It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you ask anyone what their favourite movie in the Batman canon is they'll say Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent film. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was exceptional and the film's subtext provided nuanced and complex observations about the nature of justice and morality. Yet the film is not without its flaws. For starters, it's too long. The two and a half hour running time could have been cut down by at least half- an- hour. More importantly, as powerful as the film is, it's also very heavy-handed and most of the characters get lost within the grand Greek tragedy that Nolan plays out. As great as a thinking man's Batman is, I've always thought that an ideal Batman movie is one that hides a more intimate story within its grand narrative, one which allows us to see how the superhero and super- villain roles link to our own vulnerabilities and anxieties. That's why, even if Dark Knight is the better film, Tim Burton's Batman Returns will always have a special place in my Bat loving heart.
Thinking back on it, Batman Returns is a forgotten relic next to the other films in the franchise. What most people remember about the Batman years prior to the rise of the Nolan films is Joel Shumacher's awful take on the series in Batman Forever and (the even worse) Batman & Robin. Those films turned Batman into a pantomime, gracing the screen with overly bright colours, horrendous overacting and entirely unnecessary shots of Batman's metallic underwear. Batman & Robin, as everyone knows, is perhaps the most shameful work of George Clooney's career ( though I imagine his stint in those killer tomatoes movies is somewhat worse).
What people tend to forget, however, is that before Shumacher, a young visionary director named Tim Burton kicked off the franchise, fresh off his work on the horror comedy Beetlejuice. Admittedly the first film, simply entitled Batman, isn't anything special. As great and over-the-top as Jack Nicholson is in the role of the Joker, it's pretty much Jack just being Jack. As much fun as it is seeing him in a purple suit and clown make-up at the beginning of the film, the novelty wears off as the movie drags to its conclusion. Burton also made the mistake of casting Kim Basinger as Bruce Wayne/ Batman's love interest. It was a boring role for, quite frankly, a rather boring actress. The film's only real surprise was that it showed that comedian Michael Keaton could actually pull off the Batman role with the sex appeal and intensity it deserved.
Cut to three years later when Batman Returns bounced onto the screen. Thankfully Burton ditched Nicholson and Basinger to make way for what was to be a far more inspired cast of characters and plot. In Batman Returns, Batman's two main opponents are the grotesque Penguin/ Oswald Cobblepot (Danny De Vito) and manic and sexy Catwoman/ Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer). The film is driven by these three characters' desires. Batman/ Bruce desires truth and justice, motivated by the witnessing of his parents traumatic deaths when he was a child. Penguin/ Oswald desires acceptance after being abandoned by his parents as a child, an act which caused him to be raised by penguins in a sewer. Catwoman/ Selina is driven by a similar need for acceptance and justice though, in this case, it stems from an overwhelming need to escape a life of inferiority and loneliness. Aiming to fulfill these desires, these three damaged characters play dangerous games with both themselves and one another, against the backdrop of a gloomy and creepy Gotham city. It's the kind of environment that's typical of the film-noir genre. There are very few traces of light throughout the film. Both the exteriors and interiors of the city are constantly submerged in darkness and shadows. It's the perfect visual representation of the anger, torment and desperation these characters feel.
What you can tell by these elements of the narrative is that though this is a Batman film, the politics and struggles of Gotham city and its citizens are secondary to the psychological drama at hand as our three protagonists seek desperate refuge in the form of masks in order to find an outlet to both wrestle with and hide their inner torment.The film's actions scenes are contrasted with deeply personal and damaging ones which, unlike in many superhero films, are grounded in authentic and identifiable psychological realities. For instance, Selina's transformation into Catwoman is not triggered by unfortunate contact with some technological innovation or mythical creature (though that is the cause in the awful Halle Berry Catwoman movie). Here it is triggered by a nervous breakdown as Selina, disillusioned by her tragic cat-lady lifestyle , tears her apartment apart, ridding it of all the toy animals and doll houses which are emblematic of her repressed existence. When she creates the catsuit, it becomes symbolic of her desperate need to escape her anxieties and vulnerabilities through an alternative identity which is sexy, confident but ultimately just as troubled and broken as her true identity. As the film develops we follow the consistent tension between Selina, Oswald and Bruce's true identities and those of their alter egos, aware of the tragedy that will eventually befall them. That tragedy, of course, is that the masks they seek comfort from will ultimately betray them and their true identities will be lost and irreparable.
Though The Dark Knight does show us this same destructive tension between the hero/ villains' true identities and alter egos, it feels very secondary to Nolan's preaching about the flaws of justice and morality on a grander scale which is somewhat isolated from the characters. Because Batman Returns , at its centre, tells a much smaller, more intricate and personal story than Dark Knight, this tension is more fully realized. By doing so, the film identifies what inevitably attracts us to superhero narratives: the fact that we ourselves have a constant desire to be masked and explore different versions of ourselves. We believe that masking protects us from our fears and vulnerabilities. Yet, as Batman Returns shows us, a mask is more a curse than it is an escape.
Source for Photo 1: http://www.comicvine.com/myvine/batuniverse/all-images/108-538522/batman_returns_suit/105-2004377/
Source for Photo 2: http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Batman_Returns_Villains
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