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Michael Keaton - Batman Departed
by Judy Sloane
as featured in the August 1995 issue of Film Review Special #12
Posted by raleagh on Tue, 30th October 2007 at 10:13am
This article has been viewed 1480 times |
In lieu of the extraordinary opening weekend grosses of Batman Forever across America, which added up to an amazing $53 million, it seems fitting to return to the man who, in 1989, brought the Caped Crusader to the big screen. Michael Keaton, along with director Tim Burton, took the legendary comic-book hero to new heights with their dazzlingly dark concept of Batman that amassed umpteen millions and delighted and satisfied batfans all over the world.
Keaton first worked with Tim Burton in 1988 on the quirky comedy Beetlejuice, and recognized immediately a rapport that seemed built-in.
"During the discussions, and then the first couple of days of making Beetlejuice, he and I connected," says Keaton. "I started to get more and more in touch with how Tim expressed himself, and what he liked and didn't like. I thought he had a tremendous sense of humour. I came in really ready to go with my character, still not knowing much about him, and I guess it could of fallen apart then had he been the kind of person who would be hesitant, or not trusting, or have his own kind of petty agenda. He didn't have any of that. He was wide open to what I was going to do, and he added to what I wanted to do."
During their second collaboration, the uniquely conceptualized Batman, Keaton found that his and Burton's sympatico beliefs still were in tune, particularly regarding the Caped Crusader.
"You express yourself through your eyes," he confides. "That was the function of the character as Tim and I saw him." Batman accumulated over $400million in worldwide ticket sales, and the director and actor found that decision-time was raising its ugly, but profitable, head.
"I think a lot of people would be hesitant to make a sequel," acknowledges Keaton. "I was hesitant because a lot of times they just aren't as good. And everybody's standing outside the door with a mallet waiting for you to mess up the sequel. Tim and I got together and discussed it. We really wanted to make it a better movie. I wanted [Batman Returns], as did Tim to be something that could stand on its own. It's not really a sequel, it' s another story."
Keaton's respect for Tim Burton's unique talent is obvious. "He's the only director I know who's so conceptual," he says. "He goes from his brain, out his hand, through the pencil to a page, to the screen."
Of the controversy that greeted Batman Returns regarding the appropriateness of a child viewing the movie, Keaton agrees that it might have been too intense for adolescents. "I wasn't ready for some of it [the violence] to be totally honest. When you make movies like this, you don't know what' s in a lot of them. It's so huge you just know what you shoot during the day. I was pretty much surprised by a lot of this stuff. I think it is a tad too twisted for young, young kids."
Keaton even considered discussing the film with his son before he allowed him to see it. "I was sitting thinking, 'Okay, now Sean and I have to have a talk here!' He's nine so he can do it, but there are a couple of things that I don't think he needs to see, not that it's violent but it's powerful. There are big explosions and even though it's in a bigger other world, and I think that's the reason it's okay, there's still stuff that's pretty gripping. That end scene with Michelle and Chris Walken, that's rough. So I'd say nine, ten, eleven and twelve you're cool, but I don't know I would say five or six... it's pretty scary."
Despite the success of the first two Batman movies, Michael Keaton passed over Batman Forever, convinced that there would be little reward in reprising the character again. Now, he is intent on moving on, having made the romantic comedy Speechless with Geena Davis and the cloning comedy Multiplity. And he's never looked back. |
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