June 23, 1989...like it was yesterday I remember this date...I know the time and place...I know what I wore...and its the first time I picked something that matched the film to wear at the theater...I remember the strangers that sat next to me...I remember who I went with...I remember the ride home from the theater..no garbage smell from the Staten Island Dump to stop me from thinking about the film I had seen. That film was Tim Burton's "BATMAN"
I guess you have to get in first to write about all the best movies of the year...Frank already hit most of them...the list I am working from is not long...their were some good movies...some memorable bad ones...and only one great film for me.
The anticipation for this film was unbearable...its the first time I cared about a film being made...its the first time I remember trying to learn information about the production of a film...and this is before the Internet!!!
The first image was the logo which was great...batman, even though I am and never really was big into comics was and is my favorite super hero...cause he can really happen..he is just a man that is driven to fight crime even if he is the cause of some of the crime (as we see in this new Chris Nolan Era)...The TV show Batman from the 60's hooked me first...I had the toys, the posters...all of it..the Underoos ( the red dye in a pair of Robin underoos once gave me a rash on my chest and crotch...red crotch is tough to get out)
As I got older I was still naive as a freshman in high school...and so the magic of a batman movie was giant for me...its the first time I ever used the word "trailer" in a conversation..the kid I said it to (Charley Piazza) had no idea what I was talking about...but by the end of freshman year the first trailers were coming out and this was going to be the best summer ever...I even bought the novelization of the film before the films release...it was great and was the first book I read in ONE day...the book matched the film...but did have a few scenes that were never filmed...
On opening day...the first time I ever saw a film on opening day I wore my new Batman t-shirt...I also had some boot-leg Joker shirt that I got off Arthur Kill Road out in Sho-Lin...
As we watched the film some black gentlemen with a bucket of KFC yells "get him batman...kill that Muther F$%ker"...I may be embellishing the language but not the KFC...
Keaton as Batman?...I was originally kinda weirded out by this...I even saw the film "The Dream Team" which came out in April of the same year...to support his entrance as the Batman...the Dream Team is not an official film for "Best film of 1989"...Keaton was good...funny enough he was a better Batman then Bruce Wayne
Jack Nicholson?...can you pick a better Joker?...people cried foul and wanted Robin Williams...what crap that would have been...its funny because at the time people thought this film was supposed to be campy...but then thought it was very dark...when watching it now and comparing it to say The dark Knight...this film is a camp fest...not as crazy as the comic delight of the Adam West film...but not-grounded in reality at all...watch in 20 years we will have a Batman film where he tears peoples heads off in deluxe 3D or something
The film was a dark Noir, Gothic tale as only Burton can do...the suit was great, the car he nailed, the Joker was great...IMDB list Nicholson's take as 6 million...but I have seen reports that he also demanded a percentage of the next film as well...and that netted him up to 70 million
other films?
Cinema Paradiso: saw this in Italian class, I think it was our Junior year...this film won the Jury Grande Prize at Cannes...never came out in America till a year later...but I wanted to mention it here...this was a film about film lovers and the ways in which film brings people together...these films may be a dime a dozen...but it is great...warms your heart and needed to be added to this list. Ciao
No Batman for me. Loved it at the time of course. Everyone had a bootleg t-shirt. And that crazy Prince song was everywhere. That was a good summer. But I was really disappointed last time I saw this. Nolan killed it for me.
ReplyDeleteI still got love for it
ReplyDeleteI LOVED this Batman. I think it was the best one out of ALL the movies made. I'm biased because I had a serious crush on Michael Keaton from Mr. Mom. We had a few movies on VHS and that was one of them and we used to watch it over and over again. He scared the hell out of me as beetlejuice (and actually I kinda refuse to believe it was really him), but as batman, I thought he was great.
ReplyDeleteNow, admittedly, I have no attachment to the tv show or comic, so that is probably why he fit the character so well, because I can't really compare him to anything else. Instead, all the later batmans get compared to him, and they all suck...sorry, guys.
P.S. I hate christian bale in just about everything. Him and Russell Crowe are on a list together, but if I say anymore about the list, this could be used against me in a court of law.