interrupt the meeting. Joker asks Wayne, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?", which Wayne recognizes as the catchphrase used by the mugger who killed his parents, realizing the killer to have been Joker (as Napier) all along. He shoots Wayne, who survives thanks to a serving tray hidden underneath his shirt.
Vicki is taken to the Batcave by Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, who had been coaxing the relationship between the pair. After exposing his secret to Vicki, Wayne reveals he cannot focus on their relationship with Joker on the loose. He then departs to destroy the Axis plant used to create Smylex. Meanwhile, Joker lures Gotham's citizens to a parade honoring Gotham's bicentennial with the promise of free money. This turns out to be a trap designed to dose them with Smylex gas held within giant parade balloons. Batman foils his plan by using his Batwing to remove the balloons, but Joker shoots him down. The Batwing crashes in front of a cathedral, which Joker uses to take Vicki hostage. Batman pursues the Joker, and in the ensuing fight, he explains that Napier killed his parents and thus, indirectly created Batman. This leads Joker to realize Batman is Bruce Wayne. Joker eventually pulls Batman and Vicki over the cathedral's roof, leaving them hanging while he calls in a helicopter. The helicopter is piloted by his goons, who throw down a ladder for him to climb. Batman uses a grappling hook to attach Joker's leg to a crumbling gargoyle that eventually falls off the roof. Unable to bear the statue's immense weight, Joker falls to his death while Batman and Vicki make it to safety.
Sometime later, Gordon announces that the police have arrested all of Joker's men, effectively dismantled of what remained of Carl Grissom's mafia organizations, and unveils the Bat-Signal. Batman leaves the police a note, promising to defend Gotham should crime strike again, and asking them to use the Bat-Signal to summon him in times of need. Alfred take
In the late 1970s, Batman's popularity was waning.[9] CBS was interested in producing a Batman in Outer Space film. Producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan purchased the film rights of Batman from DC Comics on October 3, 1979. It was Uslan's wish "to make the definitive, dark, serious version of Batman, the way Bob Kane and Bill Finger had envisioned him in 1939. A creature of the night; stalking criminals in the shadows."[9] Richard Maibaum was approached to write a script with Guy Hamilton to direct, but the two turned down the offer. Uslan was unsuccessful with pitching Batman to various movie studios because they wanted the film to be similar to the campy 1960s television series. Columbia Pictures and United Artists were among those to turn down the film.[10]
A disappointed Uslan then wrote a script titled Return of the Batman to give the film industry a better idea of his vision for the film. Uslan later compared its dark tone to that of the successful four-part comic book The Dark Knight Returns, which his script predated by six years.[9] In November 1979, producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber joined the project.[5] Melniker and Uslan became executive producers. The four felt it was best to pattern the film's development after that of Superman (1978).[11] Uslan, Melniker and Guber pitched Batman to Universal Pictures, but the studio turned it down.[12] Though no movie studios were yet involved, the project was publicly announced with a budget of $15 million in July 1980 at the Comic Art Convention in New York. Warner Bros., the studio behind the successful Superman film franchise, decided to also accept and produce Batman.[13]
Tom Mankiewicz completed a script titled The Batman in June 1983, focusing on Batman and Dick Grayson's origins, with the Joker and Rupert Thorne as villains and Silver St. Cloud as the romantic interest.[14] Mankiewicz took inspiration from the limited series Batman: Strange Apparitions, written by Steve Englehart.[15] Comic book artist Marshall Rogers, who worked with Englehart on Strange Apparitions, was hired for concept art.[12] The Batman was then announced in late 1983 for a mid-1985 release date on a budget of $20 million. Originally, Mankiewicz had wanted an unknown actor for Batman, William Holden for James Gordon, David Niven as Alfred Pennyworth, and Peter O'Toole as the Penguin, whom Mankiewicz wanted to portray as a mobster with low body temperature.[13] Holden died in 1981 and Niven in 1983, so this would never come to pass. A number of filmmakers were attached to Mankiewicz' script, including Ivan Reitman and Joe Dante. Reitman wanted to cast Bill Murray as Batman and Eddie Murphy as Robin.[7] Nine rewrites were performed by nine separate writers. Most of them were based on Strange Apparitions. However, it was Mankiewicz's script that was still being used to guide the project.[16] Due to the work they did together with the film Swamp Thing (1982), Wes Craven was among the directors that Melniker and Uslan considered while looking for a director.[17]
