Date Night with Batman and the Joker
As part of our anniversary celebration, my wife and I went to a special screening of Batman: The Killing Joke in Staten Island. And it was her idea!
[Jock from 1980s college movie points and shouts: "Nerrrrrrds!"]
So yeah, it was an actual date night, with a babysitter and everything. The last time we had a date night was...
[Let's see.... I think the boy was... factor in.... then there was...]
Never.
We snuggled into an isolated pair of seats in the theater, held hands, had a roundabout, sort-of-romantic drive back to Brooklyn afterwards. A wonderful date.
The movie, you ask?
***************************
[Spoilers for Batman: The Killing Joke ahead]
The Killing Joke, the original graphic novel, has a dual reputation. On the one hand, it is probably the best portrayal of the Joker in any form, with a psychological depth previously untapped. On the other hand, it is vehemently criticized for its violence and brutality--especially towards Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon--and for sending mainstream comic books down a dark, grim path (from which they have yet to return).
So, in adapting the comic book for the big screen, the creative braintrust preserved the source material, but added a long, LONG preamble focusing on Barbara--hoping to "rescue" the character from her role as helpless victim in the male protagonist's drama.
And they botched it completely.
It was embarrassing. Bruce Timm and Brian Azzarello--guys who know Batman's world inside out--and their approach to Barbara Gordon was insultingly juvenile, reducing her to the lead in a bad prime time superhero soap opera, complete with Gay Best Friend.
The idea that Batgirl would be rattled by a smug, pretty boy would-be mob kingpin is ridiculous. Paris France (yes, that's his name!) wouldn't have lasted three seconds in Batman: The Animated Series.
As for the sexual relationship between Bruce and Barbara... I wasn't shocked. (If you've seen any episodes of Batman Beyond, you really couldn't be.) But it contributed nothing to the story, nothing to the characters--a complete waste of time when there were so many other, richer thematic avenues to explore.
Instead of pointless action scenes against sixth-rate crooks, how about more fully exploring Barbara's relationship with her dad, how she was inspired by Jim Gordon's dedication to justice (as well as by the mysterious guy in the cape). Instead of soap opera, how about testing Barbara's character in a meaningful way--let's say, an incident of mass chaos in Gotham City, where she sees the madness just behind the veil of civilization, where Barbara, Bruce and Jim would be pushed to their limit to restore order.
(And yes, it would tie into the more intimate conflict between Batman and the Joker later on.)
But once the source material kicked in, things improved quickly. A lot of Alan Moore's dialogue came through intact, and many of Brian Bolland's panels were duplicated with loving detail. All of the graphic novel's themes were given ample time to breathe and the violence and brutality of the Joker's assaults on Barbara and Jim Gordon weren't sweetened in the slightest. (The movie earned its "R" rating in the states.)
The voices: Tara Strong has always done great work as Barbara/Batgirl--I just wish she had better material here. And if Kevin Conroy sounded a bit rusty as Batman, Ray Wise backed him up beautifully as Jim Gordon. (Those torture scenes could NOT have been easy.)
But let's face it: this movie lived or died with Mark Hamill's Joker. If he didn't deliver a bravura performance, the whole thing would have collapsed like a house of cards. Hamill delivered. (It's a testament to Hamill's talent that even with Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson as competition, you could convincingly argue that Hamill is the definitive Joker.)
Hamill gave us the madman, the sadist, the cynical commentator, the song and dance man, the small-time crook and bad comic. But most of all, he let us hear the frustration in the Joker's voice when he couldn't make anyone laugh at the insanity of life. It's as if--in his own mad way--the Joker was trying to reach across that unbridgeable gulf between him and Batman and make Bats understand how he felt.
The idea of the Joker reaching out to Batman as much as Batman was reaching out to him hit me much harder here than in print. It made the famous final scene--and that final joke--work better than I ever would have believed. After enduring such a huge disappointment at the start, it was a great way to end the evening.
[Jock from 1980s college movie points and shouts: "Nerrrrrrds!"]
So yeah, it was an actual date night, with a babysitter and everything. The last time we had a date night was...
[Let's see.... I think the boy was... factor in.... then there was...]
Never.
We snuggled into an isolated pair of seats in the theater, held hands, had a roundabout, sort-of-romantic drive back to Brooklyn afterwards. A wonderful date.
The movie, you ask?
***************************
[Spoilers for Batman: The Killing Joke ahead]
The Killing Joke, the original graphic novel, has a dual reputation. On the one hand, it is probably the best portrayal of the Joker in any form, with a psychological depth previously untapped. On the other hand, it is vehemently criticized for its violence and brutality--especially towards Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon--and for sending mainstream comic books down a dark, grim path (from which they have yet to return).
So, in adapting the comic book for the big screen, the creative braintrust preserved the source material, but added a long, LONG preamble focusing on Barbara--hoping to "rescue" the character from her role as helpless victim in the male protagonist's drama.
And they botched it completely.
It was embarrassing. Bruce Timm and Brian Azzarello--guys who know Batman's world inside out--and their approach to Barbara Gordon was insultingly juvenile, reducing her to the lead in a bad prime time superhero soap opera, complete with Gay Best Friend.
The idea that Batgirl would be rattled by a smug, pretty boy would-be mob kingpin is ridiculous. Paris France (yes, that's his name!) wouldn't have lasted three seconds in Batman: The Animated Series.
As for the sexual relationship between Bruce and Barbara... I wasn't shocked. (If you've seen any episodes of Batman Beyond, you really couldn't be.) But it contributed nothing to the story, nothing to the characters--a complete waste of time when there were so many other, richer thematic avenues to explore.
Instead of pointless action scenes against sixth-rate crooks, how about more fully exploring Barbara's relationship with her dad, how she was inspired by Jim Gordon's dedication to justice (as well as by the mysterious guy in the cape). Instead of soap opera, how about testing Barbara's character in a meaningful way--let's say, an incident of mass chaos in Gotham City, where she sees the madness just behind the veil of civilization, where Barbara, Bruce and Jim would be pushed to their limit to restore order.
(And yes, it would tie into the more intimate conflict between Batman and the Joker later on.)
But once the source material kicked in, things improved quickly. A lot of Alan Moore's dialogue came through intact, and many of Brian Bolland's panels were duplicated with loving detail. All of the graphic novel's themes were given ample time to breathe and the violence and brutality of the Joker's assaults on Barbara and Jim Gordon weren't sweetened in the slightest. (The movie earned its "R" rating in the states.)
The voices: Tara Strong has always done great work as Barbara/Batgirl--I just wish she had better material here. And if Kevin Conroy sounded a bit rusty as Batman, Ray Wise backed him up beautifully as Jim Gordon. (Those torture scenes could NOT have been easy.)
But let's face it: this movie lived or died with Mark Hamill's Joker. If he didn't deliver a bravura performance, the whole thing would have collapsed like a house of cards. Hamill delivered. (It's a testament to Hamill's talent that even with Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson as competition, you could convincingly argue that Hamill is the definitive Joker.)
Hamill gave us the madman, the sadist, the cynical commentator, the song and dance man, the small-time crook and bad comic. But most of all, he let us hear the frustration in the Joker's voice when he couldn't make anyone laugh at the insanity of life. It's as if--in his own mad way--the Joker was trying to reach across that unbridgeable gulf between him and Batman and make Bats understand how he felt.
The idea of the Joker reaching out to Batman as much as Batman was reaching out to him hit me much harder here than in print. It made the famous final scene--and that final joke--work better than I ever would have believed. After enduring such a huge disappointment at the start, it was a great way to end the evening.