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jedimaesteryoda · 5 years

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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

I am going to talk about my favorite Batman film of all time, and some have even argued it to be the best Batman film out there. This Batman movie showed what many DC fans agree to be the best Joker and one of the best Batman performances. It has an excellent story that draws the viewer in, and a great film score courtesy of Shirley Walker. No, I am not talking about Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or even Tim Burton’s Batman, as great as those films were. I am talking about Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. It’s a direct-to-video film based on Batman: the Animated Series, the first show of the DC Animated Universe that to this day is acclaimed by critics and fans alike. It came out the same year as Schumacher’s Batman Forever, yet didn’t get as much attention due to not just being overshadowed by the live-action film, but lack of advertising on the part of Warner Bros. Of course, a number of critics agree that between the two films, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was arguably the superior film. Bat nipples aside, what made the Mask of the Phantasm superior to Forever in some ways was the story, the love interest and of course, the way Batman was portrayed.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD:

If you haven’t seen it yet, I advise you see it first before you read this essay. If you choose to read ahead anyway, and don’t plan on seeing the film then that’s a shame. Seriously, just watch the film, and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Plot

A shadowy figure appears going around murdering mob: the Phantasm. Batman is mistaken as the culprit, and is trying to figure out who this mysterious figure is, and the connection to the murders. The Phantasm isn’t the only arrival, so is Andrea Beaumont, an old flame from Bruce’s past. We get to see glimpses of their relationship in flashbacks, and learn that Bruce once had a chance at a normal life. And of course, it wouldn’t be a classic Batman film without the Joker, who is also drawn into the story in a way that works.

One thing you will notice about the plot that separates it from most Batman films and every live-action film is that it is a detective story. We never get to see him solve a mystery on-screen, or rather solve a mystery the audience doesn’t already know the answer to. We so often associate Batman with his sobriquet “The Dark Knight” to the point that it is in the title of two Batman films, and often forget his other sobriquet, “the World’s Greatest Detective,” even though his character was first introduced in the DC series, Detective Comics.

Batman’s story is also straight out of noir: organized crime, corrupt politicians who deal with them and the protagonist being a single man, usually a detective, who is psychologically wounded and might appear morally ambiguous or compromised, but generally adheres to his own personal code of ethics.

Setting and Tone

The setting comes straight out of the original comics with the style being late 1940s from the cars and clothes to the Tommy guns. In contrast to a lot of Batman films, you see actual blood from the wounds as well as teeth getting knocked out, which helps to convey a better feeling of the violence. The animation used is what the producers called “Dark Deco,” Art Deco combined with noir imagery. It helps to give the film a dark atmosphere not seen in a few of the live-action films (Nolan’s), and while I’m not saying dark = better, as Snyder proved that with his Superman films, it works perfectly with a dark character like Batman. There is a tragic, melancholy tone to the whole film with the exception of the flashbacks. The dark overtone of the present scenes contrast nicely with the much brighter and more colorful past scenes of a young Bruce and Andrea’s blossoming relationship, giving the past scenes a nostalgic feel and reflecting a happier time in Bruce Wayne’s life. It only helps to emphasize the tragedy of the couple’s story.

Characters and Acting

Bruce Wayne/Batman

Kevin Conroy, himself a Shakespearean actor, does an excellent job as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman. He manages to convey different sides of the character from the dark, tough Batman to the friendly Bruce Wayne seen at social events and the more vulnerable, younger Bruce Wayne in the flashbacks. I remember seeing him live at New York Comic Con 2018 for a panel promoting the Blu-ray The New Batman Adventures; he said regarding the character: “Batman is his true identity, and Bruce Wayne is the performance.” Batman’s serious, commanding voice is present when he is wearing the mask or unmasked with Alfred, his most trusted confidant, but changes when he’s in public as Bruce Wayne with a more warm, friendly tone. This is opposed to Christian Bale’s Batman who used his Batman voice only when in the suit, and otherwise, used his Bruce Wayne voice, even with Alfred present.

We get the Batman we expect with his first scene being knocking a mob meeting, and beating up the mobsters. Likewise, we first see Bruce Wayne (excluding when he’s in the Batcave with his costume off) hosting a black tie party at Wayne Manor surrounded by a group of female admirers as well as a young, pre-Batman Bruce Wayne in the flashbacks. William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize speech said that there is nothing worth writing about more than the heart in conflict with itself, and we see this with Bruce Wayne’s dilemma between becoming Batman and wanting a normal life. This helps to give a kind of complexity to the character, and shows the personal sacrifices that came with being Batman.

