The first time I heard Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was on the soundtrack for Joel Schumacher's 1995 Warner Brothers superhero blockbuster and subsequent cultural whipping-boy Batman Forever. Ol' Nick the Stripper has famously donned the hair shirt for his involvement in the album, calling it a cynical cash-grab. I think that's pretty stupid, given that the song he contributed to the record encapsulates, in just a few minutes, all the things I think are important about Batman. This is far better than director Christopher Nolan would later do with six whole hours.
Here we have Nick in the character of a burnt-out former hep cat, like a Steely Dan song run through a meat-grinder, looking at his mates in The Big City and being disgusted by them; the greed, the depravity, the lack of bottom. The lack of soul. Priests with blood on their chins, God too pissed up in heaven to bring down the Armageddon. And there's these kids standing around. What are these fucking kids gonna do, man?
Well, they're looking to the sky, Daddio. They're looking to the sky because there's a motherfucking Bat-signal shining against the dirty gray clouds. This is the thing. Sure Batman is about the dirt and the grit and the evils of the suspicious and cowardly lot. But it's also about a man who decides to rise above that-who literally becomes that light shining in the sky.
If you forget for a second that Batman is supposed to be salvation in a blue cowl and light gray tights, if you keep him down in the muck, then you've lost the soul of Batman. You've missed the point. This song-it's called There Is A Light, after all-contains the point in it!
Producer Peter MacGregor-Scott filled the record with songs that were not of but "inspired by" the movie in an attempt to make the movie "more pop." Which is also kind of silly, in that the songs that were added were kind of less pop — U2 and Seal were in it, the great Lenny Kravitz penned/produced/played track with Brandy emitting a smokey slow burn over tight but unobtrusive funk was too. On the other hand, I wouldn't call Jeremy Enigk bellowing non-words to serrated post-hardcore riffs "pop."
Also, the movie itself was already plenty pop! All the movie references in the costumes, the pop psychology in the dialogue, Chris O'Donnell playing Dick Grayson like the hip, eventually decimated Jason Todd, explosions and a light-up Batmobile facing off with stylized '40s gangster rides.
This movie, for me, feels more like the first third of Glamorama, when Victor Ward is still in New York being glitzily fabulous amongst the ruin of America's soul, than any other film explicitly made under the guise of being a Bret Easton Ellis film has felt like Bret Easton Ellis. It's all the best parts of Warhol and Lichtenstein turned inside out and devoured.
As such, a thing the movie and the soundtrack both do with excellent aplomb is dole out sugary, true religion pop with a biting undercurrent of darkness. Sure, Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face is hacky and ridiculous. But he's also a Demented Elvis Impersonator in a way that Kurt and Kevin could only have hoped to be in that movie about the Demented Elvis Impersonators.
And half his face is explicitly a big purple, festering bruise! The shitty one-liners start to take on this cosmic resonance that no Big Important Speech issuing from pretty, pretty Aaron Eckhart, later in the same role, ever could. Because really, if you were Two-Face, would you take long monologues about The Nature of Evil, or would you cackle along to your own horrid jokes? I think you would cackle, cackler!
The film and soundtrack are all like this. Bits of pop culture turning inward and eating themselves because, at base, we are all complete wackos. (That's a technical term.) Billowing clouds of black, soot and shadows both, shot through with neon green. (Fuck the orange/blue contrast!) Towers of Greek Adoni given to fascism next to circus freaks and tribal native cultural tourism. A dazzling playground that will kill you.
And Batman has to sort this out. He becomes both Bruce Wayne and Batman — maybe because he wants to, but also because we need him to. People with this idea that Batman has to stay in a Bat-olescence, a teen constantly crying over his fucking parents, seem pretty childish to me. Batman has to grow up eventually. Because if not, we're left with that dick Superman as the undisputed head of the DC Universe, and NOBODY WANTS THAT.
