The Films of Joel Schumacher

[Silver Nemesis]

This thread is for serious discussion of Joel Schumacher's filmmaking career, and in particular his projects outside of the Batman franchise. Lately I've been watching a lot of his films and have developed a greater appreciation for his work. I've mentioned in other threads that my opinion of his Batman movies, especially Batman and Robin (1997), has improved over the last couple of years. And my opinion of Schumacher on the whole is that he's a pretty underrated director. Nowadays discussion of his work usually boils down to people whinging about how he put nipples on the batsuit. And while I may have taken that attitude myself in the past, I now find it very disingenuous to a guy who's a lot more talented than most people give him credit for.

The Lost Boys (1987), Flatliners (1990), Falling Down (1993), The Client (1994) and Phone Booth (2002) are all good movies in my opinion. I consider The Lost Boys and Falling Down in particular to be excellent films. The latter of course earned Schumacher a nomination for the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival; a distinction which Tim Burton also received in 1995, but which Christopher Nolan has yet to accomplish. I've only seen bits of Tigerland (2000) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004), so it's not really fair of me to judge them. But based on the bits I have seen, I'd say they both look very promising. I confess I haven't seen St Elmo's Fire (1985), 8mm (1999), Veronica Guerin (2003) or any of his other films which received mixed to negative reviews, so my familiarity with his filmography is definitely slanted towards his more acclaimed pictures.

Watching his pre-Batman films, I find there's surprisingly little foreshadowing of the distinctive stylistic approach he would apply to his comic book adaptations. His - ahem - 'appreciation' of the male form is evident in many of his films, but there's none of the neon extravagance he'd display on the Batman pictures. The closest any of his early films comes to that aesthetic would probably be Flatliners, which features prominent use of coloured lighting effects, painted murals (including graffiti in alleyways) and neoclassical statues resembling those of ancient Roman and Grecian civilisations. It's beautifully shot, but with a dark promethean ambience that's a far cry from the Day-Glo levity of his Batman films.

The tone of Flatliners is extremely dark. Its central subject matter concerns heavy themes of guilt and death, and there's little to no comic relief to lighten the mood. In that sense it reminds me of several other very dark, serious horror films of the same era such as Jacob's Ladder (1990) and Candyman (1992). I'd go so far as to say Flatliners is darker than any of Tim Burton's movies. It's therefore surprising that his Batman films were so much lighter, because Schumacher can definately make dark pictures when he wants to.

Considering the grounded sensibilities of his crime movies, such as Falling Down and The Client, and the contemporary Gothicism displayed in The Lost Boys and Flatliners, I think Schumacher must have seemed like a sound choice to succeed Burton at the time. But based on his pre-Batman filmography, I would've expected his take on the material to be slightly more grounded than Burton's, though perhaps not to the extent of something like The Dark Knight. I guess Batman Begins, tonally and aesthetically, is what I would have expected from Schumacher. But looking at his other films, one thing becomes very clear: his creative approach to the Batman material was deliberate and efficiently executed. You can argue that his approach was badly conceived, but I don't think it's fair to say his Batman films were badly made. They were well made, just not in the style most people wanted. But Schumacher adopted that style on purpose and ran with it, just like Burton did with Batman Returns, and Nolan with The Dark Knight. You may not like his vision, but you've got to credit his technical skill for realising it so fully on screen.

So what do others think of Schumacher's work outside of the Batman franchise? Is he a commercially-driven hack who sold out to the studio bosses? Or is he an unfairly maligned auteur whose career deserves re-evaluation? Which films of his do you think are good, and which not so good?

[zDBZ]

But looking at his other films, one thing becomes very clear: his creative approach to the Batman material was deliberate and efficiently executed. You can argue that his approach was badly conceived, but I don't think it's fair to say his Batman films were badly made. They were well made, just not in the style most people wanted. But Schumacher adopted that style on purpose and ran with it, just like Burton did with Batman Returns, and Nolan with The Dark Knight. You may not like his vision, but you've got to credit his technical skill for realising it so fully on screen.

That's a fair assessment.

But I'm afraid that I don't share your enthusiasm for Schumacher's non-Batman work. I'll qualify that by saying that I've only seen Phone Booth and Phantom of the Opera, but between these and Forever, I was put off looking at the rest of his output. I found Phone Booth monotonous and unengaging, and while I don't think that Phantom is one of the greatest pieces of musical theatre, a much better film could have been made out of it. Bad casting and some questionable aesthetic choices really killed that one (no one else was bothered by the fact that when the Phantom sings "turn your thoughts from cold unfeeling light," his lair is lit up by a million candles bringing everything into clear luminescence?)

[The Laughing Fish]

I saw a few of Schumacher's other movies. I happen to think Phone Booth was an excellent thriller. A chilling story about a sniper who kills the most corrupt men, explaining his reasoning as he holds a deadbeat publicist hostage.  Kiefer Sutherland's was rather chilling throughout the film.

8mm on the other hand was awful, very bleak and depressing. I got to say that towards the end where Nicholas Cage is attacked by the girl's killer, who explains he kills because he simply enjoys doing it and not because of having any reasons for doing it, is very disturbing and has stayed fresh in my mind ever since. No pretentious monologues like you see in today's movies, just simply "mom and dad never abused me, I kill because I like it".

St Elmo's Fire was your typical '80s movie featuring young adults. I only saw the first ten minutes of The Client, and realised it wasn't for me.

[riddler]

I'll bring up a film which hasn't been mentioned yet, the one he made between his two bat films: A time to kill.

Outstanding, gritty, daring and controversial yet Schumacher delivers on this one. Now the central acting is good too but this was Matthew McConaheys breakout film. He says he wanted to do a batman film Nolan style, maybe he could have done it this way; it is kind of a Nolan tone but with more entertainment.

His career seems to be over though his last 3 films have all flopped.