Andrea Beaumont

Dana Delany is good as Andrea Beaumont. Andrea is Bruce’s ex-girlfriend, and practically the only person he ever had a chance of a future with. She managed to pull Bruce out of his dark solitude, and provide him a kind of happiness that likely had been missing in his life since his parents died. She also is a femme fatale straight out of a hardboiled detective fiction novel: intelligent, beautiful and harboring dark secrets. However, to the filmmakers’ credit, Andrea wasn’t a one note character, as in just a manic pixie dream girl who teaches a broodingly soulful young man to embrace life, a femme fatale out to fulfill her personal ambitions, or even a passive damsel in distress who always needs saving by her hero, but a layered character with agency.

Joker

Mark Hamill is legendary for being the voice of the Joker, and he is consistently rated by fans as the best Joker. They borrow from Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and Hamill’s experience in the play Amadeus was incorporated into the Joker’s laugh, which he made into a song. This adaptation of the Joker fits the sobriquet of “the Clown Prince of Crime,” with a flower on his suit that squirts acid, and a laugh combined with his unsettling smile that manages to be chilling. On the surface, he has the friendly, funny demeanor one would expect from a clown, but you also get the sense that beneath that lies the heart of a nihilistic, murderous psychopath. He manages to be both funny and terrifying, the ultimate scary clown.

Alfred Pennyworth

Clive Revill does a decent job as the usually dry, proper Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred is the stoic British butler with a stiff upper lip, not without his own dry sense of humor (“What rot, sir! Why, you're the very model of sanity. Oh, by the way, I pressed your tights and put away your exploding gas balls”) except for two moments in this film. The first moment is when he sees Bruce don the cowl for the first time, and one sees the horror on Alfred’s face. The second is at the end when to comfort Bruce, Alfred drops the whole butler schtick for a moment calling him not his usual “Master Wayne” but “Bruce” to connect with him on a more personal level, and speak to the boy he knew. Giving him emotional support during his time of sorrow in that scene demonstrates how much Alfred is a father figure to Bruce.

Arthur Reeves

I know this is just a minor character, but Hart Bochner also does an excellent job as City Councilman Arthur Reeves. Just by listening to his voice, you can feel this guy practically oozing a sleazy politician. Reeves calls for a special police force to capture Batman after the murders, and you can tell how much of an opportunistic, vain man he is. He also plays a quiet, minor role in Andrea’s story.

The Promise vs Falling in Love: The Tragedy of Batman

Through flashbacks, we follow a young Bruce Wayne becoming Batman alongside pursuing a relationship with Andrea. You see his future hinted in the background whenever he is with her, with wishes of optimism and hope waiting to be crushed by an inevitable dark fate. Bruce meets Andrea at the cemetery as he was visiting his parents’ grave while Andrea was visiting her mother’s grave, and yes, that’s the most Batman way of a first meeting. We see his first attempt at crimefighting when he stops a robbery, and he wears just all black with a ski mask. He stops the robbery, but he mentions afterwards that the issue was the thieves didn’t fear him when they saw him. Andrea arrives just right after he mentions that. They have some playfighting, and surprisingly, he laughs, and they share their first kiss. He also sees the precursor for the Batmobile on their date, and bats appear from what would become the Batcave right after he proposes to her.

It all comes to a head while on their date at a theme park, Bruce tries and fails to stop some bikers from robbing a man. He is later in his manor trying to design a costume for his superhero persona, and talks to Alfred about his internal conflict over his promise to become Batman alongside wanting a future with Andrea. Conflicted and confused, he goes to his parents’ grave.

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Now, what this film does a great job doing is displaying Batman’s dark psyche. Look at all the Batman films, and Bruce Wayne’s decision to become Batman is treated as a reasonable decision with Bruce in Batman Begins saying “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy. I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood. I can be ignored, destroyed. But as a symbol . . . as a symbol I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting . . . Something elemental, something terrifying.” He becomes Batman to become a symbol that could do things he couldn’t do as Bruce Wayne, and motivate the people of Gotham into taking action against the corruption and crime of the city. Compare that to Bruce Wayne’s decision to become Batman in Mask of the Phantasm in this scene.