After the financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), 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 Mankiewicz was campy. The success of The Dark Knight Returns and the graphic novel Batman: 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.[7] Warner Bros. enlisted the aid of Englehart to write a new treatment in March 1986.[18] Like Mankiewicz's script, it was based on his own Strange Apparitions and included Silver St. Cloud, Dick Grayson, the Joker, and Rupert Thorne, as well as a cameo appearance by the Penguin. 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.[18]
Burton approached Sam Hamm, a comic book fan, to write the screenplay.[13] 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.[15] He reasoned, "You totally destroy your credibility if you show the literal process by which Bruce Wayne becomes Batman."[19] 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.[20] 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, reducing it to a photo in the Gotham Globe newspaper seen in the film.[21]
Warner Bros. was less willing to move forward on development, despite their enthusiasm for Hamm's script, which Kane greeted with positive feedback.[7] Hamm's script was then bootlegged at various comic book stores in the United States.[15] Batman was finally given the greenlight to commence pre-production in April 1988, after the success of Burton's Beetlejuice the same year.[7] 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.[22] 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."[15] To combat negative reports on the film's production, Kane was hired as creative consultant.[11] Batman's co-creator, Bill Finger, was uncredited at the time of the film's release and his name was not added to any Batman-related media until 2016.
Legacy
Anton Furst and Peter Young won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction,[103] while Nicholson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (Musical or Comedy).[104] The British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominated Batman in six categories (Production Design, Visual Effects, Costume Design, Makeup, Sound and Actor in a Supporting Role for Nicholson), but it won none of the categories.[105] Nicholson, Basinger, the makeup department, and costume designer Bob Ringwood all received nominations at the Saturn Awards. The film was also nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film[106] and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.[107]
The success of Batman prompted Warner Bros. Animation to create the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, as a result beginning the long-running DC Animated Universe[108] and helped establish the modern day superhero film genre. Series co-creator Bruce Timm stated the television show's Art Deco design was inspired from the film. Timm commented, "our show would never have gotten made if it hadn't been for that first Batman movie."[109] Burton joked, "ever since I did Batman, it was like the first dark comic book movie. Now everyone wants to do a dark and serious superhero movie. I guess I'm the one responsible for that trend."[110]
Batman initiated the original Batman film series and spawned three sequels: Batman Returns (1992), Batman Forever (1995), and Batman & Robin (1997), the latter two of which were directed by Joel Schumacher instead of Burton and replaced Keaton as Batman with Val Kilmer and George Clooney, respectively.
Executive producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on March 26, 1992. Melniker and Uslan claimed to be "the victims of a sinister campaign of fraud and coercion that has cheated them out of continuing involvement in the production of Batman and its sequels. We were denied proper credits, and deprived of any financial rewards for our indispensable creative contribution to the success of Batman."[5] A superior court judge rejected the lawsuit. Total revenues of Batman have topped $2 billion, with Uslan claiming to have "not seen a penny more than that since our net profit participation has proved worthless."[5] Warner Bros. offered the pair an out-of-court settlement, a sum described by Melniker and Uslan's attorney as "two popcorns and two Cokes".[111]
Reflecting on the twentieth anniversary of its release in a retrospective article on Salon.com, film commentator Scott Mendelson noted the continuing impact that Batman has had on the motion film industry, including the increasing importance of opening weekend box office receipts; the narrowing window between a film's debut and its video release that caused the demise of second-run movie theaters; the accelerated acquisition of pre-existing, pre-sold properties for film adaptations that can be readily leveraged for merchandizing tie-ins; the primacy of the MPAA PG-13 as the target rating for film producers; and more off-beat, non-traditional casting opportunities for genre films.[112] The film was responsible fo
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