Batman

In his first crime-fighting outing the caped crusader battles against The Joker (played wonderfully by Jack Nicholson), a horribly disfigured individual who is out for revenge on his former employer, to save Gotham city and get the girl (Kim Basinger). Michael Keaton, in a role about as different as possible from his previous teaming up with director Tim Burton (in Beetlejuice), plays the role of Batman, and of course Bruce Wayne. Batman has to foil The Joker’s plan which is, like The Joker himself, deliciously mad. But while doing this, his alter-ego Bruce Wayne has to try and woo Vicki Vale, an attractive journalist ironically trying to find the truth about Batman.

It’s a pretty standard super-hero film plot, but Batman stands out for several reasons. The first is that Batman is an interesting hero. He’s not as squeaky clean as Superman or Spiderman. He doesn’t even have special powers, he’s just a super-strong man. Secondly, Bruce Wayne’s story is interesting too. You do actually care about the endearingly awkward millionaire and whether he’ll get his girl or not… But the main thing that makes the film stand out as a great super-hero film, a decade and a half after it premiered, is Jack Nicholson’s Joker. He does seem to have a talent for playing characters that are a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic; The Shining and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest for example. And here Nicholson is at his clinically insane best. The rest of the cast are superb as well. No one has ever topped Keaton’s Bruce Wayne. Gotham City looks fantastic in gritty comic-book detail adding to the overall quality of the film.

Despite its age, this film is still a great super-hero romp. Well worth revisiting.

Seamus Bradley