Batman in movies: why PHANTASM is still king

[thehefner]

Y'know what? I think BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM is (still) the best Batman movie of all time.

I watched it about a year ago, the first time I'd seen it in five years at least, as research for the Harvey Dent novel (I have a scene where Harvey and Gilda break into the dilapidated ruins of the Gotham World's Fair). In truth, I was only half-watching, half-tinkering on my laptop, taking notes and chatting with the likes of mirthical and angrylemur. I thought it was still good, nothing brilliant but still solid.

But now, three months after THE DARK KNIGHT, I just happened to catch it on HBO. The second half, anyway. I specifically caught the scenes where young Bruce was being torn between avenging his parents or settling down with Andrea Beaumont, the love of his life. I got to the scene where Bruce stands before his parent's graves, talking to the headstone and breaking down, and for the first time, the power of that scene just hit me.

"I didn't count on being happy." Maybe I'm just tired and vulnerable at the moment, but Jesus.

And I realized that only BATMAN BEGINS got close to really examining Bruce as a human being in this way, tearing him open and truly showing his conflicted character on the verge of (or well into) madness. More than any other film, this is what really got into the heart of Bruce Wayne, far beyond mere angst and brooding.

Because in THE DARK KNIGHT, he's a completely flat character. I didn't think about it until recently, but now I wonder why more people aren't discussing just how flat and superficial Batman was as a character. That movie was all the Joker and Harvey's show (albeit with the latter getting dicked over and turned into a tool). His crisis of faith felt rushed and unconvincing, a sub-"I am Spider-Man... no more!" moment that had little meaning save for what Harvey did in response. After that one moment of tears, he barely seemed to regard Rachel's death in any form. He was more a walking metaphor than anything.

You know what I wish? I wish his Batman voice had something more than two modes: growly and snarly. I wish when Harvey shouted out, "You don't understand what I've lost!" Batman's voice would have shown actual pain and emotion when he said, "You're wrong."

Fuck, if we were to seriously borrow from SPIDER-MAN 2, I wish Batman ripped off his mask to show Harvey that yes, yes he gets it! He's been there! Fuck, he's there RIGHT NOW! Because if anything might have cut through the madness of Two-Face to find Harvey, that would have been a moment. I mean, why not, they were just gonna kill Harvey off anyway. Sure, Gordon would have known, but Gordon almost certainly knows anyway in the comics. Of course, there's his family too... but hell, ignore that, it's a great idea nonetheless. Heck, handled well, it could have led Harvey to get up the guts to commit suicide directly rather than indirectly. Would have been more powerful than "death by ledge," a death caused by Batman.

And I don't care if it was in self-defense or an accident. Batman caused the death of somebody. Directly or indirectly, he broke that one rule, just like the Joker wanted him to. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done that, but they *needed* to have addressed this. It would have cut right to the core of Batman, when he realizes the true cost of his soul. I mean, does Batman lose anything by taking the blame and becoming hunted? It's not like he was beloved in the first place. It's not like he's uncomfortable with this situation. This is a guy who'd prefer to beat the shit out of cops and throw them off a building rather than actually tell them, "Oh, you might not wanna shoot the clowns, they're really the hostages! Just, y'know, FYI!"

THE DARK KNIGHT may be a good film. Even a great film. Even one of the best superhero movies of all time. But while it's better than any of the Burton/Schumacher films, it still falls behind BATMAN BEGINS and especially BATMAN: THE MASK OF THE PHANTASM as the best Batman film.

Sorry to go on a rant there. I came not to bury TDK, but to praise B:MotP. Sure, the animation is a little rough by today's standards, or even 1993 standards, but they did the best they could with the limited budget (most of the cash it looks like they blew on the opening credits). But if you go by story and vocal performances alone, which I consider more important, it's the truer, more emotionally powerful film about the tragedy of Batman.

Also, it's probably the scariest (made all the more so by how funny he often is) Joker performance of Mark Hamill's illustrious career. As with several parts throughout the film, it's downright disturbing.

Of course, I speak as one whose entire outlook on Batman was pretty well formed by BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. Those voices are the ones I still hear when I read the comics, the ones I keep in mind when I try to distinguish characters' dialogue in my Harvey Dent novel. To this day, I still consider the depictions in B: TAS to be the gold standard of Gotham's denizens (right down to the themes; god, what I'd give for recordings of the characters' leitmotifs!), the perfectly refined distillations of 50+ years of comics. So I'm certainly biased. And maybe when I finally rewatch B:MotP from the beginning, really watch it rather than be distracted, I'll reevaluate my opinion.

