Per FilmRatings.com, The Batman has earned a PG-13 rating for “strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material.”
Warner Bros. wanted the $100 million film to be seen by as large of an audience as possible so an R-rating was out of the question.
Some fans were hoping for an ultra dark R rating… instead the studio stayed safe for teenage crowds ..
The most famous soundtrack in movie history, used even today in various cartoons and even Batman lego games… makes the composer angry?!
Yes!
“I could have scored the film with some percussion, a harmonica, and a banjo because all you hear are some percussion hits in big moments, but you can’t really hear what the orchestra is doing,” says composer Danny Elfman.
The hit score, which has become synonymous with the Dark Knight since 1989, apparently strikes a sour note with Elfman. He spoke on the Premier Guitar podcast..
“I was terribly unhappy with the dub in Batman,” Elfman said. “They did it in the old school way where you do the score and turn it into the ‘professionals’ who turn the nobs and dub it in. And dubbing had gotten really wonky in those years. We recorded [multi-channel recording on] three channels — right, center, left, — and basically, they took the center channel out of the music completely.” “It didn’t have any care put into it. I’ve had many scores play in big action scenes that really propelled the scene. And in the end of the [Batman] dub, I realized I could have had the orchestra play anything. I could have scored the film with some percussion, a harmonica, and a banjo because all you hear are some percussion hits in big moments, but you can’t really hear what the orchestra is doing.”
“That was my first lesson in how so-called professionals can take a score and the soundtrack to a movie and just do their thing in a very noncommittal way that is easiest for them; plunk it off to the side and just get the dialogue.”
x x x
All of this critical commentary.. of HIS MOST FAMOUS SCORE!!??!
Perhaps he hears something we don’t.. or something different.
To refresh your BAT BRAIN, here is a the score itself.. in all its glory. (Our opinion only apparently) … Oh, the Youtube video is published on the official Danny Elfman Youtube channel, just an FYI 🙂
Parusing some parts of the NET, I found this great article from someone on the appeal of BATMAN RETURNS..
I loved this part of the story:
As child I loved the film for the simple reason that it was a Batman movie. I was tone deaf and just liked seeing Batman and Catwoman and the Penguin do cool and crazy stuff. I rediscovered it as an adolescent and it has stuck with ever since growing and growing in personal esteem the more I watch it. At first I loved it for being weird. Then I started to chew on it, mull it over and think about what it’s actually saying. It’s around this time I found the film had a devoted fanbase – a fanbase that has become more vocal over time.
Me too!
And as a matter of fact, I realized a few years back that this is actually a Christmas movie.. that the feeling of the season is oddly within. the musical score! the scenery! And even Max Schrek with his odd similarity to Donald Trump.. it all makes this movie amazing in all ways..
Batman Returns was released on June 19, 1992.
It grossed $266.8 million worldwide on a budget of $80 million and received mostly positive reviews.
This film has more to offer than what we all remembered.. We can now have a renewed appreciation for the movie after all this time.. all these Christmases..
CATWOMAN with her many lives.. the Penguin with his odd parents who didn’t want him (Pee Wee Herman was the dad!!) …. the scenery of snow and coldness that solidified Tim Burton’s sequel to the original 1989 film was amazing, as I look back..
It goes perfectly fine compared against the landscape of our modern times.. Burton and Elfman’s score can be thanked for that, along with Keaton’s Batman and Pfeifer’s Woman who plays the Cat.
As the film ends, as Catwoman stands tall, it gives us that melodramatic feeling of victory and an “Empire strikes back” feeling.. So much so that we wish Burton would have directed Batman 3 without the nippled suit.. without Mr Freeze.. without the rest of the awfulness that ensued throughout the rest of the 1990s…
Batman and BATMAN RETURNS…?
Greatness personified…
It is as charming now as it was then, as miserable and also equally amazing.
Some out there only think DIE HARD was a great movie for the season..Sure, that is set against the back drop of Christmas, too.. But something else magical resides in BATMAN RETURNS.
So re-discover 1992’s hit BATMAN RETURNS. Released in the month of June so many years ago….and since then a reason for the season..
The Christopher Nolan Batman Franchise has been a unique and popular addition to the lure of the caped crusader.. But one scene that was apparently removed almost put the film into NC-17 waters.
The Dark Knight Rises would have been stamped NC-17, and Nolan avoided that simply by removing the original death scene for Matthew Modine’s character.
