Projector:
Shows pictures of Tim Burton’s Batman. (Item 16)
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Shows picture of Joel Schumachers Batman and Robin. (Item 14)
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Shows picture of Christopher Nolans Batman. (Item 13)
Speaker: Nolans Batman: ‘The Dark Knight’ (Item 1) is notably the best of them all; it was the most anticipated movie of the year and of the entire Batman franchise: “Anticipation and escalation were the key words in the build up to, post-Indy, 2008’s most hyped and combustible blockbuster”. Cinematically, the film was stunning; it was beautifully crafted. And the performances were outstanding. It is said that The Dark Knight is not perfect, which is, of course, true, but as Empire says: “It isn’t perfect but then, like its hero, like his late co-star, and as Nolan’s fitting tribute so ably observes, nobody is.” This supports my question because it shows that Nolans Batman is slightly more realistic than the others. Burtons Batman is more comical to an extent and Nolans Batman is more real, comes across as more likely to happen in real life (Item 13). Nolan's Dark Knight comes across as more realistic and threatening because the issues he raises are very close to real life - there are aspects of terrorism in the way that The Joker acts and does things and there is political warfare in the way that Batman and The Joker fight it out for the good of Gotham.
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Clip of Christopher Bales performance as Batman. (Item 20) -When Two Face has
kidnapped Commissioner Gordon’s kid and Batman throws himself and Two Face off
the roof to save the child-
Speaker: As said by Christopher Nolan himself, Tim Burton’s Batman (Item 2) had an influence on Nolans Batman. Nolan has said that he tried to put a twist on Batman and make it a dark, solemn film, similar to Tim Burton’s gothic twist on Batman. That being said, Nolan also claimed that he wanted to do something different with his Batman, raise the standards, he said that where Burton’s Batman was surreal, he wanted to make it more realistic; “certainly if you look at Batman Returns with Danny DeVito as The Penguin, eating the fish and everything, there are some extraordinarily disturbing images in that movie. But they're coming at it from a surreal point of view."(Item 6). He didn't want to copy another person’s film; he wanted to make his own.
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Picture of Burton’s Batman. (Item 16)
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Picture of Nolan’s Batman. (Item 13)Speaker: Tim Burton’s Batman was the first Batman that was dark and moody, having said that, Burton said that his Batman was ‘almost too much, too dark” and referred to it as “Batman on ice”. Burton went on to say that although his Batman was pushing the boundaries and too much for when it was made, that Batman is constantly regenerating and that now it’s very safe and not as shocking (Item 5). Burtons Batman set the bar high for the next Batman films. Burton has a unique film making style, he is very much an auteur, as does Nolan. That is how similar Burton and Nolan are; they both put a dark twist on the Batman franchise. Having said that, Nolan put a slightly different twist on the Batman franchise in the way of splitting the Batman story into three. Nolan incorporated six different villains in the Batman films: R’as Al Ghul, Scarecrow, The Joker, Two Face, Bane and Catwoman; this means that there is more content in his films.
Projector: Picture of Schumachers Batman. (Item 14)
Speaker: Schumachers Batman and Robin (Item 3) was received very differently across different audiences. Schumachers Batman and Robin got a variety of different reviews, some good and some bad. Some claim that Schumacher intended the film to be ‘bad’ and not serious: “Let’s get one thing out of the way: There was no way that Joel Schumacher was aiming to be anywhere near a serious tone for Batman & Robin’; taken from Item 11. But others claimed that it was a ‘waste of money’. And other reviews, for example Item 12, say that the film was bad, as a whole: ‘"What have we done to deserve this?" you might ask. Oh, probably something, but that doesn't excuse this catastrophe.’ This is a very negative review of Schumachers Batman. But having said that, Schumacher has made a recorded apology for ‘disappointing’ any Batman fans, saying it “wasn’t his intention to upset the fans, he just wanted to provide entertainment” (Item 17). None of the other directors have apologised for their Batman films, this shows that none of the others feel their films are particularly bad. In comparison to Nolan's Batman, the villain Bane was portrayed very differently. In Nolan's Dark Knight, Bane was very much interpreted the way he was in the comic book, very big muscles, very much the masculine, smart villain he was meant to be. But in Schumacher's Batman, Bane was depicted as very stupid and small, his masculinity was lost and he was very camp and not a threat. This shows how Schumacher's Batman was very much a comic book, cheesy, camp film whereas Nolan took his Dark Knight very seriously and made Bane very much the main villain in his third and final film. This doesn't directly link in with my question because Bane isn't in my focus film but he is a feature in the trilogy and he is a big topic of conversation in the way that both Schumacher and Nolan used Bane in one of their films and used him in very different ways.
