I was a Batman fan as far back as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is playing with a toy Batmobile. The most rewatched movie for me was the Michael Keaton Batman movie when it was released on VHS. I was only four at the time, so this meant that I had to close my eyes during a particular scene where a mobster was burnt to a crisp. Oddly, I was allowed to look after the act, so I still saw the burnt corpse. My imagination filled in the blanks with something far more terrifying.
This is veering towards another story that I will have tell at another time.
One of the interesting things about Batman was that it was a movie that was taking the franchise in a completely different direction than what casual fans knew. The comics may have reflected a more serious tone, but television and film was solidly in the camp camp. Yes, you know where I’m going with this: the glorious version of Batman starring the late (and great) Adam West.
The 1989 film was going to take things in a much different direction. The general audience didn’t really know that though — and how could they? It was starring Michael Keaton, whose films at the time included Mr. Mom . . . he was seen more as a comedic actor, so it was easy for audiences to think we were still going to get camp with Batman.
Producer Jon Peters was aware of this and wanted to combat that image and had a teaser hastily thrown together over a weekend to show people. There was no music, there was no voice over. It was solely different scenes that were put together to give audiences an idea of what to expect.
The rest is . . . well, you already know. Batman is regarded as one of the best superhero films.
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