Batman on screen: Caped Crusaders, Dark Knights

Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight? — “Batman” (1989)

Disturbed and wealthy are a powerful combination. Indeed, the billionaire borderline personality Bruce Wayne and his famous alter ego has proven to be potent since “The Bat-Man” debuted in “Detective Comics” #27 in May of 1939 as a result of the phenomenal success of Superman and “Action Comics.”

Creative types were scrambling for characters that would capture the public’s imagination in pre-WWII America the way the “Man of Steel” did, and it wouldn’t take very long before Batman would find an audience on the big screen.

Only four years after Bob Kane created the character, LEWIS WILSON would be the first to play the Caped Crusader in a 15-chapter “Batman” serial film distributed in 1943 by Columbia Pictures — Bats battled an original character, “Dr. Daka,” who was an agent of “Imperialist Japan”; it was at the height of World War II, after all. Columbia put out another “Batman” 15-chapter serial in 1949; this time, ROBERT LOWERY would wage war against the forces of evil as represented by the hooded villain “The Wizard.” 

With the movie serializations, the characterizations and situations started turning more “positive” and away from the original “Dark Knight” persona that Bob Kane envisioned. In fact, during the 1950s Batman and Superman would partner up to fight crime together in a series of adventures that published original stories well into the 1980s.

The success would lead to a TV show which would blaze its own trail as a landmark of intentionally cheesy portrayals; they heightened the comic-book feel with tilted camera angles to depict the gangsters' hideouts, and in fight scenes by intercutting slides with onomatopoeic words such as “BIFF!” “POW!” and “SOCK!”

ADAM WEST reprised his TV starring role for “Batman: The Movie” in 1966, but it was little more than a half-hour episode stretched across 88 painful minutes. “Bat-mania” would not resurface for a couple of decades, and it took quite an effort to pull it together.

Frank Miller led the charge, with his wildly successful “The Dark Knight Returns” singlehandedly reviving the Batman franchise in 1986 and giving it a cool counterpoint by going back to the character’s roots and giving Bruce Wayne a more enigmatic, conflicted posture. It provided the perfect source material for Tim Burton to draw on when he took over as the director for the then-proposed “Batman” movie in 1986. 

Burton started on the project after completing “Beetlejuice,” in which MICHAEL KEATON’s broad slapstick style, honed in previous films like “Night Shift,” “Johnny Dangerously,” “Mr. Mom” and “Gung Ho,” served the source material well. When Burton awarded the Batman role to Keaton, fans were outraged; they wrote letters and started a petition to have Burton reconsider the choice, but to no avail.

It's a good thing Burton didn't cave in to pressure because the result was a nuanced, unexpectedly engaging portrayal of a conflicted man hell-bent on revenge. 

“Batman” 1989 trailer (runs 1:48)

"Batman Returns" had not one or two but three villains for the Dark Knight to pursue, including DANNY DeVITO in a star turn as The Penguin and comparatively less memorable (but still hilariously deranged) portrayals from CHRISTOPHER WALKEN as cruel industrialist Max Schreck, and MICHELLE PFEIFFER as Catwoman. 

Then there were the two grand missteps in the movie franchise, both directed by Joel Schumacher: 1995’s “Batman Forever” with VAL KILMER as possibly the most boring Bat-dude yet (and over-the-top performances by JIM CARREY as the Riddler and TOMMY LEE JONES as Two-Face only made things worse); and GEORGE CLOONEY with CHRIS O'DONNELL in 1997’s regrettable “Batman and Robin" (remembered more for the infamous "nipple" costumes than anything else).

Because of the success of “Batman Begins” — with Domestic (North America) Box Office Receipts of US$205 million — and especially “The Dark Knight” (with a DBOR = US$533 million and a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com), CHRISTIAN BALE appears to be the choice of many to continue playing the Caped Crusader. This seems to be a lead-pipe certainty with director Christopher Nolan banging out a script...

New “Batman” movie scheduled for release in July 2012

... so it won't be long until the Dark Knight takes to the night sky once again.

(sources: Wikipedia; e!Online; Warner Bros.)

“The Sopranos” brings the mob boss into the 21st century

“...this show is about a guy who's turning 40. He's inherited a business from his dad. He's trying to bring it into the modern age. He's got all the responsibilities that go ... with that. He's got an overbearing mom that he's still trying to get out from under. Although he loves his wife, he's had an affair. He's got two teenage kids, and he's dealing with the realities of what that is. He's anxious; he's depressed; he starts to see a therapist because he's searching for the meaning of his own life ... the only difference between him and everybody I know is he's the Don of New Jersey.”

That quote — found in Wikipedia and attributed to the head of HBO Original Programming, Chris Albrecht — is as succinct a summary as you’re likely to find of “The Sopranos.” From that haunting start:

“The Sopranos” opening sequence (total time 1 minute, 35 seconds)

...to the open-ended conclusion, the groundbreaking TV series held sway as one of the must-see shows of the first decade of the 21st century. Its record speaks for itself: 21 Emmy Awards, and is the first cable-TV offering to win the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy; five Golden Globes; even TV Guide rates it number 5 on its Top 50 Greatest TV Shows Of All Time.

