When it comes to film, the summer of 1989 will always be burned into my memories. I was 7 1/2 years old and had just finished 1st grade. About 3 months of playing outside late at night, riding my bicycle in the street, and all the other things one would associate with summer were on the immediate horizon. Life was going to be good and carefree. Playing outdoors, however, was not the only thing that on my mind in the summer of 1989. I started to become aware of this movie that happened to be coming out during the summer months. It was an awareness beyond my then limited understanding of what a movie was and how they were released. This was the first time I understood a movie being released was going to be an event. It was something I could not miss and needed to experience. The summer of 1989 was the summer of “Batman” from Tim Burton. “Batmania” swept the nation, and I was right there in the mix of it. “Batman” is the film that made me understand and ultimately appreciate just what a summer blockbuster should be. 

“Batman”, of course, is a telling of how Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) dons his caped crusader alter-ego and tries to clean up the grimy streets of Gotham City. This iteration of Gotham City is at first ruled by the crime boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance). Grissom is assisted in his nefarious enterprises by the ambitious, calculating, and unhinged Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson). Napier makes an unknown to him fatal flaw by conducting an affair with Grissom’s woman (Jerry Hall), and Grissom sets Napier up to be taken out by a crooked police associate (William Hootkins). This being a comic book movie, of course, the plot turns into the origin story for the mischievous and murderous villain known as The Joker. A bath in a vat of chemicals turns Napier into The Joker, who then begins to wage a deadly crime spree upon the citizens of Gotham. Batman must figure out how to stop this new threat all while, as Bruce Wayne, trying to juggle a developing relationship with photojournalist Vicki Vale (Kim Bassinger). 

The plot of “Batman” is pretty straightforward for a comic book movie. It is an origin story for The Joker, and it is also a pretty simple “Batman vs. Joker” plot for the duration of the movie. Bruce Wayne has already been established as Batman, but we also get the tragic backstory regarding his parents. Some, however, might bristle at the liberties Tim Burton takes with the people directly involved in that particular tragic backstory. Some might also bristle at the fact The Joker is, well, an art lover and that is a huge part of his character. Comic book purists are a “special” breed when it comes to things like cannon and lore. If you are just watching “Batman” as a movie and not taking into account decades of comic book lore, everything should be fine. The story makes sense, albeit it can be a little too on the nose and convenient. 

I say all this to set up the fact that I, in 1989, did not care one single bit about the criticisms comic book fans had then nor do I care about their criticisms they have as I write this entry in November of 2025. “Batman” still holds up for me across the board in every shape and fashion. I can watch the film with wide eyes and enjoyment just as I did when I was 7 1/2 years old and saw Michael Keaton going toe to toe with a wisecracking and over the top Jack Nicholson. The movie hooked me in a way a movie had not hooked me prior to the summer of 1989. I knew I had to go see this movie called “Batman”, even though I was not really familiar with much of the character beyond seeing it in some cartoons. The iconic movie poster, which just featured the “Bat-Symobl”, stood out over all other movie posters in a design that is still effective. The reruns of the “Batman ’66” series showed on local television in the afternoons that summer, and they became appointment viewing for me. I would drop everything to go inside and watch Adam West tangle with the likes of Caesar Romero’s Joker or Burgess Meredith’s Penguin. I had the toys and the associated merchandise. When I finally got to see “Batman”, the movie more than lived up to the hype. It was the coolest and most exciting thing I had ever seen on a big screen. Gotham City did not look like anything I had previously experienced in a film. I knew this film was special then and is still special to this day.

As I look back at “Batman” with older eyes and an older perspective, I can understand just how I was hooked by the hype and not disappointed with the final product. A lot of that comes from the performance of Jack Nicholson as The Joker. The movie might be called “Batman” but it really is Nicholson’s film. His turn as The Joker is so over the top and so manic that is is impossible to here or read the name “The Joker” without thinking of Nicholson’s interpretation first and foremost. Unlike versions of The Joker that would come later in film, Nicholson understood this character is a murderous villain but he also tries to be funny and crownlike. There is a sense of fun and festivity running concurrent with the incredibly dangerous aspects of the character. To top it all off, Nicholson and Burton added a striking sense of style to the character. I fully believe my love of the colors green and purple can be traced back to how prominent they are for The Joker in this movie. 

Credit, of course, must also be given to Michael Keaton’s turn as Bruce Wayne and as Batman. He has to work two different performances in this film, and he is effective in both. As Bruce Wayne, Keaton plays a wealthy reserved but internally tortured man who tries his best not to let someone like Vicki Vale get close to him. Because of how he lost his parents, Bruce does not want to run the risk of losing someone else that gets close to him. It is a classic superhero dilemma, and Keaton handles it quite well. He also handles the attempt at menace needed for when he dons the suit, mask, and cape as Batman. I know many did not agree with his casting, especially coming off of his role in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice”, but to me and a lot of other people of my generation, Michael Keaton IS Batman and forever will be Batman. 

A word must also be said about Tim Burton and Anton Furst’s production design for their version of Gotham City. Myself and many others were dazzled by just how weird and out of place Gotham City looked in this film. Credit goes to the two for creating such a stark and seemingly ugly look for Gotham which ended up working to their advantage. You get a real sense of just how desolate and vile Gotham is, and that works to establishing why Batman is trying to do what he can to eliminate the criminal element present. It is easy to see Burton’s influences running through the streets and buildings of Gotham. Even though I had no idea what they were back in the summer of 1989, I knew this Gotham looked like nothing I had ever seen before. I could not take my eyes off of it. My ears were also treated to delights from the score by Danny Elfman and the soundtrack by Prince. You cannot talk about “Batman” without mentioning the contributions from those two musicians. 

Some lamented them and still lament to this day about how “Batman” revised the template for summer blockbusters after the initial ones in the mid 1970s and early 1980s. Those lamentations generally decry the marketing, the overwhelming hype, and all other things that seem to make the actual movie itself inconsequential and an afterthought. Yes, many films tried to copy the model of “Batman”. I’m firmly looking in the direction of 1990s “Dick Tracy” as one who attempted to follow the pattern and did not entirely succeed, mostly because of the star attached, but that is a story for another film. Yes, summer movies became huge marketing events for studios. These are not disputed facts. What most critics get wrong, however, is that the hype for “Batman” was justified. The film worked, contrary to the beliefs of doubters and killjoys clinging to comic book cannon as if their lives depended on it. For this 7 1/2 year old kid, “Batman” represented just what a big budget action spectacle could and should be. I will never forget the summer of “Batmania”, and I will never forget just how exciting the summer of 1989 was. “Batman” is the reason I still love the summer movie season. 

This review is part of my Now Playing series showcasing new releases I watched in a theater setting.

Batman
(Tim Burton, 1989)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️