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Batman
Directed by	Tim Burton
Produced by	Peter Guber Jon Peters
Written by	Characters: Bill Finger (Uncredited) Bob Kane Story: Sam Hamm Screenplay: Charles McKeown (Uncredited) Jonathan Gems (Uncredited) Warren Skaaren Sam Hamm
Starring	Michael Keaton Jack Nicholson Kim Basinger Robert Wuhl Pat Hingle Billy Dee Williams Michael Gough Jack Palance
Music by	Score: Danny Elfman Original Songs: Prince
Cinematography	Roger Pratt
Editing by	Ray Lovejoy
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	June 23, 1989 August 11, 1989
Running time	126 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$45 million
Gross revenue	$413,200,000
Followed by	Batman Returns
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Tim Burton directed the film, which stars Michael Keaton as Batman, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, and Jack Palance. The film is primarily known for depicting a darker and more serious version of the character rather than the more acknowledged Batman TV series from the 1960s. It takes inspirations seen by the work of Bill Finger and Bob Kane's stories from 1939.

Development phase for the film initially started as far back as the late 1970s, though due to creative differences on the project, it took roughly ten years to make the film. The film was mostly shot entirely at Pinewood Studios and relied upon traditional stunts and miniatures for visual effects. Batman was both critically and commercially successful and garnered the sequel Batman Returns, as well as Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, though the last two were directed by Joel Schumacher rather than Burton. The film series would eventually be rebooted with Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Development 3.2 Filming 3.3 Design 3.4 Music 4 Reception 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links 8 See also

Gotham City, a resting place for criminal activity and political corruption has found itself being introduced to Batman (Michael Keaton), a mysterious and dark vigilante stalking criminals and fighting crime. Newspaper reporter Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) is attempting to investigate, though only finds no answers from police Lieutenant Eckhardt (William Hootkins), one of many corrupt officers taking payoffs from Carl Grissom (Jack Palance), and his accomplice Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson). Police Commissioner James Gordon (Pat Hingle) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams) are brought in solely by Mayor Borg (Lee Wallace) to fight the high level of criminal activity. Grissom, on discovering that his mistress is involved with Napier, sets him up to be killed by Eckhardt in a raid on Axis Chemicals. The plot is foiled by the arrival of James Gordon and Batman. In the act Napier kills Eckhardt and tries to shoot Batman, though Batman manages to deflects his shot, sending shrapnel and glass into his face. Napier falls over a railing into a vat of chemicals, presumably to his death. Although surrounded by the police, Batman escapes the scene.

Batman, as we discover, is actually billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, an orphan who lives alone in the large mansion Wayne Manor, with only his butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough) in attendance. At a fundraising party, Bruce meets and falls for famous photojournalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), recently arrived in town to cover the "Bat Man phenomenon" with Knox. In the meantime Napier emerges horribly disfigured with white skin, green hair, and a permanent grin. Already unstable, the trauma drives him completely insane, calling himself "The Joker." He kills Grissom, and creates his criminal empire. This includes poisoning various hygiene products killing various citizens, though the crime wave is infiltrated by Batman, and The Joker vows to eliminate the vigilante for interfering with his plans. Vicki's apartment is then the scene of a confrontation between the Joker, who has come to woo her, and Bruce, who has come to try and confess about his double life. After Bruce challenges the Joker to a fight, the Joker pulls a gun and asks him: "Tell me something, friend. Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?" He then shoots Bruce and leaves while Vicki is shocked seeing that Bruce has disappeared, leaving behind only a metal platter which he used as an impromptu bulletproof vest.

That confrontation confirmed for Bruce that the Joker is actually the man who murdered his parents many, many years ago in Gotham. As Bruce grapples with this memory, he is shocked by the sudden appearance of Vicki in the Bat Cave, Alfred having decided that she deserved to know the truth. After a morbid conversation with Vale, Bruce tells her "it's time to go to work," and stop the Joker's terror. Deep in downtown Gotham, the Joker has put his own plans in motion to upstage the city's canceled anniversary celebrations with a grand spectacle: a nighttime parade at which he will dispense $20 million in free cash. Vicki and Knox are there to cover the pandemonium, and they notice strange tanks on the balloons.

