[Nerdspresso] Once Upon a Dark Knight: Memories of Batman '89

While sitting in traffic the other day, a song came streaming over the radio which I haven’t heard on the airwaves in decades. My soundtrack to the afternoon gridlock was Prince’s “Batdance.” I’m not making this up. The Purple One’s musical tribute to the caped crusader was blasting in my car as I inched my way along Highway 50. When was the last time you heard “Batdance” on the radio?

Holy Mixtape, Batman!

“Batdance” was the radio friendly dance mix he concocted to accompany his pseudo soundtrack album for Tim Burton’s Batman, when it premiered in the Summer of 1989. Director Tim Burton and producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber felt their bat film needed some funky beats so they went after Prince. He wouldn’t share his hits but he did compose several original songs that were featured in the film and then released on an album.

This record served as the movie’s party clothes, complementing the instrumental score by composer (and Oingo Boingo frontman) Danny Elfman. When Batman became a mega hit, Prince’s album rode the slipstream to #1. It sat on top of the charts for six weeks and “Batdance” became Prince’s first number one hit since “Kiss” scored in 1986. In addition to “Batdance,” the album featured “Partyman,” “Trust,” and “Scandalous” along with several forgettable ditties. At its best, Prince’s bat record can be considered an example of artistic synergy and at its worst, a blatant cash grab.

For the most part, “Batdance” has been lost to a fading zeitgeist. Remembered now only in passing by aging movie fanboys and diehard Prince groupies. So imagine my surprise when I heard that wonderfully cheesy groove pulsing from my car’s stereo in 2024. The selection was just so ridiculously random that I couldn’t help put turn it up. The tune transported me to another time and place. Not Gotham City, but the Florida ‘burbs in the late ’80s on the eve of Michael Keaton’s cinematic debut as the dark knight detective.

It’s hard for some to believe but there was a time when Batman, or any superhero for that matter, was not a familiar face on the Hollywood scene. There had been a really campy Batman movie with Adam West and Burt Ward released in 1966 to capitalize on the popularity of the TV show, but that was it. In the popular consciousness, Bats was a sanctimonious dude in a leotard who ran around with a kid in dayglo underpants fighting villains punctuated by cartoony graphics (BAM, POW, BIFF). Comic books were considered kid stuff, and any movie adaptions of the material were either family friendly or outrageous parody.

Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve delivered a loyal interpretation of Superman in 1978, but each successive sequel got sillier and sillier until you just felt bad for actor in the cape and tights. Marvel had some low-budget flicks based on some of their properties but The Punisher missed the target and The Fantastic Four was never released. Comic book fans pined for a faithful screen version of their heroes, but their plaintive cries fell on deaf ears.

Then suddenly comic books got respectable. In the late ‘80s, two series achieved critical acclaim and massive attention with their gritty portrayals of superheroes. Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s Watchmen were praised for their mature themes and uncompromising artistic visions. Suddenly, Hollywood came calling. While it would take another two decades for audiences to watch the Watchmen, Batman took flight. Inspired by Miller’s dark take on the character, Warner Bros commissioned a script for a serious, big budget adaptation of the caped crusader.

Bat fans were twitching with anticipation. We were going to get a real Batman movie. Not a hokey jokey men in tights movie, but a no holds barred action packed superhero extravaganza. Hollywood was finally listening to us. In those pre-internet days, we got all our behind-the-scenes tidbits from movie magazines, newspapers and shows like “Entertainment Tonight.” There were no blogs with BTS pix. No trailers leaked online. No panels with big reveals at Comic Con. It was an information desert.

We treated every new announcement like Christmas Day. A Batman movie is on its way! Hooray! It’ll be a big budget summer movie! Awesome! Jack Nicholson is playing the Joker! Brilliant! The script is written by a fan of the comics! Sweet! The production design will be dark and gothic! Yes! Batman will be played by Mr. Mom and the director is the guy behind Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. What the hell?

Holy Hissy Fit, Batman!

Angry nerd tirades about pop culture are common these days, populating everyone’s social media feed. But the bile unleashed by the Batman casting news was unlike anything we had ever seen back then. Fans started petitions to get Keaton fired, they organized letter writing campaigns, they raged and protested. And all before a single frame of film had been shot. All this vitriol was in response to some media announcements. Google it and see for yourself. Dude, it was crazy.

Michael Keaton at the time was known for comedic roles, most famously as the lovable inept dad in Mr. Mom and the goofball schemer in Night Shift. Despite a recently praised dramatic turn in Clean and Sober and his delightfully unhinged performance in Beetlejuice, people could not see him under the cape and cowl. Meanwhile, Tim Burton was a relatively unknown director. He got props for the quirky visuals in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, but no one thought he could deliver a dark and gritty Batman tale.