So why the animosity? Why the Razzies and hatred? Well, the given reason is crass commercialism, that the movie was more a toy ad than a film. Some will just reply, "Nicole Kidman," but they say that about Eyes Wide Shut too so I don't pay them no mind.
Surely no one's winning an Oscar here, but the idea that Ledger's disjointed and weirdly ham-handed take on the Joker deserved one is a bit of a fluke anyway. This is a genre film, and while I think the best of them can rise above that (Superman: The Movie, Batman Returns, and uh, yeah), we're looking for symbols and signifiers, not immortal reincarnations of the Bard.
So let's step back a bit to Two-Face. Here we have a sociopath that actually plays out the Madonna-whore complex in his villain lair; lending a sociopathic air to the Madonna-whore construct itself and foreshadowing the expert deconstruction of heteronormativity in general that will come in Batman and Robin. (Oh yes, it will.)
Okay, I'm not going to turn this into a Batman and Robin defense, that is for another day. But there was a good deal of gender politics put into these two mainstream Hollywood superhero blockbusters aimed at moving action figures and Happy Meals, and I don't think that gets dealt with enough. I mean, Batman is approached for a make-out session by a Dr. Chase Meridian, naked but for a virginal pure white sheet, who then tells him to buzz off in favor Bruce Wayne. (AND, I MEAN, POISON IVY IS A WALKING VAGINA DENTATA.)
Comics scribe and zen drug guru Grant Morrison was right to call these movies "the gay Batman" (I don't think he was quite right to tell you to "switch off your brain," but I'll take what I can get). I think a lot of the critical reaction against these movies, from a fanboy (and oh do I mean BOY!) perspective, comes from a deeply homophobic place. The fanboys recognized these threads and were frightened by an openly gay director putting nipples on the Batsuit, challenging heteronormative relationships by making them look dull as death on one hand and psychosis-inducing on the other.
Remember, this is from a creative milieu that overreacted to the certain perceptions of nature of Bruce and Dick's relationship by making it an ironclad part of Dick's character that he has slept with EVERY SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER in the entire DC Universe. Don't even get me started on the atrocious gender politics of the Nolan films, notable for the great feat of making even the superhero genre more retrograde. (No seriously, just let me stop here. I am not kidding.)
But hey, maybe I'm totally off base here and should quit harshing on bros in my style. Fine! I think the cries of commercialism look a little different now in the midst of a crumbled music industry and a crumbling movie industry hanging on by its 3-D glasses. Batman Forever is a perfect product– the film and the album work perfectly together and complement each other. Toys are toys and any mainstream superhero film will have them. (Your thousand-dollar Dark Knight mini-statue is a toy, nerd.) But these two things that actually may be considered and criticized as art work a wonderful balance between the light and dark, the camp and grit that is Batman.
Look, I don't even necessarily agree with the Batman/Bruce Wayne conceit as set up in this film. (I'm much more of the belief that there is a third persona, Batman with his mask off in the Batcave, the one that only Alfred and Dick Grayson and maybe Superman know, the one played so convincingly by the incomparable Michael Keaton chewing on his glasses thinking over Jack Napier or Oswald Cobblepot or pulling a Cat-claw out of himself with a forlorn but not loveless sigh.)
But it provides a great place to start. And, again to Morrison, I'm a big believer in the contention that those who care about this character should care about Bob Haney's groovy social justice Masked Manhunter the same amount they should care about Frank Miller's keening, petulant Dark Knight.
And no one has ever shot the Batman-falling-through-space scene the way Schumacher did — hurling himself after a bound and gagged Robin and Chase rushing to a watery grave, the blast and *chink* as the Bat-grapple clings to the hard surface, Elliot Goldenthal's triumphant, awe-struck score pushing down with the rushing winds then rising up from the tide below like a chorus of angels to lift our hero up. It's an iconic element of the Batman lore, that he — just a man — can do this thing. And no one has even gotten it more correct. It still gives me goosebumps.
So mainly what I'm saying is, your entrance was good; his was better. The difference? Showmanship.
