Comments on: Bruce Wayne, Auf Wiedersehen

By: D G

D G — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:24:39 +0000

I went to a bookstore and read a few of Grant Morrison’s Batman stories after seeing TDK & really enjoyed them, and though I’m fairly well sure I figured out what is going on and who the real “villain” is, it doesn’t take away anything once you know. Also checked out Frank Miller and found him completely unreadable. I get how Morrison’s going to make sense of that though, and think ultimately he’ll move away from being so horribly grim.

By: The Dark Knight echoes outward « Ned Raggett Ponders It All

The Dark Knight echoes outward « Ned Raggett Ponders It All — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:03:47 +0000

[...] Tom Ewing’s ‘Bruce Wayne, Auf Wiedersehn’, in his as-ever inspired fashion, looks both at the film a bit but also places it in two larger [...]

By: Ned R.

Ned R. — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:57:43 +0000

I see that Patrick guy found your blog entry on TDK as well. (Great piece!)

By: pete

pete — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:26:52 +0000

If you look at the timeline, Dick Tracy really got greenlit cos of Batman, but overdid certain visual aspects without having a central character anyone cared about (Tracy is the ultimate square – as his own cartoon recognised, it avoided using him whenever it could). They though comic = great, but Tracy was a news strip, never a comic and did not really have any fans!

The recent Speed Racer movie, whilst actively aping a anime style, is probably the closest to trying to create an drawn aesthetic, and suceeds via understanding the kinetic aspect of the drawn version more than just hitting the colours and crude character designs.

By: patrick

patrick — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:44:19 +0000

kudos to the makers Dark Knight for their record breaking opening weekend… it’s no wonder there’s talk of another one coming out ASAP

By: o sobek!

o sobek! — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:07:09 +0000

get ready for frank miller’s the spirit then

By: Tracer Hand

Tracer Hand — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:13:15 +0000

The first Burton Batman came out just a few months before Dick Tracy, which had a similar aesthetic. Both movies tried to capture the LOOK of comics – exaggerated sets and buildings, hard-edged outline lighting around the characters, cartoonish and garish costumes. They were like big old Hollywood musicals. I’d love to see more deliberately expressionist movies like that.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:40:52 +0000

Nice article, although I’m not sure I agree with the “retconned disappointment”. I was 18 at the time the first Tim Burton Batman film came out, and while not a massive comic fan at the time, I had read the Dark Knight Returns and was expecting a film-version of the same. Looking back I realise this was probably the first time I’d gone to see a “film-of-the-book” and hadn’t yet learnt to manage my expectations appropriately or to appreciate that the film is inevitably a different work-of-art. My disappointment was very genuine :-)

I haven’t seen it since, but think if I did I’d probably enjoy it more.

By: Paul I

Paul I — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:09:37 +0000

Incidentally, I direct anyone who hasn’t seen it to Mozzer’s new blog at his official website. Kind of hilarious, and lots of swearing.

By: Paul I

Paul I — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:07:28 +0000

Oddly enough I caught Batman Returns on a Canadian children’s channel (!) last week, scheduled in the middle of the afternoon. I don’t think the campiness has aged that well, actually — but perhaps it’s the sort of film you need to be a teenager (or a male film critic from the 1980s, or Camile Paglia) to really love in spite of its faults. This time around, it just seemed a bit panto, and the much-vaunted “cheeky” S&M bits with Catwoman — I’m showing my increasing old codgerness here — just seemed kind of inappropriate for a kids movie.

De Vito is great, though. Shame Keaton is a such a void.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:15:29 +0000

And if not we must make it so.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:13:48 +0000

(On a side note, I think most lines of PWEI’s Can You Dig It have been used as FT headlines by now!)

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:23:13 +0000

Very nice article – I enjoyed reading this :-)

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:26:30 +0000

Interesting old link to a very old regular series GLORIA in the side bar, which examines cover versions and declares which is really the best. It was before Batman Begins, and treated the Burton and Schumacher Batmen as the same thing (in retrospect a mistake). It is a bit harsh on Burton Batman, but actually when I went to see it I was disappointed. I had suddenly gotten into the campy 60′s Batman again (a briefly seen show which I loved as a child) so was a bit annoyed by the overly dark trappings. Whilst I liked Keaton in the role, I found Nicholson overwhelming, and was appalled by the bat canon breaking of
a) girlfriend
b) its insistence of killing the villain at the end.

That said I think Batman has proven more than any modern media property that a multiplicity of versions does not necessarily harm the core brand (which is just a rich bloke, dressed up as a bat, beating up criminals).