But for now, there you go. BATMAN: THE MAS OF THE PHANTASM. Still the best Batman movie made so far. Give it a rent, or watch the whole thing broken up on YouTube.

Comments

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

I was waiting for you to mention that scene with the Joker.
Thank you for fulfilling my literary needs.
And yeah, I've owned that movie, in one format or another, since its debut on VHS. All three kids have seen it. I've even told the oldest that Andrea ran away to become Lois Lane...
Hey, you ever see WILD PALMS?
Do.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Man, it's in desperate need to a remastering, showing bad signs of early DVD transfer.

No, I never have! Never even heard of it. *quick wikipedia* Belushi! Ew. Delany! Hm! Kim Cattral! Ugh (BIG TROUBLE is the exception). Bebe! Awesome! Charles Rocket! That's unfortunate. Ernie Hudson, David Warner, Robert Loggia, AND Brad Dourif holy sweet fuck I think I need to see that.

I haven't even read the synopsis yet. Sold.

Which reminds me...

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

Charles Rocket committed suicide while I was working in Canterbury (his home town.)
They didn't even fly the flag at half-staff.

Re: Which reminds me...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Good lord, that's sad.

Re: Which reminds me...

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

Ever see the old SNL short "Don't Look Back In Anger" (I may have the name wrong) with Belushi as an old man, recapping the lives and demises of his castmates?
If you saw it before '81, it's funny and brilliant.
If you watch it now, well...it's still brilliant.
Like Charles' sole SNL season, it was funny but it wasn't.

Re: Which reminds me...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I've seen it, but not recently enough that I really got it. I'm gonna rectify that. Similarly, have you seen that SNL Phil Hartman short "Love is a Dream"? It wasn't even funny, just brilliant in the sense that you could tell the audience was puzzled but it was almost like they *knew* what a tragedy Hartman would be. It's a little bit devastating.

[gnort.livejournal.com]

If you wanted to watch it in its entirity, I doubt you'll have a problem. HBO has a habit of showing 2 movies on a nightly basis for like 3 months. Over the summer it was Clerks 2 and Tombstone; currently it's Batman Returns and MotP (this is assuming you don't already own it in some form).

Hamill was stellar there, it's neck and neck with BB: Return of the Joker for me.

I'm the same way in regard to TAS, that's the definitive version of pretty much the entire cast in my opinion.

When the TDK first came out, I remember one of the critics saying that the movie examined Batman as a force or influence in Gotham. So yeah, essentially a walking metaphor. Also, to be fair, Joker did say almost from the beginning that he was a man of his word.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

My entry was long enough as it is, or I totally would have gone on a tangent about RETURN OF THE JOKER. Man, that was great. It's what finally got me accepting about BB, which up until then upset my grumpy old man stubbornness.

[greedyslayer.livejournal.com]

Hope you do an entire separate post on Return of the Joker (would love to hear your thoughts on it).

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Why I'm flattered you would! I haven't actually seen it since it came out, although I have rewatched the flashback sequence at least a dozen times or more by now. It's perfect Hamill Joker. One of these days, I'll totally revisit it and post my thoughts, just for you! :)

[greedyslayer.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks! And onto Phantasm itself:

I haven't clicked the play button, but that is the scene with Bruce and the graveyard? The one where he's BEGGING his parents to let him--yeah, that is pretty much my favorite scene in the whole movie.

And I remember when rewatching it, I was all surprised that it was Lois Lane's VA--I love that incarnation of Lois, and her VA is no small reason for that. (And I'm a sap: I kinda enjoy/get weepy over the end credits song, that very sappy one.)

Joker was perfect, and it was interesting seeing pre-self (how canon is that in DCAU?): pre-Joker there struck me as the opposite of what he became--very very cold with tightly concealed emotions, and that fascinated me.

It's weird: after watching TDK, I knew that it was pretty much the Joker-and-Harvey Dent/Two-Face-show--the weird part was that I am pretty much more than ok with that, and enjoyed it because of love for those characters. XP

Poor Batman--but, he had Batman Begins, Phantasm, and the DCAU's been really generous to his character as a whole.

(I have a scene where Harvey and Gilda break into the dilapidated ruins of the Gotham World's Fair)

I'm curious...can you tell me what they're doing there? (Quirky date? Post-Two-Face transformation and hiding out?)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I was watching PHANTASM in full last night, really watching it, and when they got to that grave scene, I actually teared up. It was downright heartwrenching.

