Never rub another man's rhubarb!

[thehefner]

Holy crap, but turning your TV color settings to black and white makes Tim Burton's BATMAN movie ten times more awesome than it ever was. Good call, bitemetechie!

Watching this with Mom, she put it best: "Why the hell wasn't it always like this???" It just all fits so well, especially in the scenes were you see the architecture and set design of Anton Furst's Gotham. I used to feel like those looked dated and stagey, but in B&W, it becomes a true classic throwback to German Expressionist cinema. Seriously, speaking as someone who has fallen entirely out of love with the Burton films over the years, just the simple act of changing color settings on my TV has reinvigorated the entire viewing experience.

Not to say that it's a still a good movie. Egad, no. Maybe having it edited as a silent film, accompanied by just Danny Elfman's amazing soundtrack and give it the full Fritz Lang/F.W. Murnau treatment, thereby playing to the film's true strengths without the distractions of things like the Prince soundtrack and Vicki Vale.

Ugh, god, how did any of us stand Basinger's character? She's worse than Katie Holmes' Rachel Dawes. She's so insufferably vapid and shrieky, it's hard to believe that three characters (Bruce, Joker, and Knox) are infatuated with her. Also, when she's not screaming, she's making quick little yelps like a chihuahua. Anyone else notice this?

Man, Michael Keaton's career never recovered from these films, did it? The guy was magnificent, a powerhouse of intense mad energy, but ever since these films, he's been... where? I honestly don't know! He deserved better. Even if, whatever it was he was playing here, it wasn't Bruce Wayne nor Batman. He plays Bruce like a shifty awkward nerd who can't even talk to girls, like a creepier version of Christopher Reeve's bumbling Clark Kent. And his Batman... well, Batman doesn't kill, plain and simple.

Burton's BATMAN films--especially BATMAN RETURNS--have always worked best as films about the director's own visions. If they were about original characters, I might well enjoy them more than I do. Or maybe not. Maybe I never would be able to take the style over the substance, or the lack thereof, but god damn if watching 'em in black and white doesn't go a long way to help. Maybe someday, I'll try it on RETURNS and see if it bestows some beauty onto that unremittingly ugly film.

Also, every single second Billy Dee Williams was on screen as Harvey, I thought, "Never before has heartwrenching homicidal angst been so smoooooth."

Comments

[the-mithril-man.livejournal.com]

Personally I wanted to see Keaton as Gordon. Drop the 'stache on him and I think he could give Gary Oldman a run for his money. I like the idea of all three, Gordon, Dent and Batman being the only three guys who could possibly do what they did. Each one is wound pretty tight, and you have to be damn near crazy to be the lone honest cop in Gotham. Always liked Miller's fight between Gordon and Flass shame we've never seen it on the screen.
I've long held the belief Burton can't do anything that isn't blank enough to put his own stamp on. The more vague the source material the better off he is. If it's his own creation I simply can't watch it, I find myself wondering if I can somehow reach behind the camera of the movie and dump Burton's books. He turned the Penguin into a child murderer, I feel I'm justified in my want there. Always liked Chuck Dixon's take on him, He's old money & privilege run amok.

As always Heff thanks for the Mask of The Phantasm love, warms my heart. As for Robert Whul? Check out "Assume the Position", I wish I had history teachers that good.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I would be most curious to see that take, so long as it's just an alternate take on the character. Personally, I love that Gordon is the only sane one of the bunch, or at least the sanest. He strikes me as very much a guy out of time from the old west, like Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON. The model of strength and civility in a wild, lawless frontier.

Good call on Burton. Honestly, I wish he would go back to doing wholly original visions rather than messing with adaptations. I didn't realize I could be violently apathetic, but damn if everything involving Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND hasn't blazed that new trail for me.

[the-mithril-man.livejournal.com]

I almost think Gordon is the sane one by default. His buddy the DA got half his face burned off, went nuts and now commits crimes based on the number two. In really nice suits. The other one Started as a guy in an armored bat suit. Gordon really has no choice but to be the sane one. He was the only one left. One of his best moments is his "By the book" line in Killing Joke.

On Burton, I just think he keeps doing all this stuff hoping Jonny Depp will ask him to the prom. Timmy, it's not happening, give it up.