The Year of the bat

This summer is being hailed as the summer of Batman and that may very well be true. I’ve seen the Dark Night and it has surpassed Spiderman as the best superhero movie I have ever seen. With that said, I had my own Batman Summer. Only it was in 1989.

In early 89 you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing someone wearing a Batman shirt. The buzz surrounding Burton’s Batman release was everywhere. Well, at least it was in the geek community of which I and my posse where members in good standing in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. I still remember the release date. June 23^rd 1989. It was easy to remember as it coincided with my 20^th birthday.

My friends and I made a pact to see the movie ten times that summer. In retrospect of course the Burton film is no where near the cinematic accomplishment of the Nolan films. Still we didn’t know any better and at the time we all liked the movie. Obviously, Jack Nicholson’s performance went a long way to the enjoyment of that film. His absence in the subsequent sequels was sorely missed.

We all headed out the night before the opening of the O.G. Batman to a special showing they were having at Chicago Ridge Mall. I had to work that night, so my friend Paul got me a ticket and dropped it off for me at Kmart. I got to the theater and my click had saved me a seat. It was perfect as I walked in about five minutes before the movie started. The theatre was electric that night in anticipation of the film, with fellow movie and comic book nerds filling the theater.

We were destined to like it. I, like most of my friends grew up with the campy Adam West 1960’s television series and became a Batman fan because of it. As a little kid there was nothing better then that show. It had cool villains, (like Vincent Price as Egg Head) complete cheese ball dialogue and those classic captions when fights erupted. As a matter of fact I was watching that show in 1977 when they broke in and announced that Elvis Presley had died.

As that summer of 1989 progressed we kept going to see it. We saw it the day after the premiere at Ford City. We saw it in Orland. We saw it at the dollar theatre, a couple of times. And then we saw it a couple of more at the drive inn on Columbus Drive. I bought a Batman shirt and wore it proudly all summer. (Sometimes, I sit and wonder how I ever got laid.) All told we saw that movie close to our intended ten viewings. I was such a geek about it I bought the long forgotten and infrequently played Batman soundtrack that Prince laid down.

The subsequent sequels all sucked. Batman II is unwatchable it is so bad. They hooked me to the theatre one more time for the third installment and all I need to say is Chris O’Donnell as Robin. By the time the Clooney Batman came out the films had long past jumped the shark.

Nolan revived the franchise and is telling the story in a very dark structure and true to Frank Miller’s vision. Which I whole heartily applaud. Still the 1989 Tim Burton Batman has a special place in my heart. Yes, the movie is terribly flawed but the memories that come back to me upon viewing it are priceless.