Category: #WWMD

Watching With My Daughter – reviews (hopefully) tempered by the fact that I’m watching the movie with my girl…

Batman: The Movie (1966)

Batman turned 75 years old earlier this year (2014). In recognition, we are rebranding our site for one week to Now Very Bat… and focusing on the blockbusters, the smaller films, the comics and the video games that feature the Dark Knight.

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Holy 75th birthday, Batman! Let’s do the Batusi to the film version of the wildly popular camp tv show. As good today as it was then. Umm…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of Batman: The Movie:

This is probably hard to explain if you didn’t grow up with it. A tv then film treatment of the darkest comic hero of all time with a huge, campy garishly approach. It’ll be purposefully ridiculous and mocking of the whole franchise. So that means it must have been awful, right? Well, actually…

Look, if you grew up watching the Tim Burton Batman movies, or the Christopher Nolan films, or any of the great animated shows, you’re probably not going to get the appeal of the Batman 1960’s tv show. But trust me, it was really funny. It wouldn’t work today, but at the time it was hugely popular whether you were an adult who got how absurd it was trying (and succeeding) to be, or if you were a kid who was just happy to see Batman & Robin mix it up on tv.

They first tried to make the movie to kickoff the tv series, but the studio wouldn’t foot the bill, so they ended up making the motion picture after the first season of the show.

The plot, such as it is, concerns four of Batman’s greatest super-villains (Catwoman, Joker, Riddler & Penguin) teaming up to take out the Caped Crusader and take over the world by, ahh, who cares.

The delight in Batman: The Movie comes two-fold: the hilarious script and the hilariously awful acting. The casting follows that of the tv show, and is brilliant.

Adam West as Batman – even more affected, over the top and easily imitated than William Shatner’s Captain Kirk delivery, if such a thing is possible.

Burt Ward as Robin – holy <insert acting noun here>, Batman!

Cesar Romero as the Joker – forget what Heath Ledger did with the character, Romero showed his commitment to the role by not even bothering to shave off his mustache…

Burgess Meredith as the Penguin – for many people he IS the Penguin. One of those performances that seems like it leapt straight off the comic book page.

Lee Meriwether as Catwoman – she replaced Julie Newmar from the show. Ehh, I still prefer Eartha Kitt.

Frank Gorshin as the Riddler – really got into the spirit of the thing, maybe too much. He’s intensely manic and may not have realized this wasn’t a serious gig.

The writing by Lorenzo Semple Jr. is simply spectacular. In addition to writing the pilot and first four episodes of the show, he remained Executive Story Editor for all of the first season and wrote the film. He must have used up every joke for the rest of his life in that first year, as he would go on to make serious pictures for the rest of his career.

I can think of no funnier way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the release of the first Batman comic than to watch Batman: The Movie…

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Fail

The Representation Test Score: D (3 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”Batman: The Movie” description=”The Dynamic Duo faces four super-villains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.” director=”Leslie H. Martinson” actor_1=”Adam West” actor_2=”Burt Ward”]

Main Cast	Adam West Batman/Bruce Wayne, Burt Ward Robin/Dick Grayson, Lee Meriwether The Catwoman/Kitka, Cesar Romero The Joker
Rating	PG
Release Date	Wed 26 Oct 1966 UTC
Director	Leslie H. Martinson
Genres	Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Family, Sci-Fi
Plot	The Dynamic Duo faces four super-villains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.
Poster
Runtime	105
Tagline	He’s Here Big As Life In A Real Bat-Epic
Writers	Bob Kane (comic books), Lorenzo Semple Jr. (written by)
Year	1966

March 30, 2014

Princess Mononoke “Mononoke-hime” (1997)

#140RVW

VERY different kind of movie from what I’m used to from Miyazaki-san. Really violent & often gross, it’s pitilessly long & kinda confusing.

私は宮崎さんから慣れたものから、映画の非常に異なる種類。本当に暴力＆しばしばグロス、それは本当に長いとちょっとわかりにくいです。

What’s more:

I had some trouble with this one. It is a very different look and feel to any of the Miyazaki films I’ve screened so far. A much-more action-oriented picture, it’s quite violent and at times it’s frankly gross. (The demonic infestation of people and animals with worm-like tendrils reminded me all too well of the explicit adult-oriented anime that I found seriously disturbing in high school and college.) I honestly sort of wished my daughter missed this one.

Not sure what I’m talking about? Let me lay the story on you:

Gorgeous Studio Ghibli landscapes of Japanese countryside are torn apart as a demon comes to destroy our hero’s village. The monster is a massive boar god that has been consumed by demonic, writhing black and purple tendrils that make the creature look like a disgusting, pulsing spider that burns away everything it touches. Prince Ashitaka saves his village by shooting the beast in each eye with arrows, whereupon it rots and decays nearly instantly, leaving a smoking skeleton. Sound good so far?

I forgot to mention that before killing the beast, the prince’s forearm was grabbed by the creature so he now has discolored scars that are spreading throughout his body as they kill him. He is given a terminal diagnosis, and advised to take his smelly arm west, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear but involve the possibility of a cure. Why they don’t simply amputate said diseased arm is never explored.

Because there is some sort of rule mandating the use of at least one truly ugly human being in all of his films, we are introduced to Jigo, a red-nosed monk voiced in the English version by a horribly miscast Billy Bob Thornton. I really can’t imagine a worse choice. He appears to be there for exposition only, but sadly he will return.

At this point we still haven’t met the titular Princess, but she does finally show up on the road to Iron Town, which is meant to invoke Western mining towns but feels more like something from Mad Max since it’s populated with whores and lepers.

I don’t plan on spoiling the whole story; suffice it to say that before we are done there will be decapitations, shootings, blood spitting, leprosy, god-killing, and worst of all, more Billy Bob Thornton.

You might think by my tone that the violence is my biggest criticism of Princess Mononoke – it’s not. The problem with the story is that the protagonist acts in maddeningly inconsistent ways; it’s never clear whose side he is on or what is his goal from moment to moment. He seems committed to both save AND destroy Minnie Driver’s Lady Eboshi, whose own actions are erratic. She wants to rule the world and fight samurai, whose presence and motives are never explained. But she also wants to kill the Forest Spirit – or is that what Jigo wants? No, it’s what the Emperor wants. Wait, who the hell is the Emperor? When did he get involved with this story?

I know this is the favorite Miyazaki movie for a lot of people and I really wanted to like it. I sure didn’t dislike it. I just really couldn’t get past the muddled story or how long it took for all of these things to happen. There are some truly breathtaking scenes and the action is amazing. With some work this could be the best in its genre.

And maybe this is all just lost in translation. Maybe there are cultural themes here that the story is relying on that I am just missing. But that’s not my problem – you need to make sure it plays to all audiences or why are you releasing it here? Maybe it’s the fault of Miramax, who acquired it. Without an ambassador like John Lasseter maybe it wasn’t handled properly. It’s still worth watching.

Princess Mononoke — Oh, and I like the little Kodama!