10 Best Batman Moments
For decades, writers, directors, producers and critics have attempted to pin down Batman’s shadowy figure. They have seen him as a masked vigilante, a brutal force, a sworn enemy, a vulnerable recluse. To the fans, Batman has always been synonymous with justice, truth, survival, determination, and grit. He isn’t just a rigid stock character, but a symbol of moral fibre, spurned from the deepest of tragedies.
Many creatives have tried drawing up new interpretations of the Caped Crusader. And, with each attempt, the character has arrived re-invented. He has been a campy presence in a sea of spandex and crash-bang-wallops, he has been a master of fear. To Tim Burton, the director of the first studio-driven live-action Batman film, Batman was a freak, operating on the fringes of society, with little separating him from the much-feared Joker.
The 1989 film conducts itself in Batman’s earlier years, where whisper and rumour dictate his identity. This lends itself immensely to Burton’s signature horror stylings, as Gotham’s streets talk of a half-man, half-bat monstrosity. Burton wanted to extend this further, by exploring the relationship between Batman and The Joker – he stated that the film’s mythology was led by ‘a fight between two disturbed people.’ The characters, who are often separated by their rights and wrongs, are linked by Burton to terrifying effect. Suddenly, we don’t know who we should be rooting for.
There’s a maturity to Tim Burton’s approach that is unexpected. He takes the stakes of Batman’s story and plunges them into the depths of devilish horror with skilled visuals. With Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson leading the way, the film torments its viewers. Inspired by earlier Hollywood stories of morality, Batman could almost be mistaken for a classic noir, with its moody tone and stubbled characters. But what Burton does for Batman on the big screen is resoundingly clear: he takes a 1960s joke and transforms it into a monster.
From Jack Nicholson’s antics to Danny Elfman’s brassy soundtrack, Batman is brimming with moments of extravagance. Here at The Film Magazine, we have selected the film’s best and most brilliant bits. These are the 10 Best Batman Moments.
10. Bruce Wayne’s Realisation
“Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
Batman’s backstory is as integral to his character as his suit and Batcave. The masked vigilante is so stoic that it is easy to forget he could ever feel vulnerable. But, as die-hard fans know, trauma maketh Bruce Wayne. And, whilst there is some debate over Burton’s depiction of Bruce’s trauma, you cannot deny its chilling power.
Bruce (played by Michael Keaton) is sat alone in the Batcave, watching the Joker’s (Jack Nicholson) announcement of their upcoming showdown. As he watches, a memory strikes him – the night his parents died. He remembers the spilled pearls of his mother’s necklace, intertwined with his fallen specks of popcorn. But, as gunfire echoes across the alleyway, Bruce realises that no goon killed his parents. And suddenly, the contorted face of Jack Napier, later known as The Joker, emerges from the shadows. It is then that Bruce realises their fates have been intertwined for longer than he can remember.
Despite Tim Burton’s penchant for dramatic, gothic stylings, this moment is relatively downplayed. This achieves a great effect, allowing us to remain close to Bruce’s feelings in this moment. Burton leaves room here for negative space, amplifying this integral moment ten-fold. The scene is, however, soaked with bone-chilling moonlight, giving each character a pallid, ghostly effect. Danny Elfman’s triumphant score is nowhere to be found here either, as a resounding silence haunts the air. All that can be heard is the demonic voice of a young Jack Napier, with his signature smile ripping our screens in half. Burton was set on playing Batman’s story to a close tune of his foe. What this scene does is something othering, horrific: it forces Bruce to realise how closely interlinked he is with a freak he seeks to destroy.
9. Fight in Axis Chemicals
“Hey Eckhardt, think about the future.”
We sometimes mistake Batman’s adversaries as inhumane mutations, with deformed features and a singular drive to murder. Perhaps it is easier this way, as it allows us to hate them with little remorse. But Jack Napier was as human as you are now. And, even before becoming The Joker, he was in possession of something dark, almost inhuman – an unsettling notion that Batman could see from their first encounter at Axis Chemicals.
After mob boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance) finds out that Jack, his second-in-command, has been sleeping with his mistress, he arranges a hit on him. After sending Jack to Axis Chemicals to ‘gather evidence,’ the police arrive on the scene. With Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle) present, a gunfight breaks out. Batman soon arrives, but Jack kills the corrupted lieutenant Eckhardt (William Hootkins) who arranged the hit. As Jack fights with Batman, a ricocheted bullet strikes him, causing him to topple into a vat of chemicals. As everyone vacates the plant, a hand rises up from the chemical liquid.
Jack Napier controls the events at Axis Chemicals like a puppet master. He spins wheels, jams buttons, and turns the plant into a steaming, churning wreck. Skulked by the moonlight, he hides amongst a mist that confuses foe with friend. It’s a heady sequence, and all we can make out in the chaos is Jack’s twisted presence. His sadistic glee is met by Keaton’s stoic Batman, in a freakish yin and yang twist. In their first ever encounter, a perverse common ground is detected. Burton’s genius thesis for the film is realised, by the meeting of their eyes – where Batman wanted to see a criminal, he instead sees a reflection. Burton wants our focus to linger on Batman’s strong frame, his darkened eyes. But, Jack’s exclamation of “Jesus!” when caught by Batman, suggests him as figure to be feared; Burton wants us to see the freak Bruce truly is. And, as the scene closes with his foe in the chemical vat, Jack Napier is no more. As his hand slowly rises from the liquid, his monstrous equal is born.
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