Millions of devoted fans — some of whom even watch the censored version of the repeats on A&E — revere the show because of the inherently complex nature of its conflicted protagonist, waste-management consultant and the head of the DiMeo crime “family,” Tony Soprano.

What makes Tony an extraordinary character is not only his awareness that his “tough guy” persona takes much effort; it’s also his willingness to seek professional help to gain insight into his many issues. Through the sessions in Dr. Melfi’s office, we see the war going on inside him as a vital part of his existence that surpasses dramatic conceit. 

Tony has ordered people killed ... he himself is a murderer many times over. He does make plans, but many of his highly consequential actions are spur-of-the-moment decisions such as murdering his former capo (and budding filmmaker) Christopher Moltisanti. Even in dealings with his childhood friend Artie Bucco, Tony finds ways to slant the relationship purely to his advantage. 

Yet steeped as deeply as he is in his thug life, Tony occasionally shows he has a compassionate side. For one thing, he tries to shield his kids (unsuccessfully) from his work. Plus, he does the “modern” thing and gets counselling; this in itself is dangerous for both client and therapist, as seen in Season 1. However, Tony persists in his sessions throughout the 86 episodes, and provides one of the most fascinating continuity lines for any drama in recent memory.

Those sessions are some of the most  compelling angles in the series. After all, why would a thug seek insight ... especially from a stranger? But Dr. Melfi is, in many ways, the linchpin of this project. The interplay between the Mafioso and the psychoanalyst is a narrative we have not seen before. Through it, we see the real clash within Tony Soprano: his desire to balance his past with his present.

He sees himself as a loser, a “sad clown” and “King Midas in reverse,” and through this we see the conceit of the statement as he avoids catastrophe time and again (ducking hits, the fateful car accident with Christopher). If the phrase “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is true, then Tony Soprano is a force of nature.

Reflections of a meathead on Archie’s bunker

"Boy, the way Glenn Miller played/Songs that made the Hit Parade/Guys like us, we had it made/Those were the days." — from the opening theme of "All In The Family"

Some families plan picnics and share beaming smiles and have nothing but good things to say about each other. Other families have problems, issues, trials and warts: they don’t always get along, and occasionally they have to remind themselves that they are related to these people who share their bloodline.

Examples of the first stereotype run through the lineage of early North American TV: “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Leave It To Beaver,” “Father Knows Best,” “Make Room For Daddy” and “My Three Sons” were the most well-known of the programs in the 1950s and ‘60s which featured kindhearted fathers as the core of a friendly family unit whose worst troubles seem innocuous today — mostly rehashed themes surrounding trust, responsibility and alienation, but generally with a convenient “uplifting” message at the end of each episode.

With the onset of the Vietnam War and various cultural upheavals taking place in the latter half of the 1960s, you could almost feel the societal pendulum swinging the other way. Nonetheless, it took years for producer Norman Lear to sell an edgy, controversial idea to a broadcast network — in this case, CBS. Once the idea hit the airwaves, though, the occupants of 704 Hauser Street in the borough of Queens, New York City, would reflect an exaggerated — yet deeply felt — impact of that epochal shift, as well as give the world one of its most enduring antiheroes.

Adapted from the British TV series “‘Til Death Do Us Part,” the core of “All In The Family” was a refutation of all the situation comedies that preceded it: the family was led by a bullying, rabidly right-wing dockworker (who would later become a bar owner in the followup series “Archie Bunker’s Place”) who openly detested foreigners and non-whites and “Polacks” and... well, anyone who didn’t look, or think, like him.

Here's Archie on Democrats (clip runs for 2:28)

To some, that might not sound like a formula which would go over big; they would be wrong. “All In The Family” topped the Neilsen audience ratings almost from its opening episode in 1971 until 1976, a run of success only equalled by “The Cosby Show” and “American Idol.” 

Along with the millions who loved “All In The Family” and watched it every week, I marvelled at how the show brazenly thumbed its nose at conventional taboos. I could hardly believe my ears when the show used epithets such as “fag” and “spic” and “wop,” but it also broke new ground in depicting issues and sparking international debates on topics such as discrimination, sexism and war.

Because I was a fan, I would also project the scenarios onto my own clan. Particularly, I saw my father as “Archie” because of their physical resemblance and the fact that they both liked to smoke and drink. It wasn’t a clear matchup: my dad eschewed cigars and preferred cigarettes; politically I would describe my dad as only slightly to the right, so he's nowhere near the shrill authoritarian xenophobe stereotype Archie represents; also, my dad is not an outlandish racist like Archie is.

The show was initially blasted by critics for its upfront nature, especially what some moral purists characterized as an attempt to make Archie a “lovable bigot.” As noted in Wikipedia, Archie lost many of his arguments because of the short-sightedness of his worldview. Through the series, though, the audience sees Archie soften many of his positions to the point where he becomes a grandfatherly curmudgeon, and he also means well for his family — even if he calls his Polish-heritage son-in-law a “meathead.”