This month marks the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton’s Batman. Like Superman before it, the film proved to be a monumental achievement for comic book films, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1989, and laying the groundwork for blockbuster comic book-based films for the next three decades. Despite the angry mob of die-hard fans cursing Warner Bros. for casting Michael Keaton, an actor best known for comedic films at the time like Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously, and Bettlejuice, as the Caped Crusader, his performance is still considered one of the best among the half-dozen actors who have played the role in subsequent years.
The against-type casting of Keaton is, in fact, one of the film’s biggest strengths. The charity ball scene is one of the most perfect examples of this, given that the structure of the film posits that we the audience aren’t supposed to know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. We have the characters of Alexander Knox and Vicki Vale exploring Wayne Manor, and casually joking about Bruce Wayne being your typical obnoxious billionaire, not realizing that he’s standing right behind him. And as they realize they’ve stuffed their feet in their mouths, it’s great to watch how effortlessly Keaton as Bruce Wayne pivots the conversation, acknowledging their work as journalists, thinking nothing of the trash talk, and turning out to be fairly easy-going and easy to talk to. And as he leaves them upon word of Commissioner Gordon’s departure from the party, we’re treated to a brilliantly crafted reveal of him in the Batcave. With not a single word of dialogue, we see Bruce Wayne as Batman, albeit not in-costume. The subtle changes in his expression and demeanor compared to the friendly exchange with guests that immediately preceded this moment, makes it one of the best scenes in any Batman movie to date.
However, upon rewatching the film in honor of its 30th anniversary, I couldn’t help but think about one of its most memorable moments; as Batman crashes through the skylight of Gotham’s Flugelheim Museum to rescue Vicki Vale from the Joker, equipped with a zipline gauntlet to hasten their escape, the Joker rhetorically asks his henchmen, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?”. Now, while Batman does boast an impressive arsenal of weapons, gadgets, and vehicles, I found myself asking this question of the Joker himself. Because his bag of tricks is nothing to sneeze at either!
Also turning in an iconic performance, Jack Nicholson as the Joker was the textbook definition of “lightning in a bottle”. Starting off as mid-level gangster Jack Napier, he’s as cool as he is ruthless, whether he’s squaring off with dirty cops, or displaying DEFCON-level arrogance at the thought that his boss would ever find out about his affair with said boss’ main squeeze. Consequently, this would serve as the catalyst for Jack to become the Clown Prince of Crime, as he’s set up to be killed during a heist at Axis Chemicals, ultimately having his face torn open by a ricocheted bullet before falling into a vat of nondescript chemicals. “Miraculously” healing overnight from a back alley surgery that left him with a permanent grin, the Joker wastes no time killing his former boss and initiating a product and merchandising launch that would put the Home Shopping Network to shame.
For starters, he leveled up his whole crew with the most fashionable of leather jackets, complete with the embroidered Joker logo, and I can only imagine how much that must have cost! Craftsmanship like that ain’t cheap, people! AND whereas I had always thought their shirts had priest collars for some strange reason, upon closer inspection, I realized that the white parts of their collars were actually pins fashioned to be a hand of playing cards! I swear, HD resolution makes all the difference in the world (As many times as I’ve watched this film in the past 30 years, I never even realized that the Joker’s number one henchman Bob had a ginormous scar on one side of his face!).
Anyway, let’s talk about the hand buzzer! Because I’m now thinking about the Joker’s R&D team coming up with this joint! Clearly, it’s totally on-brand for the Joker to have a hand buzzer that could electrocute a person to death, but to go that extra mile and enable it to flash fry a whole-ass human being in under 15 seconds is an achievement in engineering that we do not talk about enough! Think about the number of people who must have been straight-up MURDERED during the testing phase for this device, because make no mistake, the Joker was not going to waste the opportunity to kill a mob lieutenant with such an elaborate gag if he wasn’t 100% sure that the end result would look like a hot dog left on the grill long after the cookout had already ended!
To say nothing of the Joker’s master plan in the film; tainting multiple hygiene products so that when randomly used in tandem with one another, they create a poison that causes the users to break out in uncontrollable fits of laughter, before dying with a perfect facsimile of his signature grin on their faces! I don’t care what aptitude Jack Napier supposedly had for chemistry in his early years, that is some Harry Potter-type wizardry! Again, I have to think about the number of people who were most assuredly straight-up MURDERED for the Joker to come up with the exact combination of chemicals that would yield this exact result! Because make no mistake, the Joker was not going to waste the opportunity to randomly murder scores of Gotham’s citizens in such elaborate fashion without making 100% sure the end result would be people dying with his face, ala the girls in the Aphex Twin video for “Windowlicker”! Also, I love the implication that Gotham only buys locally-produced hygiene products. Supporting local business gets you a gold star in my book, Gotham!
Then there’s the final act of the film. Because for all the fanboys who have made jokes about Batman’s “prep time”, I would say that the Joker had him beat in this particular situation. Even after the Dark Knight unveiled his Batwing aircraft at the Joker’s mass murder parade, stealing all of the balloons the Joker was using to release his Smilex gas on the citizens of Gotham (**SIDENOTE**: It says A LOT about Gotham City that its citizens would be swayed by the promise of 20 million dollars being thrown out during an event hosted by the man who’s been publicly poisoning them for weeks! Talk about some real Darwin Award winners!), all of Batman’s fancy-schmancy targeting machinery and weaponry can’t seem to hit the Joker, even as he’s standing in the middle of a street, asking for it. To which the Joker responds by pulling out a revolver with a two-foot long barrel out of his pants, and blowing the Batwing out of the sky in one shot! Now, it’s actually established earlier in this scene that the Joker knew nothing of Batman having the Batwing, so are we to believe that the Joker just carries around a revolver with a two-foot barrel that fires a round capable of taking down a military-grade aircraft?!?! The Joker may have been insane, but dammit if this man wasn’t prepared. . . . FOR EVERYTHING!!!
As evidenced by his final confrontation with Batman at the top of Gotham Cathedral, this man had a set of chattering teeth to toss at Batman after he punched him in the face, a pair of novelty glasses to dissuade Batman from hitting him again, and a FAKE HAND to offer to Vicki Vale as she and Batman are dangling off the edge of the cathedral tower!!! The Joker just casually goes out every night with these items, never knowing if or when they’ll come in handy, and they all do in this one 5-minute sequence! Even the gun he used to blow Batman out of the sky has a telescoping barrel to make it a standard sized pistol, that still somehow has space for a prop flag that pops out and says “BANG!” when the trigger is pulled. The Joker should have been trying to get some defense contracts off of that gun alone!
Even after falling to his death, leaving a nice Looney Tunes-style imprint in the pavement no less, the Joker makes sure he has the last laugh, so to speak, as police wonder what is producing the sound of laughter from his body, before retrieving a small device from inside his coat as the source. How in blue perfect hell was this even activated?!?! Is it impact sensitive like an airbag?! Because I can’t imagine that the Joker had enough time during that fall to go, “Oh crap! I’m about to die! Lemme reach into the pocket of my coat and turn on this laughing box, just to give Ol’ Commissioner Gordon a razzie!”
No matter how prepared for a situation Batman may have been in his 1989 theatrical outing, it’s clear that the Joker was equally, if not more so. The man left nothing to chance, and believed in treating his accessories like you would condoms . . . better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them. . . . Even if that meant walking around with a revolver with a two-foot long barrel that can blow military-grade aircraft out of the sky, stuffed in his trousers all day, everyday. Now THAT’S dedication!