Projector: Clip of Schumacher apologising. (Item 17)
Speaker: With Schumacher apologising for his Batman and Robin film, Tim Burton talks in an interview about how and why he made his Batman film the way he did. “There’s a whole process that goes on that is magical, to see him bring his character to life in make-up and costume” (Item 8). Burton is referring to Danny DeVito and what DeVito had said to him as he was making his film.
Projector: Shows YouTube clip of Tim Burton being interviewed. (Item 8)
Speaker:
Tim Burton talks about his stylistic ideas about his film, and mentions that he
wanted the film to look a certain way. He was very precise about how he wanted
the film to look. This is very similar to Nolans Batman, because Nolan was also
incredibly clear about how he wanted his film to look, and he was also very
precise about how it was to be made and what was to go into it. Burton says 'it needed a different energy' and says that 'doing it in a different place and with different people helped to create a different feel', he says that he wanted to use the characters in a different way, saying: 'there's something about these characters that's very compelling in the world of night and the coolness of it'. He says that he wanted his film to but shot at mostly at night because he there was something 'compelling' about it, he says that he thought that giving the film a 'different feel, a different energy' would help the film to be as much as success as he wanted it to be.
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Shows YouTube clip of Ledgers interview. (Item 18)
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Clip of Heath Ledger as the Joker. (Item 19) -The Joker is in a prison cell and
Batman is interrogating him-
Speaker: Heath Ledgers performance in The Dark Knight was the best performance of the trilogy; Empire Film review quotes “The Dark Knight is Ledger’s movie, it is a towering performance” (item 13). Ledger says that he was more than happy to play the Joker for Nolan because Nolan had introduced him to his world and said that he had ideas about how he would present the Joker. This shows that Nolan took a similar approach to Burton by created a world and bringing people into who he knew would be able to bring their own touch to the film. Ledger has stated that he wouldn’t have taken a job as the Joker if Burton had asked him because “to try and touch what Jack Nicholson did in Burton’s world would be a crime” (Item 18). Similarly, Schumacher did something like this too, he had his own idea about his Batman film and he wanted it to be a certain way. By looking at it this way, the films are very similar because the directors had their ideas about the film and knew what they wanted and how they wanted it done. Nolan's Joker was different to Burtons Joker in the way that Nolan's Joker was very much a scheming, smart, sociopathic character who knew that he needed Batman to be alive to get what he wanted. His make-up was not as comic book-esque as Burtons Batman and the performance was very much one of the best of Ledgers career and won him awards. Burtons Joker was very much more erratic and playful, very much a comic book villain, he wanted Batman dead at any cost. Burtons Joker was murderous and had no other aim than to kill Batman. The difference between the Jokers is very clear but both the Jokers fit with their films and their style.
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Shows image of Nolan. (Item 15)
Speaker: In an interview, Nolan talks about how Burtons Batman influenced his own in the way that Burtons Batman was the first of its kind: it was dark and gloomy and had a gothic feel to it. Nolan also says that he didn’t want to do his films the same as Burton did; he wanted to make the film feel darker and deeper, as though there was more to it: “Tim Burton's Batman Returns was typical of Burton's quirky, dark style of filmmaking but with The Dark Knight Nolan outdoes Burton” (Item 6). Nolan offered a back story to the main characters and all of his films linked –with The Dark Knight being where the story develops. “I think the big challenge really in doing a sequel is to build on what you've done in the first film, but not abandon the characters…” (Item 6).
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Clip of Bales Batman again. (Item 20)
Speaker: Christian Bale and Christopher Nolans interpretation was compiled by both Bale and Nolan, like Ledger and Nolan worked together and like Burton and Nicholson worked together, to create a new version of Batman that would be just as influential as Burtons Batman was and as Schumachers Batman could have been. Nolan has said that Burtons Batman was a big influence on his ideas of what Batman should be like, but Nolan also said that he wanted to put his own stamp on the comic book hero and would try to reach Burtons standards, if not beat them. Nolan wanted his Batman to be more philosophical and have more morals and be more humanised, in the respect that he would have a conscience and also would not want to do anything but save Gotham from the dangers of villainous people.
Projector: Clip of an interview with Christopher Nolan (Item 6).
Projector: Clip of a fan comparing Nolans Batman Begins and The Dark
Knight (Item 10).Speaker: The Dark Knight is not as much a graphic novel as Burtons Batman is. Schumachers Batman is not at all a graphic novel film. Compared to Burtons and Nolans Batman films, Schumachers is light and bright whereas Burtons in particular is a dark and gothic. Nolans Batman is dark and mysterious to an extent too but it is said by Nolan himself that his film and Burtons film are two different kinds of dark. An interview with Michael Keaton (Item 7) explains that Burton had a particular idea of how his Batman was going to be and how he wanted it. This is similar to Nolan because Nolan was very particular too.
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