Matt Ealer can see your bat signal.
I'm gonna focus on the soundtrack (of course) and say that it is also the first time I heard Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Flaming Lips, and Mazzy Star.
(It's also the first time I heard Seal.)
How did you miss "Fade Into You"?
He missed "Angus"?
Strike that link. In the movie, just didn't make the album.
I remember enjoying this soundtrack a lot back in 8th grade, especially that luscious Brandy song. I still haven't seen the movie though.
First time I ever heard U2.
It was the first time I ever allowed myself to like U2!
Agreed.
So many parentheticals! How to choose a favorite?? Okay fine, twist my arm: "(No seriously, just let me stop here. I am not kidding.)"
"(Fuck the blue/orange contrast!)" by a mile.
I read your work. Insightful. Naive, but insightful.
Not every girl makes a superhero's bedside table.
It's the car, Matt. Chicks dig the car.
Where does he get those wonderful toys?
I also have this sound track! Wasn't Tricky on it? Or did it just sound like he should be?
This reminds me of this
Reminds me of this
Whoa whoa whoa...except that Starship Troopers was undeniably the best movie ever made. Anyone who refutes doesn't enjoy amazing movies. Refute away.
I haven't seen it since I was a kid. But now I want to rent it. (For the record, I could tell it was meant to be satirical even at the time.)
I actually didn't get the satire back then AND YET I enjoyed it nonetheless, because it was ridiculously entertaining for a teenager. Same with Robocop.
And yet I still don't 'get' Total Recall. AT ALL. Someday it will be explained to me by someone who does. Some have professed to have gotten it, but were woefully incorrect.
Was this about Nick Cave or Batman? Also... no love for Adam West? More than anything else, I think Schumacher was trying to evoke the campy nature of the Adam West era Batman. And for better or worse, he did just that. It's just that people weren't ready for it, especially the fanboys, since Bats had long since moved past that phase in his cultural evolution.
This is a fair point, but I think the TV-show aping would be much more readily apparent in the next movie. This was still somewhere between the Burton films (which were plenty campy in their own right!) and that; and also something different than either of them.
People tend to forget how campy the Burton films actually are, though I think you are correct in that the full-on 60s kitsch factor doesn't really kick in until Batman & Robin.
I also think, in some ways, that Batman Forever might have been somewhat influenced by Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy, which came out 5 years earlier. Same embrace of the camp factor of its villains, same emphasis on bright colors, though Tracy was shot through bright reds and blues, as opposed to neon green. And Sondheim/Madonna on the soundtrack as opposed to u2, but a similar attempt to package the soundtrack and film as a pop culture experience of sorts. (And the posters were great, too!)
I think that's the problem. Burton allowed the movies to be campy without making camp the entire point of the movies, Ã la &Robin. Forever was sort of stuck in between - although I love the Dick Tracy comparison.
Well put. Though I think that the two Schumacher efforts are more or less in the same camp (holy pun, Batman). And it's true, the Burtons were silly in their own right. But they mere more a total blend of all that is Batman, since there was plenty of darkness there as well. Really, Burton was a perfect choice for the first film. Both the dark and the goofy are right in Tim's wheelhouse. "Batman 1" is still my favorite out of all of them.
Agree with this. Campy is fine, but it's not a reason to make a thing. The Burtons were campy, but at least those movies were still about Batman in some way.
Related: I saw the new Robin Hood this weekend which was the worst thing I've ever seen, because it had nothing to do with Robin Hood at all. Fine, if you want to do gritty, go ahead and do gritty. Give Robin Hood rockets for all I care. But he's supposed to be stealing from the rich and shit. I take umbrage spending money on some guy's 'hey Imagine if this stuff happened to Robin Hood!' It's fanfiction. Why am I paying money to see that?
Not that Batman and Robin wasn't about Batman...but was it really more or less about the character? It was sort of just 'let's have Batman fight two guys we haven't seen him fight yet' and, well, that's just fine I guess, but so totally unnecessary. We learn nothing new about Batman. Some stuff happens, there's Jim Carrey who you all like and lots of purples and yellows, the end.
