One of the more popular films that I have yet to cover for The Legionnaire is Batman (1989).  Nowadays, what was once a smash hit that everyone had to see in the late 1980s gets compared to its more recent cinematic cousin, The Dark Knight(2008).  The reason for the comparison has nothing to do with the Caped Crusader on which these franchises are based.  Rather, it is the arguably equally famous antagonist, The Joker.  Jack Nicholson’s portrayal in Batman of the diabolical criminal with the clown face and perpetual smile set a difficult standard to follow.  When they rebooted the series with Christian Bale in the costume with Batman Begins (2005), they waited until the second film, The Dark Knight, to introduce Batman’s classic foe.  Remarkably, Heath Ledger’s performance topped Nicholson.  That is not to belittle Batman.  It is a different movie from a different time.  You should get a sense of that variance from reading this review.

The criminals that rob a family of theater goers of their valuables have no sense of Batman (Michael Keaton), a costumed vigilante they believe to be an urban legend.  Fiction becomes fact when he swopes down on them with a warning: to tell their fellow ne’er-do-wells about him.  As the police clean up the scene, led by Lieutenant Max Eckhardt (William Hootkins), nosy newspaper reporter Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) starts asking about “The Bat.”  The official policy of the Gotham City Police is that this vigilante does not exist, but that is not the only thing Lieutenant Eckhardt is hiding.  Once he has an opening, he slips away to a back alley where he meets Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) to receive his payoff.  Jack is part of the organized crime enterprise headed by Carl Grissom (Jack Palance), who runs deviant behavior in the city.  Because of the size and scope of this organization, Gotham has an image problem that it is trying to improve upon ahead of its 200^th Anniversary Festival.  In spite of the violence, Mayor Borg (Lee Wallace) is insistent that the festivities will go on as scheduled.  To help it along, he is relying on a fund raiser being held by Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), the richest man in the city and one of its primary benefactors.  Knowing that Police Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle) will be in attendance, Alexander is determined to get into the party to learn more about The Bat.  Accompanying him is renowned photographer Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), who has come to Gotham City hoping to also discover more about the mysterious crime fighter.  While moving through the crowd, she catches Bruce’s eye, and they begin to move closer to one another.  However, before he can make any proper moves on her, his faithful butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough), informs the master of the house of a development overheard by Wayne Manor’s security system.  Commissioner Gordon has learned from an anonymous tip sent in by Carl that Jack is taking a crew to rob the Axis Chemical Plant.  Carl has begun to suspect his right-hand man of treachery, and is setting up Jack to be arrested or killed.  In the resulting chaos, Batman comes face-to-face with Jack before the latter falls into a vat of toxic waste.  Somehow, Jack manages to survive, but the experience leaves his features twisted into a permanent smile, along with turning his skin white.  Further, it makes an already unbalanced outlaw even more insane.  Adopting the moniker “The Joker,” he goes straight to Carl, murders the boss, and takes over as the person in charge.  As The Joker establishes himself, the relationship between Bruce and Vicki develops into a romance.  They spend a night together, but the next morning he tells her he is busy when she suggests they spend more time in each other’s company.  Initially, she is understanding of his schedule, but then Alfred indicates that this might not be the case.  As any new girlfriend would do, she decides to follow him.  Please forgive my sarcasm.  In doing so, she witnesses Bruce visiting the site where his parents had been killed when he was a child, the event that propelled him to become Batman.  At the same time, The Joker has sent his minions to see about the people investigating his enemy, and this is how he catches a glimpse of Vicki.  Wanting to possess her, he sets up a fake meeting between her and Bruce that Batman is able to foil at the last moment.  The vigilante takes her to his lair, the famous Bat Cave, where he gives her the information he has uncovered about The Joker’s gas attacks that are killing people around the city.  After this, Alfred points out how good of a person is Vicki, though Bruce is against any thought of a serious entanglement with her because of his alter ego.  It is Alfred’s persuasiveness that gets Bruce to Vicki’s door to admit that he is Batman.  Before he can do so, though, The Joker appears to once more threaten Vicki.  Bruce prevents anything serious, but Vicki decides to go to Wayne Manor for answers.  During this visit, Alfred brings her into the Bat Cave and now she knows Bruce’s secret identity.  She wonders why he must do what he does, but we will talk more about this subject in a moment.  For now, The Joker is following through on his threat to disrupt the Festival by handing out millions of dollars to the crowd.  His plot is to lure as many people as possible to the parade in order to unleash his deadly chemical.  Of course, Alexander and Vicki are on hand to cover it, and Vicki falls into The Joker’s hands.  The ultimate battle takes place on top of the tallest church ever, from which The Joker has a deadly fall.  With this, Batman gives Gotham the Bat Signal for future crises, and Vicki departs for other reporting.

The famous spotlight that Batman gifts to Gotham at the end is part of his commitment to being a sort of one-man army against crime.  To a degree, you can understand why Bruce would see himself as being a sort of Lone Ranger against deviance.  As a Catholic, in a general sense, I know that no one is truly on their own.  Thankfully, none of us are tested as is the Caped Crusader, but we know that God gives us what we need for whatever situation.  I know that can seem a little cheesy, but that comes from an incorrect understanding of what that phrase means.  In our new age, pseudo-philosophical society that blends aspects of all religions into a giant pile of nothing, saying that we draw our strength from the Holy Spirit can sound like a Jedi Knight using the Force.  Lest we forget, too, that there is an official Jedi religion.  Bruce Wayne does not need any mystical energy binding and connecting the galaxy, or whatever equivalent the writers would conjure for his world.  Instead, as is evident, he has the money to provide him the resources to make himself practically invincible.  Though the film does not make this point, this can also be seen as a blessing.  Clearly, Bruce is a blessed man.  He has bullet proof cars, planes, and even clothing.  Thankfully, he uses this all to be a force for good.  This is what God asked of us in employing our talents and treasures.  Everything we do should be for the building up of His Kingdom.  That does not mean that anything that falls outside of this purview is sinful.  One can get into a ridiculous chain of semantics in thinking about such matters.  The important thing is intentionality.  Batman does what he does because he sees a need and fills it.  If you feel God doing the same in your life, you should probably do the same.  You will likely not need a cape, but your efforts could be just as effective.

Writing that last paragraph comparing what we do in our daily lives to Batman fighting crime felt a little like a public service announcement (PSA) for getting kids to be on their best behavior.  That is fitting because the movie is cartoonish, though it did garner an Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration in 1990.  That might be the only reason to watch it because otherwise it feels pretty dated.