Batman Returns

365 Films

Entry #10

Batman Returns (1992)

Directed by Tim Burton

        If you’re beginning to notice a pattern regarding my lack of ability to catch first entries in movie trilogies, trust me, you’re not alone.  There isn’t any kind of “sexy” reason behind this, save for the fact that I was probably far too young to see the first Batman upon its original theatrical release.  I do not regret this turn of events in any way, shape, or form because Batman Returns was, and remains my favorite Batman movie to date.  Batman Returns contains one of the most disturbing opening sequences ever for a child to see in a comic book movie.  It begins innocently enough with a well-off Gothamite family living out a fairy tale existence in their snow-covered mansion of cavernous proportions.  From that point on, everything proceeds to fall completely the fuck apart with tragic consequences.  A baby is born, it makes horrible squawking sounds from its crib, and it possesses a pair of flippers instead of digits on its hand.  So far, so fucked up.  It gets worse.  The family reasons that it can’t bear the thought of a mutant-flipper baby and proceeds to drop it in the river as it sets sail for a new life in the comforting filth and waste of the sewer.  In what is perhaps Mr. Burton’s most diabolical twist of all; he casts Pee-Wee Herman as the patriarch of this cursed family.  Allow me to pepper a little context here into these next few sentences.  Batman Returns was released in June of 1992.  In July of 1991, Paul Reubens was arrested for public masturbation in a movie theater in Florida.  The point of all of this is to convey the sheer mind-blowing power of seeing Pee-Wee-Herman in a movie at all, let alone one where he plays a guy who drops his baby into the river. Granted, he wasn’t paying Pee-Wee, but I can still remember the reveal of his characters face as vividly as anything else in the movie.  So if I may step out of that bit of contextual table setting for a moment, the reason I have elaborated so specifically on the opening five minutes of Batman Returns is because this is one miserable super-hero movie.  If memory serves, Roger Ebert’s review of the film finds tremendous fault in this attribute.  I’ll have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Ebert because it is for this fact that I find Batman Returns to be the most satisfying of the entire series.  Batman Returns is the equivalent of a party populated by all of the weird, lonely, and off-putting characters from Mr. Burton’s entire career.  Only, the party sucks because the sense of community just makes everybody feel worse.  The characters in Batman Returns need to be in therapy followed by heavy doses of medication.  The word downer doesn’t even come close to adequately describing the grim specter of loss that cloaks this film.  Desires are suppressed until they not only rot the insides of the doomed individuals, but also destroy any chance of a genuine connection when they are finally released.  It’s grim, but in Burton’s hands also genuinely thrilling and alive.