Burton Returns

 

Batman Returns

1992

D: Tim Burton

**********

Pros: Visual Style, Music, Acting, Some Great Characters, Witty Dialogue

Cons: The Penguin, Batman’s Killing Moments

      What better movie to review this Christmas season than Batman Returns?  I was once harsher on this movie for its departures from the source material, but recently I've given it more credit for its strengths.  It begins with the wealthy Tucker Cobblepot (Paul Reubens) and his wife Esther (Diane Salinger) delivering a deformed infant, Oswald/The Penguin.  They decide to dump their baby into the Gotham sewer system and leave it for dead, a very dark way to start a film (unless you’re in the Singer household, then it’s just good, wholesome Holiday spirit!)  33 years later during Christmastime, millionaire businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) is pestering Gotham’s put-upon mayor (Michael Murphy) into approving a new power plant while acting patronizing toward his even more put-upon secretary Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfieffer).  Shreck and his guests leave Kyle in embarrassment to deliver a public speech, which is interrupted by an attack by the Red Circle Gang.  The group includes an Organ Grinder (Vincent Schiavelli), a Poodle Lady (Anna Katarina), a strongman (Rick Zumwalt) and Doug Jones.  Most of the members seem to be reflections of Burton’s apparent coulrophobia.  Luckily, Batman (Michael Keaton) is contacted by the otherwise ineffectual Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle) and stops the madness, but Shreck has gone missing in the confusion.

      Shreck awakens to find himself in a sewer surrounded by gang members and The Penguin (Danny DeVito), who successfully blackmails him into striking a deal.  Schreck agrees to engineer a scenario which introduces the Penguin to Gotham as a hero.  After being allowed to leave, he visits his office, where he finds Selina rifling through it in preparation for an upcoming meeting with Bruce Wayne.  For some reason, she has accessed his secret files and has found out that the planned power plant is a fraud.  In one of the most well-timed double fake-outs I’ve seen in a movie, he shoves her out of a window to her supposed death.

Granted, you know you're done when Christopher Walken is approaching you with this expression.

      Selina survives, her fall partially broken by a series of canopies.  You’d think Shreck would notice this and take appropriate action, but this movie doesn’t sweat the logistics.  She is approached by a group of cats, who lick some of the blood off of her supine body.  The scene has an air of mysticism to it, and Selina’s drying blood and convulsions add to sense of discomfort.  It’s a well-shot and effective scene.  After arriving at her apartment in a daze, the full impact of the event hits her and she trashes it.  This is actually one of the best room trashings I’ve ever seen in a movie.  Kyle furiously destroys every symbol of feminine innocence in her home while her effectively poignant leitmotif plays.  The emotionality of this scene was so well done that it wasn’t lost on me even when I was a small child and did not fully understand its significance.  She cannibalizes a vinyl coat to make her distinctively dark costume.  Catwoman is born.

Catwoman is not nearly as careful about her secret identity as Batman is.

       Catwoman is a rather good villainess.  I’ve noticed that the Tim Burton Batmans are better than the Nolan ones when it comes to female characters with independent story arcs.  Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman has her moments, but she mostly seems to be there as a foil for Batman or as a strawman who sees the light.  We relate to Selina from the beginning of the movie and we see her suffer to the point where she snaps and becomes the famous anti-villain.  Despite her self-avowed confidence, she’s still filled with self-doubt and insecurity.  This is much like how our own coping actions often fall short of providing their intended solace.  Her actions are highly questionable, reflecting how many people motivated by a sense of victimhood may not always be in the right, even if their victimhood is very real.  The feminist angle is sullied a bit by the fact that Pfeiffer’s costume was so tight she literally couldn’t breathe in it.  I’m also wondering where all her gymnastics came from, aside from one passing line suggesting that she’s pretty good at racquetball.  Overall, Pfeiffer is excellent in this role and she gives a very complex performance.  Her sultry voice as Catwoman is arguably overdone, but justified in-universe for the same reason as Christian Bale’s Batman voice is.

