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

Very interesting take on the matter....

[lillaluv.livejournal.com]

I'll have to try it out like that...

For me, Nolan's Batman movies are by far the best....Burton is a director that is by far too stylistically inclined to delve into someone else's world and let it speak for itself. Instead, he made such an effort to mold it and merge it with his own asthetic. Burton is one of the few directors who's work is instatnly recognizable not only to people that study and obsess with film, but the layman as well. It doesn't make for a good director for an already established mileau.

And then there's the cartoonishness of Batman Forever and Batman and Robin....I perfer the graphic novel approach, thanks.

But it should be an interesting stylistic approach to watch them as suggested. Thanks for the tip.

Re: Very interesting take on the matter....

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the animated series? Ever since I rewatched it last year, I've come to the conclusion that the very best Batman movie ever made, better than even the Nolan ones, is BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM. Here's why, if you're so inclined.