You mean Dana Delany's voice? Man, she's got a great voice, doesn't she? I haven't seen much of her live-action stuff, but like Mark Hamill, I think she's a much better actress in VO!

Joker's preself is not canon at all, although we do have multiple choice of several conflicting takes (two-bit criminal called the Red Hood, failed comedian being suckered into becoming the Red Hood, mobster Jack Napier, master criminal, etc). B:TAS is more loosely based off the first two Burton Batman films, so that Joker is Jack Napier (they call him such in one episode of the show).

Yeah, I'm with you, to an extent. The Joker and Two-Face are characters I'd easily watch a whole movie around, or five. Honestly, I didn't think Batman being wooden and flat was much of a loss. That is, until I saw MASK OF THE PHANTASM.

As for the scene with Harvey and Gilda, it comes earlier on, one-third into the book. For the first time, they--in this case, Flass and another crooked cop--attack Harvey and Gilda in their own home on the same day that they go after Jim Gordon's family (the ending of BATMAN: YEAR ONE). Harvey nearly snaps, Batman intervenes, the day is saved and about to go back to normal... when Harvey and Gilda say, fuck it, we nearly died. Let's take the day off.

And so the novel suddenly takes a break from the normal story for an interlude where Harvey and Gilda hit Gotham for the day, just like they did the first time she visited before skipping off to bum around Europe for years. They didn't know if she'd ever return, so they treated it like their only month together. Ironically, the day off now is their last hurrah. It's my one chance to show them as they are together, how they could be, how they want to be, how they'll never be.

I have Gilda see a rather different Gotham than Harvey does. Where Harvey sees crime and corruption, Gilda marvels at a place that still has Studebakers and actually employs police dirigibles. She's the only person in this book who really sees Gotham during the daytime, who sees that side of it.

This, Harvey discovers, is what she does with her free time, when she needs to get inspiration or freedom from her sculpting studio in the garage. She's gone from exploring the world to exploring Gotham. And one of the things she does is break into the ruins of the Gotham World's Fair. I'd call it her fortress of solitude, but she carries that on her back like a turtle.

But on this one day, with Harvey actually free, she lets him into her private world and talks a very reluctant Harvey into crawling through the sharp chainlink fence and exploring the restricted fairgrounds (“I can just see the headlines. ‘Mad D.A. Trespasses on World’s Fairgrounds, Bleeds to Death. Wife Laughs.’” "Oh hush."). I've also shoehorned in all the old giant advertising props from that Neil Gaiman Riddler origin story, indicating that the rotting World's Fairgrounds are where the dreams and whimsy of Gotham have gone to die.

She still sees it as beautiful, even more beautiful now than it ever could have been. He actually remembers what it was like as a child, and all he sees now are ruins of crushed, naive ideals.

Obviously, there's a lot more to it all than that, but I hope that long-winded answer suffices. Sorry, I just never get much of a chance to talk about this, you understand. That entire sequence probably goes on too long, but it's the heart of the novel, as far as I'm concerned. It's a brief respite before we go right back to destroying it all.

[greedyslayer.livejournal.com]

I like hearing about your Harvey Dent novel; I'd love to read it.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Thankya! Hopefully you will soon! I'm gonna need to abandon revisions soon to get back to focusing on actual writing work, but I hope to have a draft ready within the next couple months. Maybe. I'll keep you posted. :)

[greedyslayer.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. :)

*oggles icon* I really need to get a Harvey icon. (And besides my need to get a Nolanverse one, I'd really like a DCAU one too, but that seems more rare...)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Thankya! If you like that, you'll love the cover of the fanmix I'm hoping to upload here tonight or tomorrow.

Hopefully one day we'll get some more DCAU Harvey icons. Someone I know will hopefully be pulling together a custom one for me, and with luck, perhaps he'll do a few more...

[swimpenguin.livejournal.com]

I can agree with you on Batman being too one dimensional in Dark Knight-maybe it's unavoidable (at least it seems to be in live action versions) that Batman's villains overshadow him? The Animated series overcame it to the greatest degree, maybe since it was in short 30 minute increments, although Mask of the Phantasm is a good argument, I should watch that again. Ever see the Batman Beyond Return of the Joker movie? I love the future teenage Batman's assessment of the Batman/Joker dance at the end.

[swimpenguin.livejournal.com]

Hah nevermind, I see that you have seen Return of the Joker.