This Town Needs an Enema (#16: Batman)

This guy.

Truth: The Joker is such a weird character that it can safely be said that Jack Nicholson in Batman and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight perfectly encapsulate the character despite their vastly different interpretations of the role. I know its not fashionable to champion Jack Nicholson's scenery-chewing performance, but what is the Joker but a scenery-chewer?

Whichever performance you prefer (and you can like both! I do!), you gotta admit that Nicholson has the better of the one-liners. Consider the following:

[Doing a terrible Jack Palance impression]: "You [deep wheezy breath] are my number one [deep wheezy breath] guy-ya!"

"Decent people shouldn't live here. They'd be happier someplace else."

"As my plastic surgeon always said: if you gotta go, go with a smile."

"Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

"You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, wouldya?"

"Where does he get those wonderful toys?"

And last but not least:

"This town needs an enema!"

Really. Compared to "Why so serious?" and um...what else? Nicholson clearly wins in the one-liner department.

#16: Batman

Dispensing with much in the way of set-up (guessing he knew Christopher Nolan would tackle that later), Tim Burton plunges us right into a stylized 1989 Gotham City that looks a lot like the 1950's did in Back to the Future. Michael Keaton (the underrated Michael Keaton! the brilliant Michael Keaton! the perfectly poised for a massive comeback Michael Keaton!) (hint: I like Michael Keaton) plays Bruce Wayne with a perfectly smirking mixture of socially awkward playboy and bad-ass vigilante charm. The movie finds Batman confronted with a new, unstable menace to his beloved Gotham City and his new flame, the photographer Vicky Vale (Kim Basinger) in the form of the Joker (Nicholson). Also, Robert Wuhl, the poor man's Albert Brooks, amuses as Vale's besotted writer partner, Alexander Knox. And Billy Dee Williams! as Harvey Dent!

He should just always wear this, because I don't see any other costume on him, ever.

God. It would've been awesome to see his Two-Face. Sigh.

Burton's Batman is not a deeply incisive yet ambiguous commentary on American culture and the impulse for vengeance. It does not ground its comic book source material into a modern reality. It is not timeless. It is not an IMPORTANT FILM.*

But it's a great movie. My only complaints: (1) Commissioner Gordon is basically a non-character; (2) Batman tries to kill the Joker with bullets and missiles fired from his Bat-plane (Batman is firmly anti-gun (gun-grabber!) because his aim is to catch bad guys, not to kill them); and (3) Batman actually does kill the Joker at the end [(a) again, Batman doesn't try to kill bad guys, he catches them and (b) no more Nicholson! (sad face)].

Final verdict: KEEPER!

Next up: BATMAN RETURNS!

[*Caveat: Hard as it is to believe, at the time, this movie was way darker than any previous comic book movie and yet hugely successful, which changed minds about what a "comic book movie" could be and look like. Without Batman, it's arguable that none of the modern comic book movies we hold dear would have been greenlighted (sic?) (greenlit?). Unfortunately, it also gave Tim Burton free reign to not edit himself for the next twenty years (cough Dark Shadows cough). So it is important in those senses.]