Batman Forever is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton, based on the DC Comics character Batman. It is the third film of the Burton/Schumacher Batman Anthology. Starring Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne / Batman. The film also stars Chris O'Donnell, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey. Set after the events of Batman Returns, the plot focuses on Batman trying to stop Two-Face (Jones) and the Riddler (Carrey) in their villainous scheme to extract confidential information from all the minds in Gotham City and use it to learn Batman's identity and bring the city under their control. He gains allegiance from a love interest—psychiatrist Dr. Chase Meridian (Kidman) and a young, orphaned circus acrobat named Dick Grayson (O'Donnell), who becomes his sidekick Robin.
Schumacher eschewed the dark, dystopian atmosphere of Burton's films by drawing inspiration from the 1940s and early 50s Batman comics, making the film as a "larger than life" living comic book onscreen, retaining the darkness of the first two films, and the Emmy winning animated series. Keaton chose not to reprise the role due to a salary dispute and due to creative differences. William Baldwin and Johnny Depp were initially considered for Keaton's replacement, before Kilmer joined the cast.
The film was released on June 16, 1995, receiving mixed reviews, but was a financial success. Batman Forever grossed over $336 million worldwide and became the sixth-highest-grossing film worldwide of 1995.
Plot[]
In Gotham City one year after the previous film, the crime fighter Batman stops a hostage situation caused by a criminal known as Two-Face, the alter ego of the former district attorney Harvey Dent, but Two-Face escapes and remains at large. Edward Nygma, a researcher at Wayne Enterprises who idolizes Bruce Wayne, has developed a device that can beam television into a person's brain. Bruce offers to let Nygma come up with schematics for the device and set up a meeting with his assistant. However, after Nygma demands an answer from him immediately, Bruce rejects the invention, believing it to be too close to mind manipulation. After killing his supervisor Fred Stickley, Nygma resigns and seeks retaliation against Bruce for rejecting his invention and begins to send him riddles. A news report reveals how Harvey Dent became Two-Face: when he was prosecuting a mob boss named Sal Maroni, Maroni threw acid on Dent's face, disfiguring half of it. Batman tried to save him, but failed. After the incident, Dent seeks to kill Batman for failing to save him. Bruce meets Chase Meridian, a psychiatrist who is obsessed with Batman, and invites her to come with him to a circus event. After a performance from the circus performers, The Flying Graysons, Two-Face arrives and threatens to blow up the circus unless Batman comes forward and surrenders his life to him. The Flying Graysons attempt to stop Two-Face, but they get killed by as a result. However, Dick Grayson, the youngest member, survives as he climbs to the roof and throws Two-Face's bomb into a river.
Bruce invites the orphaned Dick to stay at Wayne Manor. Dick, still troubled by the murder of his family, intends to kill Two-Face and avenge his family. When he discovers that Bruce is Batman, he demands that Bruce help him find Two-Face so that he can kill him, but Bruce refuses. Meanwhile, Nygma turns himself into a criminal called the Riddler and forms an alliance with Two-Face. The two steal capital in order to mass-produce Nygma's brainwave device. At Nygma's business party, Nygma discovers Bruce's alter ego using the brainwave device. Two-Face arrives and crashes the party. He nearly kills Batman, but Dick manages to save him. Meanwhile, Chase has fallen in love with Bruce, which surpasses her obsession with Batman, but she soon discovers that they are one and the same. Bruce decides to stop being Batman in order to have a normal life with Chase and to prevent Dick from murdering Two-Face. Dick angrily runs away while Bruce and Chase have dinner together in the manor. The Riddler and Two-Face arrive and attack Wayne Manor. The Riddler destroys the Batcave and kidnaps Chase, while leaving an injured Bruce another riddle.
