It all started when my mom’s friend Janet came to my house with a pack of cards in the spring of 1989..
They were the Topps brand Batman cards–packed 9 cards, a sticker, and a stick of awful bubble gum for my 8-year-old enjoyment.. She gave me this weeks before the BATMAN movie came out. And I was completely hooked immediately.. somehow the purveyors of pop culture back in ’89 knew how to penetrate kids minds.
It worked!
.. what began here was a long odyssey into who I am today..
today.. Janet is dead. My mom is in a nursing home.
And somehow these fleeting moments bring back happier times, simpler times… heroic times. The moment when BATMAN came out in theaters and changed countless lives forever.
I cannot describe to people who did not live through the summer of 1989 as to how much BATMAN completely got ingrained in the pop culture of children across this nation.. As a result of the movie being released into theaters, the Family Channel’s daily FUNHOUSE starting airing the 1960s BATMAN TV show every day… the Bloomsburg Fair and other fairs across the nation by the autumn were littered with stuffed animals, stickers, posters, and other BATMAN products.. Movie theaters kept the film in their showings all summer.. (I went to see it at least three times if my memory serves me right) ..
Comic books were reborn. Halloween costumes were consumed by Jokers and the caped crusader.. And yes, Christmas 1989 was blanketed with paraphernalia from the BAT universe..
Me? I got a ton of BAT gifts that magic year including action figures and the Batmobile. I recall this fondly and with immense nostalgia. Including this life size poster of Jack Nicholson’s JOKER:
But contemplate something.. in 1989, before the NET *yes kids, no Twitter or Facebook*, this movie broke new ground and broke records. It had staying power and name recognition. It penetrated my mind and other kids around the world equally.. It created who my generation is, to a certain degree.. We were formed knowing and seeing the Joker kill young Bruce Wayne’s parents on a dark Gotham alley.. we knew that the world was filled with violence.. we knew that a hero would always emerge.
BATMAN was a critical and financial success, earning over $400 million in box office totals. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release.. The remarkable part: If you watch it today it has the staying power that no other films possess. It looks as good as it did in 2019 as it did in 1989 .. Tim Burton and Danny Elfman created a masterpiece that stands the rigorous tests of time.
Oddly enough, Tim Burton said to EMPIRE in August 1992: “I liked parts of it, but the whole movie is mainly boring to me. It’s OK, but it was more of a cultural phenomenon than a great movie”
History has disagreed with the director. Yes, BATMAN RETURNS was not quite as big.. and then when Jim Carrey was the Riddler it toppled further, and found its death in George Clooney’s NIPPLE-LADEN suit. But the newer incarnations, especially deceased Heath Ledger’s portrayal as the Joker, seems to clue in on what Jack Nicholson did right.. all of the newest movies seem to play off of the darkness that Tim Burton gave us so many decades back.
As for me?
I ate BATMAN cereal and played BATMAN on Nintendo and tried to portray the Joker not only at Halloween but other points during my tenth year on earth.
This is what Pop culture gave us at this time in our lives.. It was a big event.
And I would love to hear YOUR memories of this film as well!
