In the 80s, my exposure to Batman looked something like this:

In 1988, they started rerunning “Batman” in syndication on our local CBS affiliate.  Adam West and Burt Ward were the leads as the dynamic duo, and I didn’t tell any of my friends that I made sure I watched EVERY episode.

I remember every villain was given two episodes each.  The first always left our heroes in peril.  As you can imagine, Friday on the first run was the worst, I had to wait until Monday to find out how they were going to escape.

The point?

Batman stories on film and television were effing campy.  That all changed in 1989.

Tim Burton was fresh off his early success with “Beetlejuice” and was building momentum with his adaptation of the Caped Crusader.

Michael Keaton brought us a very different Bruce Wayne/Batman.  Batman used to race to the scene, jump in the middle, and thump the villain with his fists.  He’d also announce every “bat-weapon” before he used it.  Keaton’s portrayal was elusive and in the shadows.  Burton and Keaton knew that less would be more when he wore the Bat-suit and it worked.

I enjoyed how intimidating the look of Batman was.  There had to be a realistic discussion about how a man could be the Batman and the creators of this version had to agree that the psychological power of the legend of Batman was how a man could be Batman.  The look had to be scary opposed to the “friendly neighborhood bat” that we were all used to, since he was going to be someone that had to scare, frightening street thugs and villains.

Speaking of…Jack is still my favorite Joker.  I have nothing against Heath Ledger, Cesar Romero, and I am excited to see what Jared Leto is going to bring, but Jack made me laugh out loud when he was doing terrible things.  That might speak to my personal “issues,” however, I find that thrilling.

Jack’s Joker for me is up there with Jerry Dandridge and Darth Vader…villains that you root for a little bit.  Villains, that when they die at the end of a movie, you realize that the amusement ride has just ended and now you have to unbuckle and stumble out of the cart.

The soundtrack also features music from the one and only Prince (RIP).  His track “Trust” that plays when the Joker comes out on his float throwing out trash bags of money to the masses is perfect and still one of my favorite “movie-moment” songs.

I was dropped off at the theater with my cousin to see this movie.  We went on the second weekend and arrived 15 minutes early.  After we got our tickets and entered the theater, we had to sit 4th row back from the screen.  On its second run, theaters were still packed.  Like it or not, this new version of Batman was a hit and audiences loved Burton’s vision of what Gotham’s lonely hero could become.

“Batman” would be the last movie I would see in theaters from the 1980s.  I couldn’t be sure what to expect from the 90s in film, but”Batman” has become my bridge between those decades.  You’d think I’m a 1980s homer when it comes to movie viewing, but just wait.  I’m going to love sharing some of the movies that inspired me through the 1990s, which turned out to be my favorite decade.

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There are movies that make you say, “Who’s that?”

You look them up on the back of a movie case in a rental store and attempt to find every movie that they have made prior and all of those movies that will follow.

That movie for me was “Glory.”

That person was Denzel.

I was unprepared for the pure power and emotion of the performance he put forth.  He came from out of nowhere for me and he seemed like a seasoned movie star that stole every scene he was in, leaving all of us to wish that he was in every frame.

It was the first movie I’d seen him in and I later rented “The Mighty Quinn.” He was in every frame of that great thriller and the film love affair began.

Thank God for “Glory.”

Not only was it my intro to Denzel, it had Ferris Bueller and Westley in it too.  It was unlike any other movie I’d seen about war.  The first battle doesn’t even take place until well over an hour into the movie.  It had a very “All Quiet on the Western Front” feel to it.  It was about the soldiers “boots” on the ground versus the two sided perspectives you’d see in a war.  The confederate soldiers were ominous, almost ghost-like when they appear out of the smoke and fog during the first battle.  It is one of the most eerie scenes depicted in a war movie that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.  The confederates don’t really have faces or perspectives for us to draw from.  Their purpose is opposition and nothing more.

Labeling “Glory” as a Civil War drama is misguided.  It is that, but it is also a story about brotherhood on a very interesting and dysfunctional level.  Part of the journey we take with this story is watching the growth of a unit of men by the films end.

When I think of the movie–outside of it being my thankful introduction to Denzel–I remember the unexpected, deep true power I felt of those last few frames of the soldiers being bundled together in the ground.

Much like there are moments of struggle and choices that we learn from in life, in the end we have the people that stick through it with us in the toughest of times.

Yes, friends fight; and if they can see it through, they become best friends or the brothers that we get to choose.  We all have mentors that teach us.  Some of them become the fathers that we have always wanted to respect and love.

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This next one is similar to “Roxanne” and “Splash.”

No, Daryl Hannah isn’t in it, but it is considered a comedy romance.

A pretty good comedy romance.  Some people’d say great and I wouldn’t disagree with them.

Personally, it’s not a “go to” genre for me.  Most guys that I know don’t have that as their favorite genre either, but I do like a well written, witty, comedy romance, and this one delivers.

At that stage in my life, a lot of the comedy romance movies that I’d seen and enjoyed had one of two things–slapstick/screwball (“Roxanne,” “Bringing up Baby“) or goofy fantasy (“Splash“).

This one was different.  It was mostly dialogue between two people at a time (sometimes 3 or 4 people at most).  I found that I really had to pay attention to what people were saying to each other in order to gain an interest and an understanding of the story that the writers were trying to tell.  There was little movement or action unless people were walking and talking.

It was unlike any type of movie that I was used to or had viewed, yet I found myself surprisingly captivated.

I remember watching it with my mom and sister for the first time and I began understanding what “adult” humor was:  wit, sarcasm, timing, and circumstance.  It was the first time I started laughing at the same time they laughed instead of just laughing because they laughed, like I had learned to do when I was seven or eight.  I actually understood the jokes and found it funny like they did.

In those other comedies I was learning when to laugh.  By the time I had seen this one, I was ready to laugh.

And laugh I did when I watched “When Harry Met Sally” for the first time.

I found that as I watched it, my mom and sister enjoyed Sally’s point of view and I was of course fond of Harry’s cynicism (take in mind I didn’t know what cynicism was at that time but I was learning quickly that I enjoyed his “mood.”)

Sally was cute and annoying (it takes her 5 minutes to order lunch and she is an unapologetic optimist).  Harry was short, goofy looking, and didn’t like anyone or anything.  Perfect matches right?

Looking back, I should’ve known better (SPOILER-of course they will end up together-IT’S A COMEDY ROMANCE!!!).  Again, this was one of the first CRs that I’d actually sat through and I wasn’t jaded at this point with all of the formulaic CRs to follow.  I think that is why I enjoyed it so much.  I view it as my first true Rom-Com and I was young enough for it to be a surprise for me as the story and conflict developed.

I’m stretching a grin across my face as I write this, remembering how naive I was when Harry trudges over to Sally on New Year’s Eve and berates her at the party like he wants to start another war and then it turns into one of the greatest “I love you speeches” ever written.  I seriously remember thinking, “Oh yeah, so they are going to get together.  Huh…look at that.”

This might be the Comedy Romance that ruined the genre for me, actually, because it is the one that I compare the rest to and you can never have a surprise after you have seen your first formula Rom-Com.

Apologies to anyone that has read this before seeing it.  I know that I haven’t been my usual cryptic self while writing about a movie I enjoyed, but it was exciting for me to finally give something away.

Almost as exciting as watching a well written Comedy Romance for the first–as a naive youth–time.

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