Celebrating 85 Years of Batman

What the Dark Knight means to me

Yesterday was Batman Day. I had no idea beforehand that it was Batman Day, and yet I feel like I must do something to mark the occasion. However, I did know that 2024 is the year that Batman turns 85. Wow. Eighty-five years of fighting crime, saving Gotham, and being a symbol of hope for millions of people. That is amazing. Year 100 in 15 years means we should all get Batman tattoos.

I’ll be completely honest here. This might not be my best piece. I’m sick and exhausted. It’s been a weekend of pushing through more than it has been a weekend of taking care of myself. Yet, here I am trying to write before I go back to the grind of work tomorrow. I just have to do something to commemorate the hero that means so much to me. It won’t be a full history or an all-encompassing retrospective on the Dark Knight. I don’t have the time to go into detail about my favorite Batman comic (The Long Halloween) or how I long to see Zack Snyder’s post-apocalyptic vision of Batman and Joker being forced to team up against Fascist Superman. What I can give tonight is a piece that hopefully honors three eras of Batman Films that all have incredible meaning to me personally.

I obviously don’t have time to watch six movies at the moment so I’ve included montage videos for these very important Batman films. I would love to write about them individually someday, especially Batman Returns around Christmas time. The montages are a fun viewing experience that capture the spirit of the films.

Tim Burton’s Batman & Batman Returns

I mean, this is my childhood right here. In fact, the second my family reads this, they’re going to text me about all the fond memories of watching Batman a million times with me and all the years they little Dark Knight Josh out trick-or-treating. Amazing memories that I’ll cherish forever. But how did those memories happen? Tim Burton and Michael Keaton are how…

Michael Keaton IS Batman and Tim Burton’s vision for the Dark Knight sparked a revolution for comic book movies becoming cultural phenomenons. The summer of 1989 was known as Bat-Mania, leading to the fall of ‘89 being Josh-Mania. The irony of me being born in the same year this movie was released….

The vision, I want to talk about Burton’s vision. Gotham City is its own character in this movie. It’s dark. The art deco noir aesthetic gives the city a life of its own. The city plus Danny Elfman’s score put you right into the world of Batman. Jack Nicholson’s Joker is the perfect antagonist to Michael Keaton’s Batman. Joker, as a mobster in this art deco noir vibe against a man that can do absolutely anything with his life chooses to live in the shadows because of a duty he feels to the memory of his parents and to the people of his city.

Let’s pretend that 1989’s Batman is pentagon-shaped cultural monument. Burton, Keaton, and Nicholson are three cornerstones. What are the other two? Prince and this Diet Coke commercial below. Prince did the soundtrack to the movie and any music that Prince recorded was divine. I don’t even like Diet Coke to be honest, but the commercial below was on the VHS I watched a million times as a kid and it left a lasting impression on my movie-watching experience.

If you notice, I’m not writing much about Batman Returns. That is intentional. I don’t think it’s better than 1989’s Batman, but it’s a way more interesting movie. It’s a movie for debaucherous sickos. Batman Returns is weird and it’s beautiful. It’s Tim Burton’s magnum opus and it’s the greatest Christmas movie ever made. It deserves its own moment on the stage.

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy

If Tim Burton’s Batman left a mark on my childhood, the Nolan Trilogy left an indelible mark on my early adulthood. I did midnight showings for both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. I stepped foot in a comic book store for the very first time the summer The Dark Knight Rises came out.

I think this trilogy has the three best scenes in comic book movie history. First, Batman interrogating The Joker in jail. His anger and aggression versus the psychopath’s maniacal joy of getting beat to a pulp. That scene is the definition of DC’s greatest hero vs DC’s greatest villain. The second best scene, Batman’s defeat at the hands of Bane. “You merely adopted the dark. I was born it,” Bane proclaims as he breaks the Bat. Lastly and towards the end of the third movie, Batman reveals his identity to Commissioner Gordon: “A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.”

An important theme of these movies is Batman as a symbol. Shoot, take this quote from Batman Begins: “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy, and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I'm flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.” This symbol still inspires me and drives me today. Whether it’s ego or a sense of responsibility or just bad habit, but I tend to take on more work than I should. I have to rely on an inner voice for motivation. It might be Monday, but I motivate myself in the morning by saying “Just one more day. Give one more day.” Then I go through the same process on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I think of this conversation between Catwoman and Batman:

• Selina Kyle: “You don't owe these people any more. You've given them everything.”

• Batman: “Not everything. Not yet.”

Matt Reeves’ The Batman

This new era of Batman is the Batman of my 30’s. It’s a vision told by Matt Reeves and portrayed by Robert Pattinson. Their story is still being written, but the director and the actor have both created a legend worthy of the Batman mythos. There are two aspects of Batman/Bruce Wayne that I think this movie does very effectively:

1. Batman as a horror movie “villain.” Look, Batman is terrifying in this film. He’s obviously the hero and not a villain, but there are scenes when he’s like Michael Myers lurking in the shadows. He’s vengeance. He’s a symbol of fear to the underworld of Gotham. Of all the Batman films, this one feels the most like the comics I’ve read. Like I said, there are moments when Batman is truly terrifying.

2. Bruce Wayne as a tragedy. This film, from the story to the score, gets to the heart of Bruce Wayne. He’s a tragic figure. He watched his parents get murdered and that drives him in his pursuit against crime. Tragic heroes are interesting to me. Anakin Skywalker and Paul Atreides are tragic heroes as they walk down the path to becoming villains. Bruce Wayne’s growth leads him to a greater good, but know his tragic backstory will continue to be important in future films.

Our Modern Day Mythology

It’s getting late so I should probably wrap this up. I hope I did the character of Batman justice. I’ve shared this quote before, but I would be remiss to exclude it when writing about The Dark Knight. Grant Morrison, from his book Supergods: “Could it be that a culture starved of optimistic images of its own future has turned to the primary source in search of utopian role models? Could the super hero in his cape and skintight suit be the best current representation of something we all might become, if we allow ourselves to feel worthy of a tomorrow where our best qualities are strong enough to overcome the destructive impulses that seek to undo the human project?”

I would like to end with this: Super Heroes are our modern day Greek Gods. The Greeks and other early cultures used mythology for life lessons and inspiration. We still need mythological heroes today as we try to make sense of our world and our personal struggles.

My hero is Batman.