Jim Carrey was in Forever. &Robin had Uma Thurman and the Governator.
Right right. I was talking about Forever, but referred to slightly more frosty iced to sea you its chilly out here did somebody order a cold drink freeze.
Though I would argue that the third character you speak of is actually captured quite well in the Nolan films and is the strongpoint of those films.
Bale clearly plays three characters: The billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne seen by the public, the animal/elemental Batman seen by the public, and the real Bruce Wayne/Batman known only to Alfred and, to a lesser degree, Rachel. He may not be quite as mature as Kilmer's Batman, but his career is still in its infancy -- Wayne Manor hasn't even been rebuilt yet when last we see him. I think doing away with his childhood love may work well to help the character finally move beyond his adolescence.
Clearly he has a strong value system in place, beyond simply avenging his family. He can grow to be the shining beacon of hope, a position he was reluctant to step into. This is what a more upbeat third film can and should do, provided it doesn't cave to the temptation to appease all the fanboys who want more of the same.
I think this was supposed to be cross-posted to Slate.
Good one.
This movie was teh suck. The soundtrack was good. The end.
Also, "hipster revisionist history." Nuff said, EXCELSIOR!
Sometimes I feel like the only relatively serious comic reader who only asks that his comic book movies be entertaining. Which Batman Forever very much was! Then again, I thought Daredevil was entertaining too.
I suppose because movies are (relatively) few and far between, fans want them to reflect the very best of the character. Batman fans should recall that while every now and again you'll get a "The Killing Joke," you also have to slog through a lot of Jean Paul Valley in a robot suit. In that light, Batman Forever wasn't so bad!
I was thinking the same thing. And the Daredevil director's cut was much better than the theatrical version.
Bat-Nipples.
Penguin-Pincers, for a better clamping experience.
This would be a lot better if it was about "Until The End Of The World".
^THIS
This just leaves me wanting to know when they're going to try to make a film out of Glamorama.
they've been trying - Roger Avary will probably get to it when he's out of jail (I have stories!!!)
Although Ellis has said "the days of being able to make that film are over," we'll always have Zoolander.
Don't even get me started on the atrocious gender politics of the Nolan films, notable for the great feat of making even the superhero genre more retrograde.
Is it bad that I would really enjoy a survey of the Batman films through the lens of gender politics? Because I totally would!
I like the writing here, but the topic never goes anywhere. I feel like the conclusion is that Forever is nowhere near as bad as &Robin, but not as good as the Burton entries, which is general consensus, yes?
I want to read more about why you hate the Nolan movies! That is weird! (Weirder still if, as hinted, it involves his decision to nix the molded nipples.) I, for one, think In Praise of Bat-Nipples: Gender Politics in the Batman Film Franchise would be riveting.
For what it's worth, the Nolan films manage to remove any fantasy. This isn't a small thing: "Batman" is more powerful as an urban nightmare than a Watchman-like attempt at reality. In reality, someone running around in a cape after someone running around dressed as a clown = two imbeciles, neither one of whom seem as if they'd be any trouble for the Keystone Cops to apprehend. In a nightmare, those figures are not merely plausible, they become a stand-in for general anxieties. Nolan's Batman is not a symbol, and Gotham City is clearly as boring as anywhere else. Burton's Batman is practically typography and Gotham is the real star of the show.
My two cents.
That is very much the title of the thesis that I'll never write because I refuse to ever go back to school.
♫ There is so much Matt could tell you so much he could say ♫
Confession: Kiss From A Rose is my trademarked staple at Karaoke on saturday nights. LA Awlians, you are missing out by not coming over and hearing it!