In the middle of his generosity, the Joker begins gassing the crowd. Batman arrives in his Batwing and snatches the balloons away to carry them out of the city and into the stratosphere. Furious, the Joker shoots Bob the Goon, his number one thug, in frustration. Batman returns to make a strafing run on the Joker, who responds by shooting down the jet. Vicki approaches the downed craft but is captured by the Joker, who leads her to the top of Gotham Cathedral. Dazed but not finished, Batman pursues as this ensues into a showdown with The Joker's minions. As Batman confronts the Clown Prince of Crime, he admits that he murdered Wayne's parents, shrugging off the slaying as youthful arrogance. In a moment of opportunity, the Joker pulls Batman and Vicki off the belfry, where they cling to the ledge for their lives. The Joker's helicopter appears and he grabs hold of a dangling ladder. Batman shoots a wire around the Joker's leg, connecting it to a stone gargoyle on the ledge. As the Joker is lifted away, the wire pulls the gargoyle loose, weighting down the Joker and causing him to plummet to his death. The film ends with Commissioner Gordon announcing that the Gotham police have arrested the rest of the Joker's gang and unveiling the Bat-Signal.

• Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman: The son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, whose lives are taken before his eyes. Over the years, he swears to avenge his parents' death and eventually adopts the alter-ego Batman. His mission becomes further complicated when he's forced to deal with the homicidal maniac known as The Joker. The Los Angeles Times reported that Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen and Pierce Brosnan were all being considered,^[1] while Entertainment Weekly reported Daniel Day-Lewis and Ralph Fiennes.^[2] Michael Uslan cited Harrison Ford, Dennis Quaid, and Kevin Costner as the top three choices.^[3] Gibson turned down the role stating, "I just didn’t want to put a spandex suit on."^[4] Adam West offered his services, though was ignored by the filmmakers.^[5] Burton originally felt to cast an unknown actor for the role, similar to Richard Donner's perception of Christopher Reeve in Superman. Jon Peters first suggested Keaton for the role. After working with Keaton on Beetlejuice, Burton felt for him to be perfect for the part. Bob Kane questioned the casting, as well as comic book fans, who sent 50,000 protest letters.^[6] Burton also cited that Keaton "had the eyes," and for a character that wears a mask for most of the film, eyes should be very important.^[7] West (who was 60 years old at the time) then felt himself to be better suited for the role stating, "It's disappointing not to have the chance to do the definitive, big-screen Batman. Batman isn't RoboCop or Dirty Harry. Batman is a fun character."^[5] Many comic book fans would eventually take back what they said, even going as far as complaining that Keaton should have received more screen time than Jack Nicholson.^[8] Uslan, who heavily was against the casting of Keaton at first, would eventually change his mind as well.^[3] Kane took back his words as well, stating, "Keaton gives Batman a real vulnerability that an a typical hunk actor probably couldn't bring to the character."^[9]

• Jack Nicholson as Jack Napier / The Joker: A former right-hand man for crime boss Carl Grissom, he becomes transformed into the sadistic maniac known as The Joker after a chemical-related mishap at Axis Chemicals. Kane himself had wanted Nicholson for the role ever since the early 1980s though Burton and writer Sam Hamm were considering Willem Dafoe, David Bowie and James Woods.^[10] Robin Williams was seriously considered as well and even offered his services.^[11] Hamm and Burton then went back to Nicholson and a doctored photo of the actor in Stanley Kubrick's film of Stephen King's The Shining, replete with green hair and whiteface done by Kane. Hamm quoted, "So what if I've got a 32-year -old guy in the script. I mean Nicholson can pull off basically anything. He's going to give you shit you're not going to get if you cast somebody closer in age. If you get a star like Nicholson both for commercial and artistic reasons, it makes more sense to change the character."^[10] Peters first approached Nicholson while filming The Witches of Eastwick telling him "I don't want to tell you about this now but there's a movie we're doing called Batman and you have to play The Joker." Nicholson then busted out laughing at the comment.^[12] Nicholson received an up front $6 million salary and demanded script changes. Hamm stated "Hey, I worked with Carroll Ballard. It's just something I can't get cranked up about, because, I mean, shit happens. With dialogue changes, I frankly couldn't care less. If they want to substitute punch lines, jokes are basically interchangeable. The rhythm, the basic thrust of the characters, how the story fits together, all of that is more important that one localized element. When you have a movie this big and expensive, practical considerations have to weigh."^[10] Nicholson also signed to receive a percentage of the box office and merchandising profits, which would come into a total of $60 million, the highest paid salary an actor has ever received to date for a film.^[11]

• Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale: A freelance photojournalist and love interest of Bruce Wayne. Sean Young was originally cast in the role, but broke her collarbone in while horse-riding just one week prior to filming. Basinger was cast at the last minute, beating out a "handful" of other actresses. Basinger quoted, "I was hired on a Friday and on a plane to London on Sunday."^[11] Burton claims he was impressed by the fact she stepped in the role on such short notice and delivered a positive performance.^[7]
• Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox: An ambitious investigative reporter at the Gotham Globe. The character was originally set to die by the Joker's poisonous gas during the parade scene. However, since the filmmakers liked his character so much, they decided to let him live. Wuhl was excited, thinking he would be used in a supposed sequel, though this never came to be and he's disappointed to this day.^[13]
• Pat Hingle as Commissioner James Gordon: The Gotham City police commissioner.
• Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent: The newly elected District Attorney of Gotham City, Dent swears to derail the city's criminal activity along with Police Commissioner Gordon and the mysterious vigilante Batman. Williams accepted the role with the knowledge and expectation that Dent would eventually become Two-Face. He admitted to have had a clause put into his contract reserving the role for him in any sequels, which Warner Brothers had to buy out so they could cast Tommy Lee Jones in the same role for Batman Forever.^[14] Burton briefly spoke of the situation as well, thinking of the idea to be interesting of using Williams as Two-Face for a possible third Batman installment before giving the directing reins to Joel Schumacher.^[7]
• Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne’s trusted and faithful butler who, after the death of Bruce’s parents, guides Bruce and watches him grow up to avenge his parents' death. Burton opted to cast Gough in the role as Burton himself was a fan of Gough's work in the various Hammer Film Productions that Gough had starred in.^[7]
• Jack Palance as Carl Grissom: The last crime boss of Gotham City before The Joker seizes control of the criminal underworld. Palance was cast in the role as Burton "couldn't vision anyone else portraying Jack Nicholson's boss."^[7]
• Jerry Hall as Alicia Hunt: Mistress of Carl Grissom who carried on a simultaneous affair with his major domo Jack Napier.
• Tracey Walter as Bob the Goon: The Joker's right-hand man after the fall of Carl Grissom from power. It was Nicholson's idea to cast Walter in the role, as in real life they are valued friends.^[7]
• Lee Wallace as Mayor William Borg: The Mayor of Gotham City.
• William Hootkins as Lt. Max Eckhardt: A corrupt and powerful cop in the Gotham City Police Department who is involved in collusion with Carl Grissom as well as Jack Napier. Though the character was created specifically for the film, Eckhardt is possibly based on Harvey Bullock and Detective Arnold Flass. Bullock's appearance is similar to Hootkins' and in Batman: Year One, Flass is an officer in Batman's first weeks in Gotham City, and exchanging deals and conflicts with various criminals (very similar to Eckhardt).

When Tim Burton was hired as director in 1987, Tom Mankiewicz script was being used by Warner Bros.' to guide the project. Burton was personally dissatisfied with the script, calling it "too jokey and cynical."^[15] Burton then hired long time collaborator Julie Hickson to write a 30-page treatment.^[1] Elements seen from Hickson's treatment are unknown, though WB was less willing to move forward on production. In due time, Burton went to work on Beetlejuice, while Batman labored into development.^[16] The studio then enlisted the aid of Steve Englehart to write a basic story treatment in March 1986.^[17] Englehart was primarily known as the author of Dark Detective, which the film was supposedly to be based upon. The studio then told him the plot would be in the manner that another writer could work from into a full fledged screenplay. Englehart asked if he could write the screenplay himself, though he was denied, and thus he settled for the treatment. To this day Englehart claims, "Between the original comics and the treatments, about 70 percent of what ended up on screen originated with me."^[18]

