Tim Burton’s BATMAN at the ‘Reel Late at the Tivoli’ Midnight Series this Weekend

“This town needs an enema!”

With MAN OF STEEL shooting its way to the top of the box office faster than a speeding bullet, it’s time to take another look at Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989), one of the last of the big pre-CGI superhero epics.  You’ll have a chance to reassess Burton’s vision of the Dark Knight when it plays this weekend (June 21^st and 22nd) at Midnight at the Tivoli as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight Series.

From Michael Keaton’s big mullet to the songs by The Artist Then Known as Prince, BATMAN was very much a product of its time and now has “made in the 80s” written all over it. Burton’s approach was like a sort of middle ground between Christopher Nolan’s dark, gritty realism and Joel Schumacher’s (who directed two of the ‘90s sequels) colorfully gay camp. Rather than try to make Batman realistic, Burton focused on the mythological and surreal aspects of the character, and in his hands Batman was the mysterious and violent figure he was originally conceived as; casting 5’9″ comedian Michael Keaton turned out to be a brilliant move that perfected that image, because Keaton was the only actor ever who managed to make it seem plausible that not one of Bruce Wayne’s acquaintances realized that he’s Batman; Keaton’s Wayne and Keaton’s Batman were two entirely different people, which made the transformation all the more startling.

BATMAN is just one of three stars in this cult classic. The second one, of course, is Jack Nicholson, whose casting as the Joker was considered almost too good to be true and was considered at the time to be the casting coup of the year. Burton’s take on the Joker, and especially his origin, was unusual and controversial among fans of the comics, but Nicholson played the part with such terrifying and insane conviction, that it was impossible to resist. He was hilarious one second and frightening the next, making for one of cinema’s best villains. Nicholson’s Joker was different than Heath Ledger’s, not better or worse; while Ledger’s Joker was a sociopath anarchist, Nicholson’s was utterly and truly insane. It’s up to you to decide which one was more dangerous.

And the third star, naturally, is… Gotham City. Burton was the only director who gave Gotham the respect it deserved and gave it life – Burton’s Gotham was Gotham, not a desaturated Manhattan. Gotham is why the movie received a very well-deserved Oscar for art direction; Burton created Gotham as a surreal world of skyscrapers and gargoyles, and it’s an image that showed its influence back in the comics as well as the various animated adaptations.

I will be there with trivia and prizes so bone up on your Batknowledge!

The Tivoli is located at 6350 Delmar in The Loop.

Visit Landmark’s The Tivoli’s website HERE
http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Check here at WAMG later this week for the announcement of the Midnight films that will be making up the rest of the Tivoli’s Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight Series.