@RRR: See, that's the opposite of my impression. "Batman as a symbol, not a man" seems to be the central theme of the Nolan run. At the very least it's way more explicit than ever before. (Well, Mask of the Phantasm aside. Which, if you haven't seen it? Do so, now!) Everyone in Burton's Gotham saw Batman as this incredible weirdo; Schumacher didn't have ordinary people, and the nemeses just took Bats for granted; Nolan is the only one to show people being absolutely fucking terrified by this nightmarish apparition. Even the imitation "bat-men" from Dark Knight show people reacting to the symbolism of the character.
@RRR thanks for putting a finger on why I didn't much care for the first Nolan film (or bothered to see the second).
It's a bit too "realistic" and Gotham, which is so distinct in the Burton films and most other Batman media (Can't forget The Animated Series!) is reduced to a kind of bland AnyBigCity, USA
So odd this, because I find so so much that Nolan's Gotham was absolutely nothing like anybigcity. Aside from the fact that the buildings have human architecture, and there are districts, some of which where there are rich people, and poor people, and there's a courthouse and a looney asylum. There is nothing in the original comic strips that suggest anything different than what Nolan's pictures present. What am I missing? Is everything supposed to be Art Deco? Should there be an airport? Is everything supposed to look like Dick Tracy, or like the 1940s because that's where Batman's from?
Look, I don't completely hate the Nolan films per se: Oldman's speech at the very end of The Dark Knight is another Batman-movie thing that gives me goosebumps!
I just think the Rachel character is deplorable, completely defined by the men in her life right down to the damsel in distress act and compared to Pfeiffer's Catwoman she was offensive; Ledger's Joker owes a lot more to Jack's than people let on; and the storytelling can be incredibly plodding and bloated at times (not as much in the first one, which I think benefits from not being strictly linear).
Also, the thing that was great about Year One was how simple, stark, and quiet it was. Mazzucchelli's heavy, solid line, the terse noir-prose Miller used to be able to do unironically. That is lost in a movie with a Batmobile tank exploding things.
A giant, multi-million dollar studio film is going to be spectacle, and I think Schumacher played with that spectacle quite well while Nolan and Bale have tried to downplay it: "Oh this is a psychological thriller, you see." This is condescending!
Also, the Nolan films talked a lot about Batman The Symbol, but they didn't do much with it. The warehouse goons being scared in Begins, "I'M NOT WEARING HOCKEY PADS," etc. But that all gets lost in police procedural and metaphysical discussions.
They pick it up at the very end for Gordon's speech, but by that point Batman is, again, the keening, adolescent outsider. Batman has to grow up! He has to become this pillar of society; which can be played tongue-in-cheek or straight, as you like.
Also, the young-Bruce pre-murder falling into what would become the Batcave is lifted directly from Forever by Nolan. The idea of The Bat as this Shamanistic totem is, too.
And they kept pronouncing Ra's al Ghul wrong and that was the biggest cop-out of a Two-Face characterization ever. Oh, he's like the anti-Batman. Kinda like Superman III's Drunk Superman.
These are some frazzled thoughts that I have in re: Nolan!
I agree that Mask of the Phantasm is phenomenal, but not as phenomenal as certain individual episodes of The Animated Series (which contains, by the way, the greatest treatment of Two-Face in any medium).
At base, I think feints to 'realism' in a story of a man dressing in a Batsuit aren't very interesting!
Yes x a million to all of this (and the article). My other big issue (well, the biggest of many) with the Nolan movies and gender politics is how completely marginalized Martha Wayne is, something not supported by the treatment of her in any other media. Everything is about Thomas Wayne and his effect, it's like his mother doesn't even matter.
I highly doubt the Nolan films will move Batman away from the "keening, adolescent outsider" unfortunately. One of the big things that pushes him out of that is the creation of the Bat-Family, with Robin, Batgirl, and all the other assorted tie-in characters through the years and they're refusing to do Robin in these films.
