Batman returns and the destruction of childhood [SPOILERS]

I could dwell on many aspects this movie – the epic music, the splendid gothic/brutalist aesthetic of Gotham – a character in itself –, the attention to details, the perfect cast etc – but I would like to share a few thoughts about one of the themes underlying the movie, that I found particularly well treated. Tim Burton proposes a personal interpretation of the comic book characters of Bruce, Selina and Oswald, in order to address a common denominator between them: they are all acting like disoriented children entrapped in grown-up bodies.

Roger Ebert gave a mixed but interesting review of the movie. His point was that Tim Burton’s vision did not fit into Batman’s material. While he makes compelling points, I share Tim Burton’s opposite view. According to him, the acceptable answer to the question “Why do grown-ups dress like freaks and fight each other at night?” is “Because they are dysfunctional adults shattered by destructive childhoods”.

Penguin

Roger Ebert felt pity towards the Penguin. But I assume this is precisely how Tim Burton intended us to feel about him. Penguin is not really scary, apart from his look. He is tragic and pathetic (likewise his death). He is an abandoned kid in a deformed body, traumatized by the fact that his parents cast him away because of his physical traits.

Oswald never connected emotionally or physically with anyone while he grew up in the sewers, without any love or educational benchmarks. He never reached any sort of maturity (his weapons are funny umbrellas, he rides a giant bath duck, he has a toy car to control the Batmobile, he commands rocket launcher penguins…). He thus grew up to be a violent, capricious, impulsive and sexually awkward adult. He seems exclusively driven by the search of the comfort of feeling loved and accepted. This is the promise to him made by Max Shreck (the embodiment of adulthood, controlling, deceitful, cynical) in order to manipulate him. As Penguins says it, “It’s not about power. It’s about reaching out to people, touching people, groping them”. Penguin craves for the attention and affection that he lacked (which he also mixes weirdly with his adult sexual impulses).

When Penguin eventually fails to keep up with the political narrative conceived by Max Shreck (for nobody was genuinely interested in understanding him or in connecting with him; the public only wanted a feel good story about a goofy freak), his only response is radical, impulsive and immature: he reactivates his initial plan, which is to make adults suffer because, in his experience, they are all hopeless jerks and awful parents (interestingly, Max initially gained Penguin’s respect for he was willing to sacrifice himself for his son).

I like how Penguin eventually and unavoidably gives up his quest to fit in the adult world (with a nice twisted nod to Elephant man “I am not a human being, I am an animal”) because he has been damaged to a point of no return and because the adult world is unable/unwilling to heal his wounds.

Catwoman

We don’t know much about Selina’s childhood, but there are hints of abuses, notably visual hints, e.g. when she paints her dollhouse’s bedroom in black. We know this: her mother is invasive; her first act as Catwoman is against a rapist and she blames the assaulted woman for being consenting, as if is she was expressing her own guilt for having been a victim of men. Selina also appears sexually inhibited, until she starts putting on the mask and unleashing her sensuality. She has no clear plans aside from fighting patriarchy. She views all men as macho abusers: the machos in chief being Shreck (for the real world) and Batman (for the underground, fantasy world).

But in the meantime, Selina seems lost and conflicted throughout the movie. Because of her childhood, she seems unable to genuinely express herself and to open sincerely to other people. She has to put on the mask to feel accomplished and empowered. But she also realizes that her conduct leads to a dead-end (she eventually decides to just shoot Max Shreck in plain sight). She is a fascinating character and Michelle Pfeiffer is spectacular in this role. Fragile, powerful, emotional, sensual, she nailed the complexity of the character.

Batman

Tim Burton’s Bruce never really grew up since he witnessed the slaughter of his parents: he is a kid with simple answers. There are the goodies and the baddies. Everything can be solved with a bat-punch in the mouth. Besides, he finds it fun to fight the baddies, using his bat-gadgets, like a kid playing with his toys. He does not fight with rage: he burns alive and blows up guys with a smirk on his face, as if there were no consequences. I like how Tim Burton gives many hints of Bruce’s childish attitude. For instance, he always takes the slide to the batcave, whereas Alfred, the adult, takes the stairs. Bruce also remains naïve like a child when he buys Shreck’s narrative about Oswald, although he does not trust Max as a businessman.

By showing Batman’s immaturity and his psycho side, Tim Burton addresses the legitimate issue that Bruce could have done much more for crime fighting with all his money, network and influence, but he chose to suit up with a Zorro cape and kick ass during the night. However, throughout the story, Batman’s violence has little to no positive impact on events: at the end of the day, he is just giving way to his primitive thirst for violence and legitimizing it by being on the good side of the fence. Ironically, Bruce eventually defeats Shreck’s plan without violence and without his mask on: he only uses a disk and hacks public speakers.

Conclusion

I view the ballroom scene (with Super Freak by Rick James as a musical background) as the key to Tim Burton’s point. Bruce and Selina are unable to fit in. Selina asks for how long they will have to wear their masks. But it is obvious she is not talking only about the cat or the bat masks. She is talking about their social masks. For how long will they have to pretend to be okay, to act like they know what they are doing and like they found their place in the adult world. This is why Bruce and Selina connected so immediately when they met. Keeping in mind that this inability is the result of their childhood traumas, the scene is heartbreaking.

Penguin, Catwoman and Batman are not villains and heroes. They are broken kids, shaken by nightmarish childhoods, who turned into dysfunctional adults escaping in a fantasy world, unable to cope with their traumas. As the Penguin says, “it is all a bad dream”. The period during which the action takes place, Christmas, a kid and family-friendly holiday, makes their suffering even more acute and allows the events to unfold.

What does Batman Returns say about us? The fact that we are engaged in this story is telling. Not unlike the characters, the inner child in ourselves likes to fantasize about the violent comic book world, because it is simple and fair: bad guys die; good guys triumph. The reality we face when we open the news is actually much tougher, and much more complicated and disconcerting.

Batman Returns may not be the best comic book adaptation or even the best Batman movie (although it is my favorite). But thematically, it is one of the most powerful superhero movies, up there with Nolan’s TDK and Raimi’s Spiderman 2.

Submitted January 01, 2018 at 10:20PM by usufruit http://ift.tt/2lCa4jx