Tim Burton’s original 1989 Batman movie was completely reworked into a silent movie by a fan, and the result is impressive.
Tim Burton’s Batman was completely reworked into a silent movie, and the result is pretty cool. Long before Matt Reeves the batter or that of Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, the Caped Crusader was brought to life on the big screen by the goth ghost of Tim Burton in 1989. The groundbreaking DC film starring Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, Jack Nicholson as the Joker, Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale, Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon, Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent and Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth.
Released in 1989, Batman was an unbridled critical and commercial success. Burton and Keaton were both brought back for a sequel, Batman returns, which debuted in 1992 with similar fanfare. The influence that Burton’s Batman movies had on the DC terrain, and the superhero genre in general, cannot be underestimated. They gave rise to the equally successful Batman: the animated series and heavily influenced how Hollywood developed and marketed superhero movies. For Burton’s take on Batmanthe director was prominently inspired by classical cinema such as German Expressionism for his images and the art movement known as Art Deco for his portrayal of Gotham City.
Now, a fan thought it was appropriate to give 1989’s Batman a silent movie makeover. In addition to removing the dialogue, the edit takes up all 2 hours and 6 minutes of the film and adds various color tones, artificial film grain, and stylized title cards. The creative editing was done by Ben Crew and can be viewed at Internet archive.
What other modern superhero movies would work as silent movies?
After watching just a few minutes of the edit, it’s clear that 1989’s Batman functions wonderfully as a still image, especially because of the era influences that Burton made no effort to hide (Christopher Walken’s villain from Batman returns was called Max Shreck after the actor who played Count Orlok in 1922 nosferatu). However, Danny Elfman’s score may be the main reason why Batman works as well as a silent movie because the music plays in perfect harmony with the action and visuals. Keaton and Nicholson’s performances also shine without any dialogue, as they only have their faces to convey emotion.
This one Batman editing works so well begs the question of what other modern superhero movies would work as silent movies. Because Batman‘With direct influence from the silent film era, none are likely to work as well as Burton’s goth version of the Dark Knight. In addition, many modern superhero movies have scores that sound like background noise, and they certainly wouldn’t benefit from being brought to the fore. That said, it would be interesting to see other gothic inspired superhero movies like The crow or Reeves’ recently Batman movie gets the silent movie treatment, but maybe the best answer is the most obvious answer – Burton’s Batman returns.
Source: Internet archive