Jack Nicholson as the Joker was the only news that excited fanboys, but many feared he’d steal the spotlight. Some groused that he wasn’t the right physical type for the Clown Prince of Crime, but the majority embraced Jack based on his legacy of larger-than-life performances in movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining. When the first promotional stills from the new movie were finally unveiled featuring Keaton in costume next to the sleek Batmobile and another with Nicholson’s maniacally smiling Joker, everyone stopped whining.

The first trailer was released and audiences lost their damned minds. For those of us who had been waiting all our young lives to see a non-campy Batman movie, that fleeting preview was like a gift. We got a peek at all the good stuff: Batman, the Joker, the Batmobile, Bruce Wayne meeting Vicki Vale, Batman rescuing Vicki by swinging over the villains on a zipline. We were psyched! By the time Joker lamented “Where does he get such wonderful toys,” we were convinced that opening night couldn’t come fast enough.

Anticipating an insatiable desire from fans to see the movie early, the studio approved a midnight preview of Batman on opening day. This was before people could log onto Fandango and buy advance tix so I remember standing in line with my pals (including Southpoint Access founder and publisher Wes Platt) outside a movie house near the University of Central Florida late on a Thursday night in June. I was giddy to be one of the first in town to see my dreams realized on the silver screen.

Close to midnight, they let us into the theater and the lights dimmed. I don’t recall anyone making a sound as the Warner Bros logo was replaced by a scrolling view of gothic stone tunnels accompanied by the mythic notes of Danny Elfman’s Batman theme. We cheered when the movie’s title appeared and then the music crescendoed as the camera pulled back revealing that we’d been looking at the Batman logo in extreme close-up.

Holy Nerdgasm, Batman!

Looking back now, it’s easy to spot the movie’s weaknesses. What’s up with the silly animated Batman on the rooftop in the beginning? Or that extremely long set up with the Batwing just so we can see it silhouetted against the full moon? The script has some real cringers, especially any time Bruce and Vickie get all lovey-dovey. And that whole awkward bit where he tries to come clean to her seems more like schtick than a character moment, especially when it’s followed by that whole “You wanna get nuts!” tirade. But none of that mattered during that first screening. The movie freaking rocked.

My tribe loved it so much, we got out of that midnight preview and all decided to meet back that evening to watch it a second time on the official opening night. And then we went back again and again. I think I saw Batman at least four times during its theatrical run. There was something immensely satisfying about seeing a (mostly faithful) adaptation of the dark knight’s saga. In those days before total media saturation, you could still be surprised by a big studio movie. We didn’t walk into a screening knowing everything. And the feeling of experiencing all that for the first time was glorious. 

Thirty-five years and a colony of Bat movies later, it’s still hard to describe the voracious glee we all felt at that moment. It was like Hollywood was finally taking superhero movies seriously. Superman had made audiences believe that a man could fly a decade earlier, but Batman proved that superhero flicks weren’t a shooting star. They could be a legit movie genre. It would take another 20 years for them to become a Hollywood staple, but Batman kicked open the door to the dream factory and was here to stay.

I won’t argue that the movie is showing its age these days. Gotham City looks more like a set to me now. You can make a drinking game out of spotting the stuntman in the bat suit during the fight scenes. Outside of Batman Returns, the other sequels aren’t great. The Clooney one is super cringy. It’s more Vegas floor show than movie. The later flicks are pretty good. Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies are better constructed and more story-driven. Heath Ledger’s Joker is riveting and unforgettable. The recent reboot by Matt Reeves was epic. But Batman ’89 is still at the top of my list.

For all the righteous indignation when his casting was announced, Michael Keaton IS Batman. And the summer of 1989 will always be the Summer of the Bat for me. It was also my last summer before I started college so that movie is tangled up with all kinds of memories and emotions. Right before I left for school, some friends and I roadtripped to the Great Smoky Mountains for one last hurrah. We went hiking and bounced around in those little mountain towns for about a week. One evening just after sunset, we took a different road down the mountain and spotted a drive-in theater in the valley below.

The movie had just started so we pulled off for a few minutes to check it out. The sound wasn’t great and the view was like sitting in the balcony of an immense auditorium. For a bunch of city kids, however, it was kind of a rush to watch a movie in an environment that was more conducive to bird watching than cinema. The mountains surrounded us. The sound drifted up to us and echoed throughout the valley.

The images on the screen became crisper as the night grew darker. I savored that moment. At the time, I just thought we were experiencing something cool, but now I realize we were on the verge of big changes. My friends and I were all going off to different schools. Childhood was getting farther and farther away from us. We had no idea that night would be one of the last times that we’d all be together. Or maybe we did? I just know we sat on the hood of the car and watched Michael Keaton proclaim, “I’m Batman.” And it felt really good.

Holy Reminiscence, Batman!

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