Englehart quoted on the experience, "When I got involved I was told that the Joker and the Penguin and Robin were all going to be in the picture. I argued that that was several characters too many, but was overruled, so my first treatment went that route. The Powers That Be not only liked it, but for the first time saw the Batman "picture" clearly enough to realize that two villains and a boy wonder were masking (so to speak) the Batman story, which is what it should be all about. So I got to do the second treatment with just the characters that eventually hit the screen: Bruce Wayne, the Batman, Silver St. Cloud, and the Joker." Englehart finished writing the story treatments in May 1986.^[17]

Meanwhile Burton settled to hire a writer to work the screenplay. Sam Hamm claims at the time he was still a "low-ranking" writer for Warner Brothers. He desperately wanted to write the new Batman movie as he was a fan of the character. He finally got his chance when he accidentally collided with Burton. The two then ended up in conversation, to which Burton was impressed with Hamm's knowledge of the character, and hired him to write the script. The two opted not to do a complete origin story as Hamm stated, "You totally destroy your credibility if you show the literal process by which Bruce Wayne becomes Batman^[10] and "You had to wade through 20 years just to get to the first shot of the guy in the costume that we've all come to see."^[19] Silver St. Cloud and Rupert Thorne, who appeared in the various scripts and treatments over the years, were deleted in favor of Vicki Vale and the newly created character Carl Grissom. The filmmakers apparently felt they weren't as popular as they were ten years ago in Englehart's Dark Detective series. Englehart claims he was mildly disappointed.^[20]

Robin appeared in Hamm's script, but was deleted because Burton and Hamm felt he was irrelevant to the plot.^[11] Burton also cited that "Batman is a loner, and it should stay that way."^[21] Fortunately for them, Warner Brothers also agreed, and saved the character for a second installment.^[11] Bob Kane supported the decision as well.^[7] Hamm turned in his script just days before the infamous writer's strike of 1988 began, and was unable to write further drafts due to his involvement. Burton and others liked the script, but thought "something" was missing. As such he brought in Beetlejuice co-writers Warren Skaaren and Charles McKeown for rewrite work.^[11] Jonathan Gems did a few weeks worth of rewriting as well.^[22] All three were British as just about every single writer in America was on strike. Their draft introduced the Joker's role as the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents, a revelation Burton wanted from the beginning. Hamm, staying true to the source material, had refused to use the idea.^[11] One of the primary reasons as to why the filmmakers brought in McKeown was that they felt he could come up with more creative jokes for The Joker.^[23]

Producer Jon Peters had at one point visioned the film as "Death Wish in a batsuit." The studio gave Burton more creative control than Peters once Beetlejuice took more than $70 million at the box office (a substantial profit compared to Beetlejuice's $7 million budget). This also helped greenlight the film.^[19] By the end of production, the film had cost $30 million to make, and a further $15 million was spent on advertising.^[1]

Batman was filmed at Pinewood Studios from October 1988 to January 1989. Anton Furst was given a $5.5 million budget for the production design and construction process. Tim Burton opted not to film at Warner Brothers studios in California, as he wanted to film in England to escape American press.^[15] Michael Keaton quoted, "When you're overseas, you can concentrate on making the movie and not think about the external things. That turned out to be a blessing."^[24] Production was highly secretive. The unit publicist was offered and refused £10,000 for the first pictures of Jack Nicholson as The Joker. The police were later called in when two reels of footage (about 20 minutes worth) were copied in an attempt to make a pirate video.^[1] Nicholson was very supportive of Burton, going as far as yelling at Jon Peters and Peter Guber (as well as various Warner Brothers executives) simply in favor of the director.^[23]