Using the riddles, Bruce and his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, find out the Riddler's secret identity. Dick returns and becomes Batman's sidekick, Robin. Batman and Robin head to Riddler and Two-Face's lair, Claw Island, where they are separated. Robin encounters Two-Face and nearly kills him. Realizing that he does not have it in him to murder, Robin spares him. Two-Face gets the upper hand and captures Robin. Batman arrives at the lair, where Robin and Chase are held as hostages. The Riddler gives Batman a chance to save only one hostage. But instead, Batman destroys the Riddler's brainwave collecting device, causing the Riddler to suffer a mental breakdown. Batman manages to save Robin and Chase. Two-Face corners the trio and determines their fate with the flip of a coin, but Batman throws a handful of identical coins in the air, causing Two-Face to stumble and fall to his death. The Riddler is taken to Arkham Asylum and imprisoned, but he claims he knows who Batman is. Chase is asked to consult on the case, but Nygma says that he himself is Batman, due to his damaged memories. Chase meets Bruce outside and tells him that his secret is safe before leaving. Bruce resumes his crusade as Batman with Robin as his partner to protect Gotham from crime.
Cast[]
- Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne / Batman, After coming across the journal of his father, he starts questioning his act of vengeance. Bruce struggles with his dual identity as a crime fighter, becoming romantically involved with Dr. Chase Meridian.
- Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson / Robin, Once a circus acrobat, Dick is taken in by Bruce after Two-Face murders his parents and brother at a circus event. Bruce is reminded of when his parents were murdered when he sees the same vengeance in Dick, and decides to take him in as his ward. He eventually discovers the Batcave and learns Bruce's secret identity. In his wake, he becomes the crime fighting partner, Robin.
- Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, A psychologist and love interest of Bruce Wayne. Chase is fascinated by the dual nature of Batman. She is held as a damsel in distress in the climax.
- Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent / Two-Face, Formerly the good district attorney of Gotham City, half of Harvey's face is scarred with acid during the conviction of a crime boss. Driven insane, he becomes the criminal Harvey Two-Face obsessed with killing Batman. He flips a two-headed coin to determine if he kills (damaged side) or not (clean side).
- Jim Carrey as Edward Nygma / The Riddler, A former Wayne Enterprises employee, Edward resigns after his newest invention is personally rejected by Bruce Wayne, with whom he is obsessed. He becomes the villainous Riddler, leaving riddles and puzzles at crime scenes.
- Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth, The Wayne family's faithful butler and Bruce's confidant. Alfred also befriends the young Dick Grayson.
- Pat Hingle as James Gordon, The police commissioner of Gotham City.
- Drew Barrymore as Sugar, Two-Face's "good" assistant.
- Debi Mazar as Spice, Two-Face's "bad" assistant.
- Elizabeth Sanders as Gossip Gerty, Gotham's top gossip columnist.
- René Auberjonois as Dr. Burton, The head Doctor of Arkham Asylum. His surname is a reference to Tim Burton. He originally filmed a scene in which Dr. Burton discovered that Two-Face had escaped and found his guard tied up and gagged, but the scene was deleted from the film.
- Joe Grifasi as Hawkins, the Bank Guard, Two-Face's hostage during the opening scene.
- Ofer Samra as Two-Face's thug
- Ed Begley, Jr. as Fred Stickley, Edward Nygma's ill-tempered supervisor at Wayne Enterprises. After Stickley discovers the side effect of Edward's invention, Edward kills him and makes it look like suicide. Begley was uncredited for this role.
- Don "The Dragon" Wilson as the leader of the Neon Gang.
- Patrick Leahy in an uncredited cameo, This is the first of five cameo appearances in Batman films by Leahy, a United States Senator and DC Comics fan.
- En Vogue as Hookers
Production[]
Development[]
After the backlash of Batman Returns, Warner Bros. decided to take the franchise to a whole new level. Tim Burton had one meeting with Warner Bros. and they tried to convince Burton to make something kid-friendly, but he refused. Meanwhile, Joel Schumacher was getting ready to film The Client (based off the John Grisham novel), and Warner Bros. approached him about doing the next Batman film, but only if Burton hired him. So, Schumacher left the breakfast meeting, flew up to New York, had lunch with Burton, and Burton hired Schumacher to direct the next Batman film and to continue with the franchise he started.
Burton and Schumacher knew each other in 1986, when they're doing both filming The Lost Boys and pre-production on Beetlejuice, and the two became good friends after both The Lost Boys and Beetlejuice were hits at the box office between 1987 and 1988. Schumacher was a fan of Batman since he was a young boy, and he collected and read every Batman comic book during his young years. Schumacher also knew that directing the next Batman movie was a dream come true.
