Batman | 
| Director: Tim Burton
Actors: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle
Studio: Warner Home Video
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $2.00
You Save: $7.98 (80%)
New (5) Used (34) Collectible (5) from $2.00
Rating:  419 reviews
Sales Rank: 10132
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original Recording Reissued, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 126 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 3.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0790759403
UPC: 085392107933
EAN: 9780790759401
ASIN: B000059XXZ
Theatrical Release Date: June 23, 1989
Release Date: May 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 414 more reviews...
 Gotham City February 23, 2006
Matt (NJ)
53 out of 54 found this review helpful
This new DVD edition should definitely replace your old Batman DVD or, God forbid, VHS tape. There are hours of bonus features included, mostly done in documentary format. All angles are covered on the 2nd disc. Beginning with the original Batman creator, Bob Kane, through the lengthy history of Batman, to the ultimate cinematic adaptation by Tim Burton, who also speaks at great length about the production of the film. This is very interesting material that a fan will truly appreciate.
This movie spoke for itself at the box office. The combination of Tim Burton's vision and direction, impeccable casting and wonderful special effects took the movie world by storm and reached far beyond the silver screen. For a while there, you couldn't look anywhere without seeing the Batman logo. They did some job marketing this movie...
I still feel this is the best Batman movie. Points can be made in favor of the most recent Batman Begins, but having no precursor, Burton's Batman set the stage wonderfully to begin the modern Batman film-making era. After all, it seems people have granted such praise to Batman Begins, in part, for how it represents a return to the "darkness" of the original.
 I'd forgotten how good this movie was! September 12, 2004
W. H. Jamison, Jr. (Burien, Washington United States)
44 out of 53 found this review helpful
If you want to look at a superhero adaptation done right look no further than this movie or the latest Spiderman movies. After watching the last two Batman flicks, I had kind of written the series off, but watching this on TV the other night I realized that I had forgotten how good this was. Michael Keaton was perfect as Batman, if you think about it Bruce Wayne is not the most tightly wrapped guy out there, he dresses up as a giant flying rodent and runs around at night in Gotham City beating up on criminals, and Keaton captured this essence perfectly. Kim Basinger was great as Vicki Vale and Jack Nicholson was awesome as the Joker. indeed I'd have to say that this is the last good performance that Nicholson did, after this movie he phoned everything in and cashed in on his Jack Nicholson act.
In addition to a well-written script (the only contrived part being the fact that the Joker had killed Bruce Wayne's parents years before) the sets for this movie were totally cool and like nothing else we had seen at the time. Tim Burton was still a young and fresh director and Danny Elfman scores hadn't become tiring. If this movie looks a bit stale now it's only because so many other movies have imitated it and because Burton and Elfman have become one-trick ponies. However when you look at it as the leader of a cinematic vanguard of action movies you realize how good it is.
Tim Burton's Vision of Batman...at Last with Special Features! November 21, 2005
Benjamin J Burgraff
38 out of 40 found this review helpful
The worldwide success of Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" has prompted Warner Bros. to finally release Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" with an extra disc of special features...and this is an event worth cheering about!
A groundbreaking cinematic achievement (and one of the most expensive films ever produced, to that time), "Batman" was a tremendous gamble, and the story behind the ten-year struggle to bring it to the screen is fascinating! It is a tale of visionaries, beginning with Michael Uslan, a young student/Batman fan, who not only convinced his university to include comics in their curriculum, but, fired up by Richard Donner's "Superman", knew a Batman film could be just as powerful, and took the idea, with Batman creator Bob Kane's blessing, to Hollywood; of Peter Gruber and Jon Peters, who listened to Uslan, after every studio had passed on it, saw the potential, and decided to gamble; of Sam Hamm, who had a "Batman" script in his head, praying to get the chance to write it; and, most importantly, of Tim Burton, whose dark, quirky sensibilities made him THE director to film it, despite only two feature films to his credit.
This remarkable story, with archival footage and new interviews, is the highlight of disc two, but there is much, much more! Did you know that Robin was scripted to make an appearance in the first film? That Sean Young, not Kim Basinger, had been cast as Vicki Vale? That the Batmobile, designed by Oscar-winner Anton Furst, could actually do 95 mph (and that Tim Burton drove it, once?) That the room where disfigured Jack Nicholson received his unsuccessful plastic surgery was actually a studio prop room? Each chapter is a revelation!
Not that there aren't a few disappointments in the presentation; there is no chapter with deleted scenes (although a few moments are shown that never made it into the finished film...a little girl, seeing Batman, asks, in all seriousness, "Is it Halloween?", which causes him to pause, and grin); the 'History' of Batman, despite a wealth of photos and clips from the comics, serials, and graphic novels, does not offer a single visual from the campy 60s TV series (whether this was a refusal by 20th Century Fox, who produced the series, to permit their use, or an attempt to distance the movie from the "ZAP! BAM! POW!" silliness is not explained). Also, the brief appearance of screen legend Jack Palance, as 'Boss Grissom', is largely ignored, other than in Tim Burton's audio commentary, which is surprising. Still, many of the cast share their memories (Billy Dee Williams still expresses disappointment that he didn't get to play 'Two-Face'; Robert Wuhl, regret that after they rewrote his death scene to allow his character to survive, he never appeared in another film in the franchise).
