AMC was showing Batman last night. We're past the point where Joker kills a fat mobster with a feather, and Bruce Wayne get shot in the arm without noticing. An aside: I've never been entirely clear on exactly why Bruce acts so brain dead in that scene. He just stands there, then begins shambling in Joker's direction. Was he recognizing Napier's voice from the chemical plant? I guess so. Back to the main point.
Joker's creepy little henchman brings him photos he took of the whole thing, and Joker falls for Vicki Vale. It occurred to me last night that it seems somewhat un-Joker-like for him to be so smitten. I wonder if that was a bone they tossed to the Nicholson, that old horndog, or if they thought there needed to be a love triangle involving the chief antagonist and protagonist. Like the fact the Joker kills people (including Bats' parents) isn't conflict enough? I suppose not, since Batman killed the goons at the chemical plant. That is, if you believe they didn't have enough time to escape the plant before those bombs went off. I tend to think they ran really fast and escaped death - somehow. But that's me.
While we're talking about the deaths, Napier being the one who killed Bruce's parents. I know a lot of people have said in the past that was a bad decision, because they feel it's better if Thomas and Martha were killed by some random thug Batman never caught, to represent crime. I tend to agree with that. Giving the World's Greatest Detective his own Rollo Tomasi is a nice touch. But I'm curious as to why Burton (or whoever made the decision) wanted Joker to be the killer. Did they feel the story works better if we think Batman is hunting down specifically the man who killed his parents, and so we'd better make sure that person is in the movie? Because that would suggest a line of thinking that people wouldn't believe a person would take the law into their own hands to simply protect others from harm, which is somewhat depressing. Of course, I'm just throwing it out there, as I have no idea about the thought process behind such decisions (I never watch the DVD extra, commentary-type stuff).
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3 comments:
I REALLY like the way Batman begins deals with Joe Chill. Makes the simple vengence less of a factor than protecting the innocent.
anonymous: Agreed. I think that's probably the best way to approach Batman's mission.
Yeah, I agree with you both, it's puts Bat's focus off revenge onto justice.
As for the movie, I think they made Joker his parent's killer in order to kind of give the civilian audience a short-hand justification for why Batman has such a mad-on for the Joker.
As for the scene on the city hall steps, I assume that was to show how, in a crisis, Bruce Wayne shuts down and turns into Batman. It would have been better if he would've cracked some heads during that scene. That was my biggest problem with that movie was that Bats never really got down and kicked some butt.
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