Nicholson was originally suppose to only be on the set for three weeks, though due to various difficulties during filming, this strangled into 106 days.^[12] Vicki Vale was originally to have been killed by The Joker, sending Batman into a vengeful fury. Peters decided that audiences wouldn't accept "Batman beating up a 50-year-old man," and so without telling Burton, he reworked it: the Joker would take Vale captive, and drag her up to the top of Gotham cathedral's bell tower.^[19] Peters was inspired for this action upon viewing The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. He was most impressed with the climax of Erik carrying Christine up a tower (though, ironically, the play's actual climax takes place in a sewer).^[11] It would require an additional 38-foot model of the cathedral, costing $100,000, when they were already well over budget. Burton disliked the idea, having no clue how the scene would end. Burton stated, "Here was Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger walking up this cathedral, and halfway up Jack turns around and says, 'Why am I walking up all these stairs? Where am I going?' We'll talk about it when you get to the top! I had to tell him that I didn't know." After a fierce argument with Peters and Guber over the rewrite situation, Nicholson went to Basinger and stated, "Tell that guy whose cock you've been sucking for the past six months that he's an asshole."^[19]

Burton had the common cold and The Flu every single day during filming.^[7]

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Tim Burton had wanted to hire Anton Furst for Beetlejuice, after being impressed with his work on The Company of Wolves, though at the time, Furst was too committed on High Spirits. They finally got a chance to collaborate on Batman.^[1] Furst and Burton deliberately mixed clashing architectural styles to make Gotham City the ugliest and bleakest metropolis imaginable. No computer-generated imagery was used for the sets, and instead the filmmakers depended on matte paintings and the buildings themselves^[25] (which stood at 40 feet high).^[12] The Art Department talks about how it was easy to communicate with Burton, as they cited him as "visually stunning film director."^[25] Furst quoted on Burton, "I don't think I've ever felt so naturally in tune with a director. Conceptually, spiritually, visually, or artistically. There was never any problem because we never fought over anything. I often wanted his advice, but when I came up with four ideas in four different directions, he'd always choose the one I liked most." For influences of the design for the film, Burton and Furst studied Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and original Bob Kane sketches of Gotham City in the late 1930s.^[1] Furst quoted, "I thought we'd go back to the turn of the century; and imagine what New York might have become had there been no planning permission, and no concern about the quality of life for people in the city."^[26] While examining the sets Kane quoted "I envisaged Gotham the way I see it now at Pinewood. They've got it, every building, every ash can, every brick."^[12]

The Batmobile took 14 weeks to construct, though the builders forgot to add a door, thus the reason why the entire cockpit opens in a similar manner to jets. Two browning machine guns were installed, and the costume design team had build a new cowl for Michael Keaton, as it didn't fit in the car.^[27] The car stood 20 feet long with a 141-inch wheelbase. Furst quoted, "We didn't want to put it into any particular period of time. We looked at jet aircraft components, we looked at war machines, we looked at all sorts of things. In the end, we went into pure expressionism, taking the Salt Flat Racers of the 30s and the Stingray macho machines of the 50s." The car was built upon from a Chevrolet Impala.^[12]

Make-up Designer Nick Dudman had met Tim Burton and Anton Furst at a time when nobody knew whether Batman would be greenlighted. For his role, Jack Nicholson had what was known as an "off-the-clock" agreement. His contract specified the number of hours he was entitled to have off each day, from the time he left the studio to the time he reported back for filming. Dudman quoted "Nicholson had to leave at a certain point each night, allowing time for us to clean him up, for it to be worth bringing him in the next day. Anything over two and a half hours in the makeup chair was silly because he would only be on the floor for four hours. Although it was a crippling schedule, we got it down to two hours in all-90 minutes to get everything on and colored up, 20 minutes for the wig placement, and 10 minutes to re-touch and finish."^[1]

Dudman was specifically chosen by Nicholson, who had approved of his resume. Burton had warned Dudman that Nicholson would have contractually have total make-up control. Dudman went to the Dorchester Hotel to meet Nicholson; though not being familiar with Nicholson's work and fearing he would be an "over hyped celebrity," Dudman found him "fascinating, pleasant, polite, and relaxed," the complete opposite of what he had expected. Dudman then prepared a series of sketches and paintings of his proposed make-up designs for The Joker, which were submitted for Nicholson's approval before he agreed to sign for the role.^[28]

