Batman Returns observations

[The Laughing Fish]

Has anybody ever noticed that Max Shreck has a set of padded cell cushions as one of his walls in his office?



It could've been a little in-joke by the set designers telling us the main characters in BR would definitely fit right at home in an asylum, including Batman. It's quite telling right after Selina suffers from her mental breakdown and becomes Catwoman, and here she is in the center of the picture with a slightly crazed look in her eyes, standing in front of a background which foreshadows her need of serious help.

But then again, I AM reading too much into things.

Apparently it's meant to emulate the interior of a coffin. Max Shreck as a name is a vampire reference. Shreck in BR is draining electricity from Gotham City while he also tries draining power from the mayor. In a figurative sense, Shreck the BR character is a vampire.

Thus, his primary domain (his office, of course) resembles the inside of a coffin.

Yes, that makes much more sense. It describes Shreck so well.

I'm looking at the ballroom party scene again, and I want to list all the nods to religious, historical and landmark icons the guests are wearing as their masks.

The Menorah:



The Leaning Tower of Pisa:



The Pantheon:



Mona Lisa:



Big Ben London Clock Tower:



By the way, did anybody else notice the Eye of Providence on Max Shreck's costume hat? Illuminati connection confirmed! 



As far as the set for the ballroom party scene goes, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same set that was used for the scene where Catwoman vandales the department store. Both scenes use the same floor tiles, the same staircase, and the ballroom scene has clothing and other goods on display in the background.

[arnaud187]

Has anybody seen this? A Closer Look: Batman Returns' Impact on Children (July 1992)

[Kamdan]

Has anybody seen this? A Closer Look: Batman Returns' Impact on Children (July 1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWxrHz-JORE[/url

Unfortunately, yes. This kid clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. He must have went to bathroom or get a popcorn refill during the nuclear holocaust scene in Terminator 2.

[johnnygobbs]

Has anybody seen this? A Closer Look: Batman Returns' Impact on Children (July 1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWxrHz-JORE[/url

Unfortunately, yes. This kid clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. He must have went to bathroom or get a popcorn refill during the nuclear holocaust scene in Terminator 2.

That kid is sooo annoying.  And the sad thing is, the audience treats him like he's an authority.

That said, I think Batman Returns has a nastier tone than Terminator 2.  It revels in some of the violence, whereas in T2 the violence is played straight.

On the other hand, Terminator 2 is a lot more violent, and has a greater death toll, than Batman Returns (apart from the Ice Princess, Max Shreck and The Penguin, the deaths take place off-screen, and there aren't that many of them - Batman averts the worst of the potential violence including the drowning of the city's first-born), and Batman Returns has a purposefully cartoonish sensibility (there's very little blood, and even when a bomb is strapped to the Strong Man, he seems to explode with confetti rather than blood and guts).  By contrast, we see various characters being impaled, injected and knocked out with batons in T2, as well as the film's hero, Arnie's Terminator, shoot at several cops (admittedly to simply maim them in self-defence).

[thecolorsblend]

I love BR as it is and I'm grateful to have it.

And yet...

Am I the only one who reads the Daniel Waters drafts and sort of wish one of them had become the shooting script? The film is a bit dark and a bit cynical as it is right now. But the original work Waters did was even more so. In a way, it's a sort of punk rock'ish F You to the mainstream. I can understand how some people might've thought it went too far but it was daring and exciting and different, especially compared to what superhero films these days are like.

So yeah. Am I all alone here?

[johnnygobbs]

I love BR as it is and I'm grateful to have it.

And yet...

Am I the only one who reads the Daniel Waters drafts and sort of wish one of them had become the shooting script? The film is a bit dark and a bit cynical as it is right now. But the original work Waters did was even more so. In a way, it's a sort of punk rock'ish F You to the mainstream. I can understand how some people might've thought it went too far but it was daring and exciting and different, especially compared to what superhero films these days are like.

So yeah. Am I all alone here?

No, you're not.  There are certain things from Waters' original draft I would have liked to have seen in the final film.  That said, I'm really glad they didn't go along with the storyline in which Max Shreck turned out to be The Penguin's elder brother.  I prefer that Max is a self-made man.  It gives him some more pathos rather than simply having him as some silver-spoon guy.