MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Behind the black cowl, Gotham City superhero Batman is really millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), who turned to crimefighting after his parents were brutally murdered before his eyes. The only person to share Wayne's secret is faithful butler Alfred (Michael Gough). The principal villain in Batman is The Joker (Jack Nicholson) who'd been mob torpedo Jack Napier before he was horribly disfigured in a vat of acid. The Joker's plan to destroy Batman and gain control of Gotham City is manifold. First he distributes a line of booby-trapped cosmetics, then he goes on a destruction spree in the Gotham Art Museum while the music of Prince blasts away in the background, and finally he orchestrates an all-out campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Gothamites, hoping to turn them against the Cowled One. Meanwhile, reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) becomes the love of Batman's life-which of course plays right into the Joker's hands. Photographed by Roger Pratt, designed by Anton Furst, and scored by Tim Burton's favorite composer Danny Elfman, Batman was a monstrous box-office hit, making $100 million in the first ten days of release--$82,800,000 in North America alone. Incidentally, Billy Dee Williams' comparatively small role as DA Harvey Dent was originally designed to set up the sequel, wherein Dent was to convert into master criminal Two-Face; but by the time the producers got around to that character in 1995's Batman Forever, Two-Face was played by Tommy Lee Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • Commentary by Director Tim Burton
  • On The Set With Bob Kane
  • Legend of the Dark Knight: The History of Batman - The Comic Book Saga as Reinvented and Reinterpreted over Seven Decades
  • Shadows Of The Bat: The Cinematic Saga of The Dark Knight Parts 1-3 - The Road to Gotham City/The Gathering Storm/The Legend Reborn
  • Beyond Batman Documentary Gallery - 6 Featurettes:
  • Visualizing Gotham: The Production Deisgn of Batman/Building the Batmobile/Those Wonderful Toys: The Props and Gadgets of Batman/Designing the Bat-Suit/From Jack to The Joker/Nocturnal Overtures: The Music of Batman
  • 3 Prince Music Videos: Batdance, Partyman and Scandalous
  • The Heroes and The Villains Profile Galleries
  • Batman: The Complete Robin Storyboard Sequence
  • Theatrical Trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Art Direction - 1989 (Peter Young, Anton Furst)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comed - 1989 (Jack Nicholson)

• People's Choice Awards

•     Won Best Picture - Drama - 1989

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Michael Keaton - Batman/Bruce Wayne
       Jack Nicholson - Joker/Jack Napier
       Kim Basinger - Vicki Vale
       Robert Wuhl - Alexander Knox
       Pat Hingle - Commissioner Gordon
       Billy Dee Williams - District Attorney Harvey Dent
       Michael Gough - Alfred Pennyworth
       Jack Palance - Carl Grissom
       Jerry Hall - Alicia
       Lee Wallace - Mayor
       Tracey Walter - Bob the Goon
       Amir M. Korangy - Wine Steward

• Director:

  Tim Burton

• Screenwriter:

  Warren Saire

• Screen Story:

  Sam Hamm

• Screenwriter:

  Sam Hamm, Lorenzo Semple, Jr., Warren Skaaren

• Cinematographer:

  Roger Pratt

• Composer (Music Score):

  Danny Elfman

• Songwriter:

  Prince

• Editor:

  Ray Lovejoy

• Production Designer:

  Anton Furst

• Art Director:

  Terry Ackland-Snow, Nigel Phelps, Les Tomkins

• Co-producer:

  Peter Guber, Chris Kenny, Jon Peters

• Executive Producer:

  Michael E. Uslan, Benjamin Melniker

• Set Designer:

  Peter Young

• Costume Designer:

  Linda Henrikson, Bob Ringwood

• Makeup:

  Paul Engelen

• Special Effects:

  Derek Meddings

• Stunts:

  Gerry Crampton, Eddie Stacey, Tip Tipping

• Casting:

  Marion Dougherty

• Music Editor:

  Robin Clarke

REVIEW:

• At once whimsical and somber -- and, above all, dark -- Batman remains one of the better adaptations of a comic book character to the screen, and certainly one of the most stylized. This is not your father's Batman, and, given its relentless grimness, it perhaps shouldn't be your kids' either, if they are very young. In a broad sense, the film, falling on the cusp of the 1990s, reflects a final departure from the innocence of previous filmgoing generations to the cynicism and angst of a new one. Cinematic superheroes had moved from the simplicity of Christopher Reeve's Superman to the brooding, tormented, shadow-enshrouded Dark Knight. Michael Keaton, better known for light comic fare at the time, is surprisingly effective as the mysterious Batman, while Jack Nicholson hams it up to perfection as the maniacal Joker. Rounding out the leads, Kim Basinger's slinky, film noir heroine fits the spirit of the film well, even if she and Keaton don't develop much chemistry. More than just a solid achievement of Tim Burton's direction, this is one film in which the contributions of the set designer and the composer go a long way toward rounding out the full experience. Anton Furst won a set design Oscar for his vision of a bleak, soaring urban wasteland, a hodgepodge of architectural styles, reminiscent of Blade Runner and Metropolis, that suggests no particular time period; and Danny Elfman's score is appropriately dark and dramatic. ~ Matthew Doberman, Rovi