Mask of the Phantasm is, in my estimation, the best of the Batman films. Excellent portrayal of both Batman and Bruce Wayne, showing the evolution of both, and Andrea Beaumont is the only female character besides Catwoman I can accept as a real love interest for both sides of Batman/Bruce. I wish it was given a proper budget/marketing instead of being intended as a direct-to-video title that got a half-hearted theatrical release once everyone saw how good it was.
YES YES YES to the Martha Wayne part! SHE NEVER EVEN SPEAKS. NOT ONCE. And in most of the comic treatments, her death is almost played up more. THE PEARLS.
THE PEARLS! The pearls breaking and the shine reflecting on the gun are the two things that stay in almost all interpretations of the origin, partially because it's such a strong visual, but there's so much symbolism in that moment and the Nolan movies just missed it completely. There's a lot to love in the films, but when the mess up, they REALLY mess up. (Bale's Batman voice being the most obvious thing, the exclusion of Talia is another big one even if I can't stand her, rushing the Two-Face plot and giving him no development, etc.)
Pfieffer Catwoman PRRRR!!!
I agree with a lot of your points against the Nolan films. (But how the hell do you pronounce Ra's al Ghul?) I guess it boils down to two points, for me: First, I find the marriage of realism and a dude in a batsuit interesting (see also: BSG). That's just a matter of taste, I guess. Second, I like the Nolan films' examination of whether Batman is or is not a Good Thing. I don't want to see him become a pillar of the community; I would rather see him wrestling with the unintended consequences of his vigilantism and extreme approach to law enforcement. It's interesting to see a superhero film that asks the question: is being a superhero even a good idea?
If I want glitzy escapism (and I do! gobs of it!) I'll watch the Iron Man films. I love that the current crop of Batman films are starkly different from other superhero fare. It really shows off the tonal range of these characters.
(Just realized I subconsciously made a Stark pun there. Oop.)
I believe the issue with Ra's Al Ghul is in the Ra...the a should be like the o in pOd, as in Father. Everyone in the movie sort of says it like an ae, as in cat or bad. Just guessing here though.
Also, fully accept a lot of the above and pointing out the explosions as a contrast to the Year One I totally get, though! This is Nolan's Batman, not Miller's so there will be differences. There are already enough I feel that there's no point in comparing...and this is modern update, which I feel is a huge contributor to a lot of the plaints.
Agree with the Ledger-Jack inspired acting. But it worked IMO, and very well I think. I did not at all feel like the Two-Face arc was rushed or a cop-out. It was essentially what the whole movie was about. Joker was a subplot in my mind. Rachel wasn't a strong female character because that character was irrelevant to anything going on. She was the necessary female role. Invented because Hollywood requires it. Year One was a great standalone story and had no female characters in it at all, save the very brief appearance of Selina Kyle. You're right she was deplorable, but unfortunately, necessary. Eventually we assume there will be a catwoman to fill the void.
I feel like the comparisons to other Batmans in a world of Thousands of different versions of the Archetype doesn't hold up. Sure there are elements borrowed from other movies. But the movie is still about what Batman is about. Like what I said somewhere above in the comments how the new Robin Hood fails because it has nothing to do with Robin Hood at all...Batman is, and will always be a Caped Crusader, fighting crime with his wits and wealth, yet unable to reveal his identity to anyone. All the Batman movies are about this guy to some extent. But some are good movies too, even if they may stray from the design and tone of what preceded.
Best thing in Batman Begins - Cillian Murphy. Hot villains are always more interesting. I missed him in The Dark Knight.
For the record, my dad and I went to see Batman Forever three times in the theater. It was riveting each time, and your article is dead-on on the finale's Chase-Robin catch. The timing was right for audiences to finally get Hero Batman, which is why the box office was phenomenal.
And Batman Forever was the first time Batman came across as something more than a man onscreen. Right from the get-go, "He just jumped off the building!" And he's so casual about it! Like the greatest thing about the Roger Moore Bond, everything comes across as this is just day-to-day life for this man. Let's not obsess about each little trick. We just trust he has things under control. He's Batman!