Dudman made a life-cast of the actor after Nicholson accepted the designs and the part. Dudman's concept was to design a prosthetic make-up based on a life-cast of Nicholson smiling as broadly as he could. Dudman recalled, "The first thing Jack said to me was, 'I never wear make-up in movies, apart from when I'm injured.' He hates it! That filled me with enormous confidence." Dudman sculpted six Joker designs, and selected two with Burton to submit to Nicholson for final approval. Apparently it was the design the crew and Burton liked the most. With two weeks until the start of filming, Dudman prepared a set of appliances for test shooting, making sure the lighting would be formidable with the makeup. For prosthetics Dudman used a nose tip, two upper lips, a chin, and two lower lips with cheeks. For The Joker's white face, Dudman used Pax Paint, a mixture of adhesive and acrylic paint plasticized so it wouldn't crack. Dudman shaded the design with gunmetal grey powdered eye shadow, dissolved in alcohol. When brushed onto the Pax base, the alcohol bonded the shading to the makeup which wouldn't rub off. That feature came in handy for the scene where The Joker's flesh-colored disguise gets washed off by a bucket of water to the face.^[28]

See also: Batman (album)

Burton opted to hire Danny Elfman, his long time collaborator and in return, Burton handed him Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns for inspiration on musical notes.^[29] Jon Peters and Peter Guber originally had in mind for Prince to write the Joker theme while Michael Jackson would write the love theme, and Danny Elfman would then combine the style of the two songs together for the entire film score. Burton protested the ideas, citing "my movies aren't like Top Gun." Burton won the argument and was happy with the outcome stating, "Danny was able to write a dark, orchestral piece."^[21] Elfman also helped himself out by simply walking and visiting the Anton Furst sets of Gotham City for the mood of the music. Elfman was worried to helm the film score, as he never had worked on a project this large in budget.^[29] Peters was cautious in hiring Elfman feeling that he simply "couldn't achieve it." During rehearsals with the orchestra, Peters literally started dancing around to the main theme, and took back his words.^[11] Peters was so impressed with Elfman's film score that he would put his cell phone up to the speakers to send to all of his fellow friends. When asked what music he enjoyed writing most for the film, Elfman commented on "anything that had do to with The Joker."^[29]

Fans originally let it be known they resented Michael Keaton in the leading role, and director Tim Burton, whose only previous credits included comedies. As such, they felt the film would center into that of the campy Batman TV series from the 1960s. In order to fight the rumors on the style of the film, the filmmakers hired Batman co-creator Bob Kane as a consultant. In addition producer Jon Peters hassled together a simple 30-second teaser trailer that was shown to an audience of fans. The teaser became a popular bootleg collection at comic book conventions and spawned into a hype known as "Batmania." Over 1,000 posters were stolen from subways and bus shelters across the nation.^[11] The hype surrounding the film was so spontaneous that Keaton called it "unwieldy and stupid." Burton then quoted "There's nobody more tired of seeing this stuff than me. I'm very afraid of this kind of marketing stuff. It kind of destroys the movie sometimes."^[30]

Batman opened on June 23, 1989 in the United States in 2,194 theaters, accumulating $40,489,746 over its opening weekend. The movie proved to be a big success, making $411,348,924 worldwide.^[31] It is the highest grossing Batman film to date,^[32] and was also the highest grossing film of 1989.^[33] Batman was also the first film to break the $100 million mark in it's first 10 days and was Warner Brothers' highest grossing film until 2001 when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released.^[21]

Based on 46 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Batman received an average 72% overall approval rating;^[34] the film received a 57% with the seven critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Cream of the Crop."^[35] By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 66 from the 17 reviews it collected.^[36] Common reviews centered around Jack Nicholson receiving more screen time than Michael Keaton. In defense of these actions Burton stated, "If these two were standing on the street, Batman would always be wanting to hide, whereas The Joker would be, 'Look at me. Look at me'."^[21]

Roger Ebert depicted the visuals with high quality though felt the characters lacked depth. All in all, he gave the film two stars out of four.^[37] Variety praised overall aspects of the film that included the design, casting, and simply the story.^[38] Hal Hinson of the Washington Post called it, "dark, haunting, and poetic."^[39]

