R.I.P Joel Schumacher

[eledoremassis02]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/joel-schumacher-dead-dies-batman-director-1234644961/

[Edd Grayson]

Sad news. R.I.P. Joel Schumacher! 

[thecolorsblend]

RIP, Mr. Schumacher.

And it sucks that his obit linked up there mentions the nipples. Not the time or place, people.

[galenj01]

Just read the news. RIP

[Silver Nemesis]

It's only in the past six or seven years that I've come to appreciate what a talented filmmaker Schumacher was. The Lost Boys and Falling Down are both legit classics that I never tire or re-watching. Flatliners, The Client and Phone Booth are good films too. And of course I love his Batman movies. Yes, both of them. I've also heard he was a nice guy in real life.

Rest in peace.

[johnnygobbs]

At the time of their release, I was very ambivalent about the Schumacher Batman films, as like many of you (I suspect) I dearly wanted a third Burton Batman instalment, but over time I've learned to love Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, and appreciate Schumacher's iteration of the character as a particularly unique take, the like of which we're unlikely to ever get again, in this era of mostly very earnest and ultra-serious comic-book movies (Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor: Ragnarok excepted).  Now we've had the Nolan-verse and the Snyder films, and we're soon to get a Reeves franchise (hopefully), it seems very churlish to criticise the Schumacher films for their campness and silliness.

Schumacher ultimately made family-friendly Batman films (unlike the Burton, Nolan, Snyder, and presumably Reeves' films, there is very little in BF or B&R that is unsuitable for a pre-teen, and even the more adult stuff mostly flies under the radar), that embraced the colour and vibrancy of the comics, particularly from the post-Hayes Code 1950s and 60s era, giving us genuinely fantastical, vivid, and occasionally super-powered villains.  His films were also extremely sexy, and embraced both the female, and male, physical form in a genre that had hitherto mostly reduced women to simpering sex objects whilst ignoring the female, or indeed gay male, gaze.  Schumacher's Batman films are also very underrated in terms of his occasionally inspired casting (Carrey was a great pick for The Riddler, and his performance is one of the most memorable in the entire Batman movie canon, and although Schwarzenegger was, unfortunately, lumbered with some terrible one-liners that undercut the character's innate tragedy, I could totally see what Schumacher was aiming for when he said that Freeze should be "big and strong like he was chiseled out of a glacier").

But the campy occasionally 'so bad it's good' fun of his Batman films apart, it's easy and unfair to ignore the rest of Schumacher's genuinely impressive filmography, including the legitimately excellent likes of The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Falling Down (one of the most provocative and thought-provoking studio films to come out of 1990s Hollywood), The Client, A Time to Kill, Tigerland, and Phonebooth, as well as the massively underrated St. Elmo's Fire (although I may be alone on that one).  And as Silver Nemesis points out, he came across as a very likeable character, and one I should add, was refreshingly candid and open about the type of prima donna behaviour and bad attitudes of his colleagues and peers, that send most celebs and Hollywood types into PR overdrive.

So, Rest in Peace Joel, and thanks for all the great films.

[Travesty]

RIP 

[The Dark Knight]

Rest In Peace, Joel. Your Batman films were a big part of my childhood.

[The Laughing Fish]

RIP, Mr. Schumacher.

And it sucks that his obit linked up there mentions the nipples. Not the time or place, people.

People being insensitive assholes? Why am I not surprised.

Sad news, indeed. Even if you didn't like his Batman, Schumacher still was a capable director. I liked Phone Booth, Falling Down and St Elmo's Fire.

He will be missed. RIP.

[Paul (ral)]

Sad to hear. RIP Joel. The summer of 1995 was incredible for Batman fans in many ways because of Batman Forever.

It's a pity we never got to see what he could do with a Year 1 type film like he wanted.