Batman (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Biographies-Cast & Crew Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	121:10 (Case: 133)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Tim Burton
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jack Nicholson Michael Keaton Kim Basinger Robert Wuhl Pat Hingle Billy Dee Williams Michael Gough Jack Palance
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Danny Elfman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    It has been suggested by some people that Batman is a lesser film than Batman Returns, and the exact opposite has been suggested by others. A number of reasons have been cited for both sides of the argument, most of them revolving around screenwriting and cast issues. Personally, I really believe that both films are equally good, but because I am sitting on the fence of this debate, I will outline the points of the two films in the same style as we use here on Michael D's site to compare the Region 4 version of a given title with its Region 1 counterpart.

    Batman misses out on;

• A better-developed musical score due to the cramping of Danny Elfman's style by the presence of Prince.
• Better-developed supporting characters due to the co-operation of Batman (Michael Keaton) with the powers-that be in Gotham City (Pat Hingle).
• A more dynamic arrangement of villains involving the Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the Penguin (Danny DeVito).

• A much more coherently-arranged story.
• A more manic actor and character in the form of the Joker (Jack Nicholson).
• A far more dynamic and well-written story with better progression.

Video

    Colour saturation was muted from the beginning of the transfer to the end, and this is a deliberate artistic choice on the part of the director. In terms of colour saturation, this DVD is no different from the original theatrical exhibition. Even the purple and greens of Jack Nicholson's costumes were very muted and drab, reflecting the most recent (at the time) designs of his character. This brings me to a very important detail: Nicholson's dyed green hair in one particular scene has several hundred obvious shades of colour, whereas the VHS version was simply a big green mess. MPEG artefacts were mostly absent from the presentation, in spite of the fact that the transfer rate is less than five megabits per second most of the time. Anyway, now that I am done outlining all the areas where this transfer impresses me, it's time to get into the biggest letdown. Film-to-video artefacts were prevalent throughout the film, especially in the first twenty-five minutes, which are critical to one's enjoyment. Telecine wobble plagues the opening credits and doesn't let up until after the infamous fall into the vat, at which point aliasing makes itself visible from time to time. Although the wobble is quite mild compared to such titles as Dune, it is noticeable enough to make the viewer want to look away. Film artefacts were also quite prevalent, with several black, white, and even blue marks appearing from time to time on the picture, although they were never present to a particularly distracting extent.

    One thing I want to comment on is the absence of RSDL formatting. This transfer would have benefited enormously from RSDL formatting, which would have allowed a higher bitrate. However, there also appears to be a problem with the source material, which certainly doesn't appear to be of the best quality. Perhaps a special edition is in order.

Audio

    The variably consistent music contained in this film is a combination of score music by Danny Elfman and typically formulaic pop songs by Prince. According to my memory, and that of several other people I have spoken to about it, this was the last time that Prince composed any music that was even vaguely worthy of listening to. Danny Elfman thoroughly upstages him at every turn, anyway, which is no surprise given the difference in resources available to each composer. The score music was comprised of very energetic and driving thematic material in a minor scale, lending a certain kind of power to the soundtrack that complemented the on-screen action very nicely. The surprising thing is that Prince's shoddily composed songs were used to accompany the more pedestrian parts of the film such as the anniversary parade, while Danny Elfman's work accompanied the more active parts of the film, most notably the battles in the Axis Chemical plant and the Gotham City cathedral. The only way you could improve the score music in this film is by getting John Williams to re-record it.

    The surround channels had little to do during this film, which reflects the Dolby Stereo source material. Apart from one or two moments during action scenes, they remained silent. In the overall context of the film, the surrounds were used moderately in a non-spectacular fashion. For all the suggestions to the contrary in places other than the final sequence in the cathedral, they may as well have been silent. The subwoofer made up for this by putting a nice bottom end on the special effects, and it enhanced the film very well.

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Cast & Crew Biographies / Production Notes / Film Flash

    The video quality is a major disappointment, and unacceptable given how much money this film made Warner Brothers eleven years ago.

    The audio quality is good, but not great. If ever there was a soundtrack that cries out for re-recording, this is a good candidate.

    Given that even RSDL formatting was left out of this extras package, it is less than nothing.

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