Modine talked about this during an appearance on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast to promote the 4K release of his 1987 movie Full Metal Jacket:
He cut my death scene out of Dark Knight Rises. Because he said it was so violent that it would have gotten an NC-17 rating. … Marion Cotillard — after Bane dies and Batman, Chris [Bale] gets stabbed, she gets in one of those vehicles. She starts to drive away, and I’m shooting at her. And I got run over. All it does is, it just cuts, and I’m on the ground, dead. But it was so violent. The guy that was doubling me got hit by the car. They put a plexiglass thing on the front of [the car] and he got hit. They had ropes to pull him into the air, but he went up and they dropped him from about 15 feet, and the sound of his body hitting the cobblestone street in front of the New York Stock Exchange, it was sickening. And I remember I looked at Christopher Nolan when we shot it and his face was white. He was like, ‘OK, let’s move on. We got that.’ But it was like, ‘Oh my God, is that guy going to get up? Is he okay?’ But [Nolan] said that if he would have put it in the movie, it would’ve got an NC-17 rating because it was so violent.
Now the NC-17 commentary is an opinion from Modine–not official.
Modine may be right on how the violent aspect of DKR would have been more intense, there are plenty of other films that feature mild gore and still end up with a PG-13 or an R..
It may be unfair to critique Modine’s commentary in such a way–but most news sites are throwing headlines up treating it as fact..
Without seeing the actual scene it is difficult to tell.
Perhaps Modine is right..
The scene’s gore would have earned the score.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2qLLMrc7qs]
Ben Affleck out.
No Matt Damon is not in.
But instead… the bat sign is shining brightly into the Hollywood sky … to call a vampire!?
Several actors are purportedly being considered for the part, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Gosling, Jack O’Connell and Jon Hamm. Disney star Nick Jonas has even expressed interest in becoming the Caped Crusader.
And enter a new rumor into the mill: Rumors tonight that Robert Pattison is going to wear the cape…
Or they are rumors…
Hell.. Why not just bring back Michael Keaton while he’s still able!
Full synopsis of first live action TEEN TITANS GO premiere
In the series premiere episode, Rachel Roth, a guarded teenager haunted by dark visions and powers, flees her home in Traverse City, Michigan when her life is threatened by a mysterious intruder. Arriving in Detroit, she falls under the protective wing of Detective Dick Grayson, who’s moonlighting as the dangerous vigilante, Robin – now independent of his longtime partnership with Batman in Gotham. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the mysterious Kory Anders awakens – untouched – from a car crash with no memory of her identity. Following leads to Russian club-owner Konstantin Kovar (MARK ANTONY KRUPA), she learns that she also is pursuing the girl known as Rachel Roth. Lastly, in Ohio, we meet Gar Logan, the mischievous Beast Boy who uses his transformative powers to his advantage
# # #
Breyfogle was an industry legend through and through, making up– along with Alan Grant– one half of one of the best Batman creative teams of all time. His work was moody and mysterious while still having an undeniable energy. Truly a perfect fit for the Dark Knight.
Funeral arrangements for Breyfogle will be announced by the Erickson Crowley Peterson Funeral Home. The cause of his death has not yet been shared publicly.
Breyfogle is best known for his epic run on the Batman comic books from 1987 to 1995. Breyfogle worked with Alan Grant on Detective Comics and introduced villains the Ventriloquist in their first Batman story and the Ratcacther in their third.
Breyfogle drew Batman for six years (1987-1993), penciling Detective Comics from 1987-1990, then moving to the standalone Batman comic to introduce Tim Drake, the third Robin post Jason Todd, from 1990-1992, and finally starting a new Batman series for DC titled “Batman: Shadow of the Bat” from 1992-1993 which saw the Grant/Breyfogle team create three new characters, Jeremiah Arkham, Mr. Zsasz, and Amygdala.
Instead of letting the paparazzi ruin the prize, Todd Phillips is going to fight back with his own images…
This is the new JOKER…
Director of the upcoming Joker film Todd Phillips has posted another shot of Joaquin Phoenix in makeup on Instagram, though this time he is decidedly in a full clown costume.
The Instagram post is simply paired with the caption “Work” suggesting that this is Phoenix playing Arthur Fleck, the Joker prior to making his full transition into the Clown Prince of Crime. It appears that this version of the Joker worked as a literal clown, perhaps providing entertainment to audiences before being completely “disregarded by society.”