I guess what I'm saying, is...chuck your old copy of "Batman", and replace it with THIS one!
You'll be glad you did!
A Modern Classic October 18, 1999
Rm31d (Columbus, OH United States)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
This film proved to the world that comic book films could be much more than action-packed carnage festivals. This film (and the first sequel "Batman Returns") have so much more to it than that. "Batman" is a gripping and very moving exploration of the psyche; it peers into the souls of not only the Dark Knight, but also those of the people whose lives he changes with his presence. The film is brilliantly acted by its perfectly-chosen cast, which includes Jack Nicholson (the Joker), Michael Keaton (the Batman), Kim Basinger (Vicki Vale), Micheal Gough (Alfred Pennyworth), and Robert Wuhl (Alexander Knox). Tim Burton makes perfect use of his wonderful directorial talents, Anton Furst designs a gothic, beautiful Gotham City, and Danny Elfman's classic musical score further help make this a unique, thought-provoking, and very powerful modern classic, a masterpiece of film noir and grand opera. "Batman Returns shares these wonderful qualities, but, sadly, Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin" lose all of that depth and meaning, and become little more than standard mindless action. But, we'll always have Burton's dark vision of a haunted and brooding Batman.
The Dark Knight Returns September 22, 2004
the-gr8shag
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
"He's out there, right now & I've got to go work." - Bruce Wayne gives up some much needed booty lovin' with Vicki Vale to go and take down the Joker, as his alter ego "Batman"
Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger head an all star cast in Tim Burton's dark, gothic, and brooding "Batman".
After witnessing the murder of his parents at a young age, Bruce Wayne decides to protect the citizens of Gotham City, striking fear into the hearts & minds of evildoers as Batman, ridding the city streets of Gotham of its crime and protecting the innocent. But, when The Joker, once a hitman turned ass-clown due to a chemical accident, wants to destroy Gotham City by way of a chemical gas known as Smilex (you literally die laughing) & seeking revenge against the mobsters who set him up, its up to Batman to get the last laugh and rid the city of this original insane clown and his posse.
After the rise & fall of the 60's T.V. show with a successfull 1966 film released by 20th Century Fox, it seemed Batman would be forever grounded to the pages of his DC Comic (in the 70's if you wanted a Batman T.V. fix it was either watching reruns of the 60's show or tuning in to ABC on Saturday mornings to watch "The Super Friends").
In the late 80's with "Warner Bros." owning the publication rights to all DC Comics, the company decided to take a stab at bringing Batman once again to the big screen. But the tone of the comic had changed since the 60's.
The Joker went from becoming a dangerous thief to an extermely insane psycho-sociopath killing on a whim & a laugh with goulish devices such as a flower brouch pin filled with corosive acid and his now trademark Smilex gas that can bring a smile to ones face only a coroner could love.
Batman also had changed, going from the example setting, lesson teaching hero to the dark, brooding, detective obsessed with keeping evil off the streets of Gotham City & turning into a hero's anti-hero. With Frank Miller's comic mini-series "The Dark Knight Returns" released in 1986, it was only a matter of time before Batman returned to theaters.
Die-hard fans were protective of who was to star in the film, however & when, comic actor, Michael Keaton was chosen to star as Batman, fans were pissed, to say the least. Only when the film "Clean & Sober" was released in theaters, 7 and 1/2 mths. before the release of "Batman", did some bat-fans relax. The film starred Keaton as a recovering alcoholic facing his demons in rehab. It was one of Keaton's first dramatic roles, and it worked.
Fans gave 2 big thumbs for Jack Nicholson as The Joker, but fans approached cautiously when Tim Burton signed on to direct (his only other credit, at the time, was the comedy "Beetlejuice").
The film is great, but, falls just shy of hitting the bullseye.
Nicholson steals the show as the over the top Joker, hitting all the right notes of insanity. Keaton is good as Bruce Wayne, but doesn't say too much as Batman. Kim Basinger is hot as Vicki Vale. Screen vets Michael Gough & Pat Hingle are great in their roles Alfred Penneyworth and Commissioner Gorden.
The sets are monsterous. "Star Wars" veteran, Billy Dee Williams who plays District Attorney, Harvey Dent in the film has said that the sets for "Batman" are as big, if not a bit bigger, than the sets used for "Empire" and "Jedi". The film, I think, got an Oscar nod for best set design.
Danny Elfman gives a memorable score to the film that should have gotten him an Oscar nomination.
The DVD itself is a bare bones affair with the film both in the widescreen & full screen versions with 5.1 Dolby Digital and no special features. I hope "Warner" smartens up and releases a Special Edition to this film as well as the other "Bat" installments (well, we could do without "Batman & Robin").
Don't hold your breath, though.
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