After hiring Schumacher, Burton met with the writers Lee and Janet Scott Batchler, while Schumacher was overseeing them. Both Burton and Schumacher hired the Batchlers to write the screenplay after they came up with the theme of duality. Burton went on to do Ed Wood and other projects, and he gave Schumacher his input. Akiva Goldsman was brought on to do revisions, and he came up with the red book subplot, which will be included in the as-of-yet-released Schumacher Cut of Batman Forever.
Writing[]
The Batchlers read the 1939-1940 comic books by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, the Knightfall Sega, and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns for research, and read academic papers that provide psychoanalysis on Batman, and Warner Bros. wanted two villains again after Batman Returns, and Schumacher chose Two-Face as the main villain, and the Batchlers chose The Riddler as the secondary villain. The Batchlers made Two-Face Batman's enemy and The Riddler Bruce Wayne's enemy. In the earlier drafts of the film, Riddler's real name was Lyle Heckendorf and his rival company was called "HeckTech". The Batchlers came up with a scene that was not in the final film where Lyle tests The Box on his landlady. Schumacher also came up with a scene that was also not in the final film where Lyle stalks Bruce at the circus, and he stole clothes from a fortune telling leprechaun, which form the basis of the Riddler outfit, and he has magenta hair.
The Batchlers made their decision to not bring back Kim Basinger's Vicki Vale and Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman. So, they created Chase Meridian as Batman's love interest for the film, just to make the film work.
Schumacher also wanted to bring in the character of Dick Grayson, aka Robin, and the Batchlers turned to their assistant Darlene, who grew up in the circus, and she's part of a big circus family. So, they came up with an idea of Robin with a big circus family.
While doing revisions, Goldsman, who later added the Edward Nygma name for The Riddler in the later drafts, had watched episodes of Batman: The Animated Series with Schumacher and his godson, and the first two films. He also read comic book stories featuring Two-Face and Riddler, and also comic book stories featuring Robin.
Casting[]
The first person who's cast in the film is Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face. Producer Peter MacGregor-Scott had worked with Jones on both Under Siege and The Fugitive, and Schumacher worked with Jones on The Client. The Batchlers wrote Two-Face with Jones in mind, and he accepted the role, because the character of Two-Face was his son's favorite character.
Schumacher wanted Michael Keaton to return as Batman for Batman Forever with the Batchlers writing the character with his voice in mind, and Schumacher originally cast Rene Russo as Chase Meridian. Keaton's agency wanted $15 million and the piece of the gross and merchandising, but Keaton never liked the idea of Batman with a bigger role at the time, and took a pass on it. Johnny Depp, who had worked with Burton on Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, was on the list to replace Keaton, but was turned down, due to scheduling conflicts with Nick of Time, and he later worked with Burton again on Sleepy Hollow. Schumacher was a huge fan of Val Kilmer's work and he had seen him on Tombstone, and he cast him to replace Keaton. Burton was unfamiliar with Kilmer's work, but was quickly convinced, and Russo was just a little older for Kilmer, and the role of Chase Meridian went to Nicole Kidman, and Warner Bros. instead gave Russo Outbreak.
For The Riddler, Schumacher asked Robin Williams to play The Prince of Puzzlers with the Batchlers writing the character with his comedic delivery, and Williams talked to Goldsman about The Riddler in his kitchen when they're brainstorming. Williams read the script for Batman Forever and he loved it, and his management wanted $15 million and the percentage of the gross and the percentage of merchandising that Keaton's agency was going to get. Warner Bros. later spend $30 million on both Keaton and Williams, and the role of The Riddler went to Jim Carrey, whom Schumacher felt that Carrey "was born to play The Riddler."
For Robin, Schumacher had Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Alan Cumming, Toby Stephens, Scott Speedsman, Corey Haim, and Corey Feldman on the list, but none of them were right, and Chris O'Donnell was cast as Robin instead.
Filming[]
Filming began in September 1994 and ended in March 1995. The set was notoriously disastrous, with Kilmer feuding with Schumacher and Jones and Carrey not getting along. Barbara Ling took inspiration from Anton Furst and Bo Welch, Miller's Dark Knight series, Tokyo, Japan, and the New York World's Fair when she and her team took Gotham City into a whole new level by having Japan influences into it. Tim Flattery, who worked on Batman Returns, returned to design the Val Kilmer Batmobile, after Schumacher felt that the design by H.R. Giger was just too much for the film. Bob Ringwood returned as costume designer for the film, with help from Ingrid Ferrin.