The scene where as Alfred lets Vicki Vale in the Batcave caused a high level of criticism with fans as well. Over the rewriting process with Warren Skaaren, Charles McKeown and Jonathan Gems the scene had apparently made it's way in. Sam Hamm, writer of the original script stated, "that would have been Alfred's last day of employment at the Wayne Manor."^[11] It was these concurrencies (as well as the controversy with The Joker being portrayed as the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents) that highly affected Burton. The director quoted, "They [the fans] were mad because we supposedly didn't film the scene where Bruce beats up Alfred." In addition Burton stated, "It's this type of stuff that I don't really go to comic book conventions. Actually I never go to comic book conventions, or else they would bash my head in."^[7] During the production of Batman Returns, Burton went as far as calling it "his least favorite film."^[9]

Anton Furst and Peter Young won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. Film that were in competition for the award included The Abyss, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Driving Miss Daisy and Glory. It's currently the only Batman film to date to win an Academy Award. Jack Nicholson was nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical, but lost out to Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy. Danny Elfman and Prince were each individually given Grammy Award nominations.^[40]

• Janet K. Halfyard (October 2004). Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide (Paperback), A careful study of Elfman's scoring technique with a detailed analysis of the film itself, Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810851261. 

• Tom Mankiewicz' The Batman script
• Sam Hamm's First Draft
• Batman at the Internet Movie Database
• Batman at Rotten Tomatoes
• Batman at Box Office Mojo
• Pictures of the set, Batsuit, Batmobile, and cast of Batman
• Keith Short - Film Sculptor Sculpted the Batmobile for this film

• Batman (video game)
• Batman (pinball)

v • d • e Batman in popular media
Actors	Lewis Wilson · Robert Lowery · Adam West · Olan Soule · Michael Keaton · Kevin Conroy · Val Kilmer · George Clooney · Bruce Thomas · Rino Romano · Christian Bale · Will Friedle · Jeremy Sisto · Casts
Live-action television	Batman (1966–1968) · Legends of the Superheroes · OnStar commercials · Birds of Prey · Return to the Batcave
Live-action films	Batman (1943) · Batman and Robin (1949) · Batman (1966) · Batman (1989) · Batman Returns (1992) · Batman Forever (1995) · Batman & Robin (1997) · Batman Begins (2005) · The Dark Knight (2008)
Animation	Batman/Superman Hour · New Adventures of Batman · Batman: The Animated Series/New Batman Adventures · Mask of the Phantasm · SubZero · Batman Beyond · Return of the Joker · Mystery of the Batwoman · The Batman (2004–2008) · The Batman vs. Dracula (2005) · Gotham Knight (2008)

v • d • e DC Comics films
The Serials	Batman (1943) • Hop Harrigan (1946) • The Vigilante (1947) • Superman (1948) • Congo Bill (1948) • Batman and Robin (1949) • Atom Man Vs. Superman (1950)
Single films	Superman and the Mole Men (1951) • Batman (1966) • Supergirl (1984) • Steel (1997) • Road to Perdition (2002) • Catwoman (2004) • A History of Violence (2005) • Constantine (2005) • V for Vendetta (2006) • Watchmen (2009)
Franchises	Batman (1989–1997): Batman (1989) • Batman Returns (1992) • Batman Forever (1995) • Batman & Robin (1997) Batman (2005 — ): Batman Begins (2005) • The Dark Knight (2008) Superman: Superman (1978) • Superman II (1980) • Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006) • Superman III (1983) • Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) • Superman Returns (2006) Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing (1982) • The Return of Swamp Thing (1989)

v • d • e Tim Burton

Director: The Island of Doctor Agor • Stalk of the Celery • Vincent • Frankenweenie • Pee-wee's Big Adventure • Beetlejuice • Batman • Edward Scissorhands • Batman Returns • Ed Wood • Mars Attacks! • Sleepy Hollow • Planet of the Apes • Big Fish • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory • Corpse Bride • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street • Alice in Wonderland Producer: The Nightmare Before Christmas • Cabin Boy • Batman Forever • James and the Giant Peach • 9