      Shreck is also a memorable villain.  Christopher Walken is very creepy in this role, and his charisma is enhanced with snappy dialogue and snazzy coiffure.  I think the reason why the character hasn’t been embraced in the comic continuity is because the appeal was so dependent on Walken’s performance.  Shreck seems to have the air of a nouveau-riche judging from his contempt for “blue bloods” and the occasional malapropism.  He’s had to gain his wealth himself and he will resort to any sort of skullduggery to keep it for himself and his son Chip (Andrew Bryniarski).  While Chip may seem like a spoiled trust fund kid at first glance, he keeps gangsters at bay to protect his father at one point.  He’s also privy to Max’s attempted murder of Selina, and I can think of few pragmatic reasons to share such information.  Max seems to care for his family, and he may have loved his late wife, stating that she’s the only person who ever surprised him.  Still, he’s mostly a corrupt businessman, complete with the 90’s style environmentalist jabs at his pollution.  I begrudgingly point out how refreshingly smart Batman & Robin, of all movies, was on this subject.

     The development of Bruce Wayne/Batman is also very enjoyable.  Michael Keaton continues to play the role with a lovable awkwardness that suggests that Batman is uncomfortable in the guise of Bruce Wayne.  He even occasionally forgets that he’s not supposed to be Batman a couple times.  Most notable is when he begins to correctly deduce that The Penguin is leading the Red Circle Gang.  He makes a total asshole out of himself by openly accusing him in front of Shreck as Wayne.

That's proof enough for Tumblr, though.

While Batman may be the character’s true identity, this version of that identity still has its lovable and quirky charm.  I for one definitely prefer him over Christian Bale.  My one problem with Batman in this movie is that he needlessly kills two thugs.  Violation of the character’s strict no-kill policy was forgivable in the first movie when he had to kill an escaping Joker (which he should have done in that one scene in Dark Knight), but here it seemed unnecessary and out-of-character.  Batman has great chemistry with Catwoman, and the relationship is executed with humor and even has the occasional poetic feel.  They are two dark souls produced by tragedy who have found themselves by lucky coincidence.  Even when they first meet, when Batman is in costume and Selina has yet to become Catwoman, there is a vague connection.   When they first meet formally as Bruce and Selina (post transformation), that connection is now substantial.  The movie effectively shows a force of destiny in this relationship.  Still it's somewhat out-of-character for the master thief from the comics to be turned into a frustrated feminist for whom robbery is a small part of lashing out. 

     Less enjoyable is The Penguin, who is currently being groomed by Shreck into being a puppet mayor.  While I like the design, I really disagree with the characterization.  The Penguin is supposed to be a patrician (which might have made for some good chemistry with Shreck, by the way), not a savage man-animal raised by zoo penguins that were left there for no reason when the zoo closed (this movie does not sweat the logistics).  He is also confused about his status as a human.  I think this movie had Oswald Cobblepot confused with another Batman villain.  His deformity was a good idea, but it would have worked better if he had been raised by elitists whose disapproval formed his motivations.  Instead we have a horndog running around in a onesie.  It’s too bad, because the character design is great when he’s in full dress.  In those precious few moments, he looks like a Gothic interpretation of what the character should look like.  While most of the dialogue in this movie is very witty, The Penguin’s lines are almost consistently painful.  I realize that being raised in a sewer by penguins is not conducive to dry wit, but must every other line from Oswald’s mouth be a horny furry comment?  Still the character works on his own merits, and he makes the movie more of a Christmas movie than Die Hard by presenting a character who is a sort of Anti-Baby Christ.
      The wake of the 2017 Sexual Harassment scandals have made me realize a prescient aspect of the relationship between The Penguin and Catwoman.  Catwoman has thrown in with an obviously predatory man because her radical feminism dedicates her to a questionable agenda she thinks he'll deliver one.  Unsurprisingly The Penguin betrays her when she doesn't put out enough for him.

      While we are supposed to empathize with the character’s tragic backstory and vulnerability, he is simply too evil to be truly sympathetic on any level.  This is odd because in the comics he’s one of the more restrained villains.  His need to be loved and accepted is less understandable when his primary motivation for accepting Shreck’s proposal for him to run for office is “unlimited poontang.”  His mayoral sex drive is the only thing distracting him from his ultimate goal of kidnapping Gotham’s firstborn infants and murdering them.  See, he was victimized as an infant, so he’s getting revenge by…victimizing other infants.  Not the most logical motivation for a villain out there.  I will note that after Batman overcomes the Batmobile’s sabotage (which was not the Penguin’s idea, mind you), he thwarts all of the villain’s plans with next to no effort.  Danny DeVito does a great job in the role that was written for him, but I simply can’t picture him playing the Penguin in-character.

