Word: superhero
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Elfman's score not only matches Prince's but surpasses his with its dark chords and swooping orchestral romanticism. Elfman's Batman sets a new standard for film scores. Only a superhero could do better...
...redress all grievances, we have a new Batman movie. Director Tim Burton has chosen to make a deadly solemn film about a superhero whose mental state is just this side of psychotic. This Batman does not battle crime out of any sense of moral righteousness. He does it because he is obsessed. He likes to scare the hell out of crooks by dangling them off the edge of skyscrapers. He enjoys slinking around in the dark, vanishing and reappearing without warning in the thick mist that envelops Gotham...
...real star of this movie is the city of Gotham itself. As envisioned by production designer Anton Furst, it seems to be part Transylvania castle, part Star Wars fantasy, part comic book, but mostly a decaying caricature of Manhattan island. The city is covered in shadow and smog. Any superhero who hung out there long enough would inevitably become a bit deranged, but fortunately Batman (Michael Keaton) has a head start...
This is comic-book psychology in its highest form, and it seems pretty silly in a two-hour-plus movie. The idea of a twisted, tortured superhero who feels driven by his own past to fight crime is perfectly fine. And the idea of a deranged psychotic trickster who mirrors the the hero's split personality is equally intriguing...
...costume, Keaton is something else again. His face, hidden behind a black rubber mask, is almost expressionless. His voice, somewhere between a rasp and a whisper, reveals almost no emotion. It is easy to understand why the people of Gotham are afraid of him--early sightings of the superhero describe a six-foot bat who drinks human blood. Keaton does his best to make Batman a creature of the supernatural...