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Bruce Wayne is at his parents’ grave, begging for a way out of his promise to be a crime fighter, and apologizing for falling in love and wanting happiness. He is losing a reasonable argument to the dead over a promise they never agreed to, and as any person would have told him, would have wanted him to be happy and be with the person he loves. His decision to become Batman isn’t portrayed as a healthy, rational decision at all, but a delusion. It isn’t largely driven by a personal desire to motivate the citizens of Gotham into combatting the problems of the city, but by childhood trauma and an obsession with vengeance for the deaths of his parents. For all of Nolan’s attempts to make his Batman as realistic as possible as opposed to the Mask of the Phantasm of the DCAU going for the more comic book feel, Mask of the Phantasm’s portrayal of the man who chose to don the cowl is, in my opinion, more realistic than anything we’ve seen in any Batman film.

It makes it all the more tragic as his words “It just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore” show that his relationship with Andrea managed to provide a way for him to finally move on from his parents’ deaths. In their final scene together in their past relationship, we see Bruce finally propose to her, leaving behind his decision to become a vigilante crime fighter, and instead choosing a chance at happiness. Sadly, he gets the ring back the next day with a note telling him that she rescinded his proposal and he should forget about her.

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This is one of my favorite scenes. Batman first donning the mask combined with great musical direction by the late Shirley Walker captures both how epic and how tragic this scene is. It is epic seeing him put on the mask for the first time, and see only Batman’s eyes as he gives the famous Bat-glare, something that hasn’t been able to be replicated on live-action films. However, as scriptwriter for the film Michael Reeves stated: “When Bruce puts on the mask for the first time, and Alfred says 'My God!' he's reacting in horror, because he's watching this man he's helped raise from childhood, this man who has let the desire for vengeance and retribution consume his life, at last embrace the unspeakable." Alfred sees the Bruce Wayne he knew is gone, replaced by Batman. Bruce donning the mask isn’t portrayed as a happy event that the story had built up excitement for, but a tragic one as Bruce, having lost his one chance at happiness, sees becoming Batman as the only thing left for him.

The Ending (MAJOR SPOILERS):

The Phantasm is unmasked, and revealed to be Andrea. She comes to the theme park to kill the last of Valestra’s old gang, Jack Napier AKA the Joker. Unmasked Andrea and Batman, whom she figured out is Bruce earlier on, are at the theme park where they had their date in a flashback. The park was named “World of the Future,” and it symbolized the bright and hopeful promised future Bruce had with Andrea. Now, it was abandoned, dark and decrepit, occupied only by the Joker, Valestra’s ex-hitman who killed Andrea’s father. It represented not just the state of Bruce and Andrea’s relationship, but the people they had become. Andrea’s story by the end is revealed to be so much similar to Bruce’s. She is motivated by the murder of a parent, lost out on a chance for happiness and with seemingly nothing left, donned a dark visage to carve out a path of vengeance. (These two are perfect for each other.) As opposed to fighting criminals and super-villains to defend Gotham’s citizens, she decides to murder all the mobsters involved in her father’s murder. Her path is more vengeful, and shows what Batman could have become were it nor for his own code. The park is later destroyed by the bombs the Joker placed around it, symbolizing the end of their relationship, as it is the last time Batman sees her (on-screen at least) with her final words being “Goodbye, my love.” Andrea is later on a cruise ship, and when asked if she wants to be alone, replies sadly: “I am.” Batman in the final scene is standing on a skyscraper looking up at the sky with the Bat signal, and just fires a grappling hook as his mission goes on with his life unchanging. These two people who are practically made for each other are destined by fate to never be together, but spend the rest of their lives apart and alone.

As is typical in noir fiction, the story ends in a lose-lose situation for the protagonist. Every other Batman film ends on a happy note, or at least with some optimism with the most pessimistic ending being The Dark Knight with Batman taking the blame for Dent’s murders and Dent’s death himself, and Rachel is dead after deciding to choose Dent over Bruce, but he at least won some victory as he stopped the Joker, and achieved his aim of preventing Dent’s case from being dismissed and the mob being set free. In Mask of the Phantasm, one doesn’t get the feeling that Batman won anything: no criminals were put away, and no overarching goal was achieved with even the unmasking of the Phantasm not feeling like a win. The only thing that could be seen as a victory is Andrea ending her quest for vengeance, but Bruce is still left heartbroken. The real tragedy of Batman is the price he pays to be him, his personal life is unchanging and he is never able to enjoy any peace or anything resembling a healthy, normal life.

MOTP manages to be everything I think a Batman film should be: dark, action-packed, intelligent, entertaining and surprisingly, emotional. This will always be my top recommendation for a Batman film.

#batman #dc comics #batman the animated series #bruce wayne #joker #mark hamill #kevin conroy #bruce timm #dcau #dc animated series #dc animation #dc animated movies

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