Rick Baker, who had worked with Burton on Ed Wood, worked on the prosethic makeup design for Two-Face and the design of the giant bat, which will be included in the as-of-yet-released Schumacher Cut of the film.
Preview Cut One[]
After Schumacher's death in 2020, writer Akiva Goldsman had seen a workprint for Batman Forever called "Preview Cut One", which is very dark and psychological that is about guilt and shame, and he said that it's a "better movie." And as of 2024, Goldsman and Warner Bros. are working on it to release Schumacher's true vision of the film by adding new music and new visual effects with a budget of $1 million.
Kevin Smith had seen the November 1994 workprint of the film in a thumb drive given by Joe Black at an auction at SmodCastle Cinemas, and at the same theater, Smith showed it to the audience. The workprint does have Elliot Goldenthal's Batman Forever main title march and a temp score consisted of his own scores for Demolition Man and Interview With The Vampire, and Danny Elfman's scores for Batman, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Batman Returns, and Beetlejuice.
Promotion[]
- Main article: Batman Forever (soundtrack)
Hit singles from the soundtrack include "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2 and "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal, both of which were nominated for MTV Movie Awards. "Kiss From a Rose" (whose video was also directed by Joel Schumacher) reached #1 in the U.S. charts as well.
The soundtrack itself, featuring additional songs by The Flaming Lips, Brandy (both songs also included in the film), Method Man, Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence (of INXS), PJ Harvey, and Massive Attack, was an attempt to (in producer Peter MacGregor-Scott's words) make the film more "pop". The soundtrack was hugely successful, selling almost as many copies as Prince's soundtrack to the 1989 Batman film.
In 1996, "Kiss From a Rose" won three Grammies for best male pop vocal performance, best record and best song.
A second album, featuring over 40 minutes of Elliot Goldenthal's "Original Score", was released two weeks after the soundtrack album.
Reception[]
Batman Forever obtained generally mixed reviews. Much of the negative reaction came from the drastic makeover of the franchise (most of it led by Joel Schumacher at the will of the Warner Bros. executives). While the film retains the darkness of the first two films, Batman Forever is more of a larger-than-life "living comic book onscreen," according to Schumacher. Due to the fact that Batman Returns earned less than the original, Warner Bros. insisted the movie to be more improve merchandising turnover. Further editing rearranged the first half of the film to start it off with an action scene, while the November 1994 workprint starts with Two-Face breaking out of Arkham with the writing "The Bat Must Die". The end results reflected the third Batman movie with an overall tone that seemed to be lighter in comparison to its Burton predecessors. However, based on 54 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 43% of reviewers enjoyed the film. The film was more balanced with 14 critics in Rotten Tomatoes's "Top Critics" poll, receiving a 71% approval rating. Metacritic collected an average score of 51, based on 23 reviews.
Peter Travers criticized the movie's blatant commercialism, but commented that "Batman Forever still gets in its licks. There's no fun machine this summer that packs more surprises. The script misses the pain Tim Burton caught in a man tormented by the long-ago murder of his parents." Brian Lowry of Variety believed "One does have to question the logic behind adding nipples to the hard-rubber batsuit. Whose idea was that supposed to be anyway, Alfred's? Some of the computer-generated Gotham cityscapes appear too obviously fake. Elliot Goldenthal's score, while serviceable, also isn't as stirring as Danny Elfman's work in the first two films."
James Berardinelli enjoyed the film. "It's lighter, brighter, funnier, faster-paced, and a whole lot more colorful than before." Scott Beatty felt "Tommy Lee Jones played Harvey Dent as a Joker knock-off rather than a multi-layered rogue." Lee Bermejo called Batman Forever "unbearable". Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film mixed reviews, but with the former giving it a thumbs up and the latter a thumbs down. In his written review, Ebert wrote: "Is the movie better entertainment? Well, it's great bubblegum for the eyes. Younger children will be able to process it more easily, some kids were led bawling from Batman Returns where the PG-13 rating was a joke." Mick LaSalle had a mixed reaction, concluding "a shot of Kilmer's rubber buns at one point is guaranteed to bring squeals from the audience."
