Year?

[galenj01]

is there any indication of when this movie takes place.

[riddler]

nothing beyond 33 years after the Penguin was dumped in the river as a baby. All 4 films in this series are undated with no indication of time spent between them.

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

It's part of the style of the series that the period is a mix. You can't really date them. Remember the reference to Ted Bundy however. So, sometime after the 80's, near the start of the 90's? But in Gotham the 40's style is still running in vogue in 1992 

However I personally believe some time passes between each of the film's. I don't assume a matter of days, months or weeks elapse between installments. Can't speak for other fans on that one. My general excuse is the look of Gotham which brilliantly looks different in each film. I just feel a planning commission as huge as that would take at least some time surely?

[thecolorsblend]

But in Gotham the 40's style is still running in vogue in 1992 

Is it? Gotham City in B89 looks pretty decrepit and rundown. If you want to imagine a history for the city, it could be that Gotham in the Burtonverse peaked back in the 1940's (perhaps as a munitions supply center for WW2?).

When the war end, industry went to crap and the city's infrastructure followed shortly thereafter. Corruption wasn't far behind. One day two wealthy upper-crusters get perforated in an alley by some then unknown thug in front of their 8 year old son. The rest is history.

After B89, Borg has fulfilled his self-imposed mandate of shining the light of the law on the nest of vipers. Industry has possibly somewhat resumed and the city is being renovated but, perhaps in recognition of the man who truly runs the city, the architecture has taken on a more fascist aesthetic. There are still some gothic overtones owing to the city's distant past but the rebuilding and renovation has a kinda sorta stripped classicism flavor for me. Not everything. But some things.

[JokerMeThis]

There's no year. The timelessness and otherworldliness of these movies is part of the appeal for me. We see the mixing of different eras in the architecture, clothes, cars, cameras, microphones. Many are old-fashioned and yet we also have color television and personal computers. On Batman: The Animated Series they even went further with the mixing of the old with the modern by showing Gotham TV as black and white.

Even history seems different as we can see in some of the newspapers in Batman '89 which show Harry Truman is president and other events of that era are occurring in the present alongside color television, modern cars and references to Ted Bundy, and Richard Nixon's and Spiro Agnew's scandals in the 1970's.

Gotham looks a lot more modern in the Schumacher Batman movies yet it can only be a few years after Batman Returns.

[galenj01]

I watched Batman Returns yesterday - when we see penguin in the records room he is writing the names of the first born sons of Gotham the birthdates are late twenies early thirties.

so the film could be set in the mid 30s.

Even though the 4 movies are grouped I believe they are all standalone stories that don't necessarily follow on from each other. Although i am aware of the nods to each previous film.

[johnnygobbs]

I watched Batman Returns yesterday - when we see penguin in the records room he is writing the names of the first born sons of Gotham the birthdates are late twenies early thirties.

so the film could be set in the mid 30s.

Even though the 4 movies are grouped I believe they are all standalone stories that don't necessarily follow on from each other. Although i am aware of the nods to each previous film.

The dates at the top of the birth certificates, as I recall, are the 1950s.  I think the 1920/30s dates at the bottom of the certificates refer to the first-borns' parents' birthdates.

[galenj01]

The dates at the top of the birth certificates, as I recall, are the 1950s.  I think the 1920/30s dates at the bottom of the certificates refer to the first-borns' parents' birthdates.

ah I stand corrected.

[Furstmobile]

The biggest clue is on the Shreck's delivery truck. They've been serving Gotham since 1954.

[johnnygobbs]

The biggest clue is on the Shreck's delivery truck. They've been serving Gotham since 1954.

In what sense is that a clue as to the time period (other than to confirm it's not pre-1950s)?