On this date twenty-five years ago, Tim Burton’s Batman was released. I honestly can’t remember my experience of seeing the movie in the theaters, but I do remember some of the build-up and the anticipation of an actual Batman movie as well as the super-secretive teasers and images that were released. After awhile, it was hard not to be aware of the flood of Batman imagery that was everywhere at the time. (Oddly enough, I wasn’t reading many comics at the time. 1989 was during my 2+ year absence from comics).
There isn’t much I can add to the overall history/reflections of the movie, and there are many articles you can find online that will do a decent job of covering all that, including this great interview with producer Michael Uslan from the Nerds of Color site. One thought I wanted to drop however, just because it’s a small connection to WB/DC’s movie plans of late, is that I thought for sure there was going to be a Superman cameo in the Batman movie. I don’t mean an easter egg of Clark Kent pushing up his glasses in one of the Gotham newspaper office scenes. I mean Superman, in his suit, on-screen with Batman. I’m not sure if I was hoping for it to be Christopher Reeve reprising his role, or a new actor. But when it came to the end of the movie, when Batman is falling from the top of the Gotham Cathedral with Vicki Vale in his arms, I thought for sure that my wish was going to be rewarded by a red/blue/yellow blur coming in to catch them both.
So Batman and Superman together in one movie? I’ve been waiting twenty-five years for that.
Not to mention that Batman ’89 gave us a great new Prince album.
“Anything’s acceptable, just ask me and I’ll try it
2 hell with hesitation, 2 hell with the reasons why”