Val Kilmer as Batman[]
There was debate about the performance of Val Kilmer; some critics charged that Kilmer, while physically fit to play Batman, more so than his predecessor Michael Keaton had been, gave a wooden performance as Bruce Wayne. Other critics though, such as Roger Ebert, had kind words for Kilmer. Batman creator Bob Kane said in a Cinescape interview that of all the actors to have played Batman up to that point (before the series was rebooted in 2005), he felt Kilmer had given the best interpretation.
Film critic Leonard Maltin (who heavily criticized the dark tone contained in Batman Returns) complimented Kilmer's portrayal when he reviewed the film for his expanding collection of film reviews, as well as being very favorable of the film as a whole. Defenders of Batman Forever praised the movie for portraying Batman as a more heroic, less ruthless, and more human character than in the Tim Burton films. The film also brought the film interpretation of Bruce Wayne more into line with his comic book counterpart, showing him as a seasoned celebrity of the media and a very public figure rather than the neurotic recluse of the previous films.
One of the biggest complaints about the Burton films was their portrayal of Batman killing his adversaries (especially in Batman Returns) without showing much remorse. However it is interesting to note that Batman does kill Two-Face in a very similar manner to his killing of the Joker in the original Batman film despite a noticeably less cavlier attitude to killing.
Two-Face and Riddler[]
Others accused Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones of giving cartoonish performances as the Riddler and Two-Face (Carrey himself even stated, though non-judgmentally, that this film "didn't take itself as seriously" as the past films had.) In one scene, Two-Face repeatedly flips his coin until achieving the desired outcome; in the comics, Two-Face always adheres to results of a single coin toss when a decision must be reached. It has been hypothesized that Two-Face is treating each opportunity to kill Bruce Wayne in this scene as a separate decision requiring a separate toss.
Reactions to Carrey's performance were generally similar, though some complained that his portrayal was too over the top, and had more in common with the Joker than with the comic book version of the Riddler. In fact, after the Riddler proclaims megalomaniacally, "For if knowledge is power, then a god am I!" he pauses, then reflects, "Was that over the top? I can never tell".
Criticism of his portrayal aside, Carrey's manic performance was a large part of the film's box office success.
Gotham City and Bat-Gadgets[]
A prominent criticism of the film's atmosphere centers on the constant use of neon lights, black lights, and glow-in-the-dark elements, which seemingly reaches its peak with the street gang Dick Grayson fights halfway through the film.
H. R. Giger was chosen to design the Batmobile in the very early stages of production. He left due to creative differences. His designs are on his official website in illustrated and 3D Graphic Art form.
Charges of Homoeroticism[]
Batman Forever has been regarded by some as homoerotic, especially after Garry Willis, a conservative columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, sardonically bashed the movie's campiness and perceived homoerotic motifs ("'Batman Forever' is a Gay Old Time", Chicago Sun-Times, 1995). One source of this controversy is the introduction of nipples on the chest of the Batsuit worn during the majority of the film, as well as the humorous close-ups of Bruce Wayne while donning the Batman costume, including the close-up shots of the groin and buttocks. Similar charges would be brought up in the sequel, Batman & Robin.
Box Office Performance[]
The film's budget was approximately $90 – $100 million and earned $184,031,112 (including a record breaking $52.8 million opening weekend) in total domestic sales and $152.5 million worldwide (according to Box Office Mojo) surpassing the ticket takings for Tim Burton's Batman Returns, making it the most commercially successful movie of the summer of 1995 and second-best of that year (next to Toy Story). It was also the third highest grossing Batman movie as of 2005 (after the 1989 original and 2005's Batman Begins). This success came as a surprise to the filmmakers, who were constantly told by the studio that no one wanted a Batman movie and it was only going to be a moderate success.
Awards and Nominations[]
Batman Forever was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound
Home media[]
The film was first released on VHS and Laserdisc in October 1995.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
Batman Forever on Warnerbros.com
Batman Forever on Dccomics.com- Batman Forever at AllMovie
- Batman Forever at Box Office Mojo
- Batman Forever at the Internet Movie Database
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