This is not the Tim Burton film. This is not any of the Christopher Nolan movies. No, this is 'Batman', the real movie. The first live-action theatrical superhero film, excepting the serials, although corrections will be welcomed with style. It's daft, lunatic and far too long. Adam West and Burt Ward light it up and Lee Meriwether leads the gang of all star supervillains with panache.
Making a movie of a television series while the series is still in production is a pretty rare activity. The only other examples I can think of are 'The Muppet Movie' and 'The Great Muppet Caper', although the extremely mediocre 'Star Trek: Generations' might also fit in this category. 'Batman' is probably the most faithful theatrical conversion of any television series to date ('Star Trek II' is a slightly different category, I think), maintaining the spirit of the series while adding enough scope and scale to be a big screen endeavour. Does it work? Well, that's the fiddly question. The answer is not certain in this writer's mind. It played constantly over the decades on television, home video and DVD, and has achieved a level of saturation that precludes rational thought. It has a war-surplus pre-nuclear submarine with gigantic penguin flippers for propulsion, for goodness sake, and Lee Meriwether at her most sophisticated!
Objectively, is it good? Let's take a stance and stop prevaricating. Yes, it probably is. It's a good film. It's a funny caper that's a little too long. The colours are amazing, the gags are ridiculous, the visuals are spectacular, and the toys are amazing. The problem is that the villains don't quite work for one hundred and five minutes, except for Catwoman and possibly the Riddler. Something strange happens, and the paradigm of the series flips, making Batman and Robin the most interesting characters. Could it be Adam West and Burt Ward were just naturals for the big screen, more so than the caricatures that are the the series versions of Penguin and the Joker? Could that be the secret of the movie? It's a curious part of the end product.
Ultimately, it's a very important film. Even as a comedy, this version of Batman still encapsulates his status as a detective more than any other live-action version, and the principle if not the reasoning behind a mysterious crimefighter and his vast array of gadgets. (Reasoning: Mortal man begins fighting crime, and realises he is only ever one fight away from ending it all in crippling disability or death, and therefore designs a thousand devices to avoid fisticuffs.) It also has so many classic moments that it can't be anything but great, right? The highlights from 'Batman' (1966) include: "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!", the penguin submarine, the polaris riddles, Bruce Wayne warming milk in a brandy snifter, the villains dehydrating the United World security council, Alfred's mask disguise, jetpack umbrellas, THAT SHARK, and the great and singular 'kapow' fight on the deck of the submarine. It's a bizarre and ingenious endeavour, all in all and utterly unrepeatable now. There's not the writing or production talent to make something like this, 'Get Smart' or 'Star Trek' in this era. 'Batman', on my recent reviewing of the show, has been revived most faithfully in my mind.
'Batman' is a daft and well-polished movie from the 1960s. Considering the quality of comedies in that decade, this may actually be in the top echelon from that time period. The sixties were not a great time for comedies, excepting other minor gems like 'Cat Ballou' or 'Support Your Local Sheriff'. Oh, if only this one had had another set of 'kapows'...
O.
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