Also, in a dim theater, his appearances from the shadows worked even better. Suddenly it seemed like Batman really could be around at anytime, so look out, neon bad dudes!
How'd we end up with two posts in a row here mentioning Steely Dan?
Agreed. Once? Fine. Two? Against Nature.
"It's all the best parts of Warhol and Lichtenstein turned inside out and devoured."
*me giving Matt a blowjob
This is a really funny send-up of undergrad film studies!
Is this a really funny send-up of undergrad film studies?
Also, please do one on the Judgment Night soundtrack.
^THIS, in that my partner has wanted to write a 33 1/3 on it for YEARS. (Also, when interviewing De La Soul circa "...Is Dead," I won them over by suggesting a busting-through-the-wall video for their JN video.)
I loved 'Forever'. I thought it should have been billed as the movie adaptation of the Adam West show.
If anything, I think the gender politics of the earlier movies were kind of thrown out of whack after 'Returns'. Catwoman has become the gender balance of Batman (especially since her appearance in the Burton film). In many cases, she gets the upper hand on Bats and not because she's hot as hell. She's just as smart (albeit her knowledge is more street smart), and she's tough.
I think the women in 'Forever' and certainly '&Robin' were set back a pace. They are highly sexualized and little more than set pieces. What's the name of Bruce's girlfriend that keeps bitchin' about wanting to get married in '&Robin'? Ivy was a very flat villain, when they could have made her more formidable given the fact that she was a brilliant scientist. Instead she poses no real threat beyond giving a whiny Alicia Silverstone someone to kick because she couldn't do squat against Mr Freeze.
I don't think Nolan has struck the same balance when it comes to gender in his films. Rachel is definitely a strong female character (more so in 'Dark Knight'), but in the end she's just secondary in her relationship with Bruce/Bats. There's no balance there. And let's be honest, how smart is she as a character really? Who chooses Harvey 'My Face Hurts' Dent over Bruce 'I'm Stupid Rich and a Little Broken But You Could Complete Me Eventually and Hey! I'm Freakin Batman Over Here' Wayne any way? Hopefully, Nolan will use Catwoman to push Batman away from the vigilante phase and back toward being a symbol for the people, all the while kicking the crap out of Eddie Murphey as the Riddler. But that's just my vote.
It hurts a little bit inside everytime someone connected with the film says they probably won't be using Catwoman. She really has become, maybe even more so than the Joker, central to the whole Batman mythology.
Then again I didn't much care for Batman Returns, so maybe it's best Nolan leaves his hands off her.
Though someone really does need to apologize to the Catwoman name after that horrible Halle Berry thing.
All I remember about Batman Forever is the day-glo.
You took so long to mention Keaton that I'd lost all hope for this article.
And yet 3-D TV is on the horizon.
That youtube link to the Sunny Day Real Estate track is a disaster on multiple levels. It says "8" is on Diary, but it was on the Pink Album. And the version in the video isn't even the version from the Pink Album, which was also on the Batman Forever soundtrack--it's a much earlier version from the pre-Diary EP "Thief, Steal Me A Peach." I guess youtube uploaders not knowing what they're talking about is par for the course, but ... still frustrating.
Anyway, though, this soundtrack was the first place I ever heard Sunny Day Real Estate. I was at a pool hall and their CD jukebox had the soundtrack on it. I played the Sunny Day Real Estate song along with an AC/DC song and ... I have no idea what the third song I got for my dollar was. Anyway, I loved the Sunny Day Real Estate track, and kept thinking, "Please don't end yet. Please don't end yet." And it kept on not ending, and it was glorious. I bought the Pink Album (on cassette!) about three months later--in fact, the week it was released. Within two years I'd worn out the cassette; it might be the only tape I ever bought that I can say that about.
Yeah, I just really wanted to link '8' and this was the only studio version I could find on the YooToob, so what are you gonna do?!
Not entirely related, but Kicking Against the Pricks" is one of the finest collections of covers in the entire Wax Museum.