      After the Penguin and Catwoman, who has been embarrassed by a lost fight with Batman, plan to frame the Caped Crusader for the murder of the Ice Princess (Cristi Conaway), she rejects a sexual advance from him.  He angrily calls her a tease like any jackass who uses that term and unsuccessfully attempts to murder her.  Batman promptly clears his own name while outing The Penguin as a fraud, forcing the latter to flee back to the sewer and revisit his infanticidal Plan A, as well as kidnapping Shreck.  Batman very easily and instantly stops the plan, which had been built up as a major threat throughout the entire movie.  Batman is a very efficient hero.  What follows is the most ridiculous scene in the entire movie.  The Penguin arms his army of penguins with missiles and sends them forth to annihilate Gotham, but not before giving them a peptalk.  Anyone who acts like the Bat Credit Card is the worst thing to happen in the series has not seen Danny DeVito's giving a motivational speech, complete with snare drums in the score, to an army of penguins while literally dressed like a baby. 

      Batman once again foils the Penguin’s plan by redirecting the attack to his evil lair.  Shreck figures out how to escape from his cage by tricking the monkey who has been entrusted with the keys for some reason.  The look of utter shock and surprise on the monkey’s face when the keys are snatched from his hand is priceless.

This is anyone's reaction to being confronted by Christopher Walken.

Unfortunately for him, Catwoman shows up to exact her revenge.  Batman pleads with her to spare Shreck’s life while pulling off his mask, which appears to be made out of some sort of licorice candy (make your own vore joke).  Ignoring him, Catwoman kills Shreck and disappears.  A dying Penguin emerges trying to kill our hero, but collapses before he could.  In a truly absurd scene, his body is reverently carried out to Burial at Sewer by penguins while an inappropriately heartbreaking music plays.  The villain's last words are a refreshing aversion of meaningful dying dialogue.

All while Michael Keaton looks on in bafflement.

The movie concludes with Bruce Wayne being chauffeured by Alfred (Michael Gough), when he spots what he thinks may be Selina.  Instead he sees her black cat, and decideds to take the animal in.  As they drive off, Catwoman observes the Bat Signal in the winter sky. 

      Batman Returns is not perfect, but there is so much I love about this movie, particularly the writing.  The dialogue is snappy and organic, and there are far too many good lines in this movie to list below.  Alfred is particularly deadpan in his wit, a trait faithfully lifted from the comic.  The characters talk like real people, and they’re not giving rehearsed speeches most of the time.  Characterization is shown through action rather than explained through exposition.  If you watch the first scene, you might notice the rubber ducky outside the Penguins baby cage, which explains his amphibious duck vehicle.  While I love the Nolan films, the Burton movies have this advantage.  I’ve heard complaints that this movie is “confusing” for not explaining enough and not adhering to formulas, but this only helps my appreciation of the movie’s strengths. 

      Recently, I've been more charitable toward the movie's creative license.  After all, I've been more forgiving when other inaccurate adaptations, such as V for Vendetta and Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) have succeeded in their own right.  Even the first Batman got the Joker's backstory fundamentally wron.g  I think my double standard in regards to Batman stems from nostalgia.  Batman: The Animated Series struck a rare balance of creativity and faithfulness to the point where many people my age were well-versed in the franchise's lore from childhood.  

      The movie’s visual style is excellent.  Burton, with the help of production designer Bo Welch, produced a Gotham City even more beautifully stylized than that of the first movie.   Batman Returns surpasses many genuine Christmas movies in yuletide atmosphere.  The late, great Stan Winston also deserves credit for the Penguin’s makeup.  The movie’s beauty makes me nostalgic for the days of practical effects.  Unfortunately the difficulty some of this movie's sets presented probably helped motivated Burton to turn to generic CGI.  Danny Elfman really pulls it out for the movie’s score.  In addition to the classic Batman theme, he adds excellent leitmotifs for the movie’s villains that capture the tragedy of their situations.  I’m coming to the conclusion that the quality of a male Batman movie villain is inversely proportional to the quality of his leitmotif.  Elfman also adds a caroling element to the score to complement the Christmas feel, though he recycled this trick from his work for Scrooged.   

      Batman Returns is highly recommended for holiday viewing for its yuletide atmosphere.  A beautifully dark fairy tale about two broken people connecting in a world gone wrong was partially sullied by a horny buffoon in a baby suit.  But even then that wouldn't have been truly a flaw if the movie wasn't an adaptation.