tried to run away from it, but now West serves as a necessary corrective to the abiding sobriety of modern event movies. West may not have been a terrific actor, but his cheeky portrayal of the Dark Knight has endured. As much as I like The Batman, the 1960s actors’ joyful spirit in that spoof trailer is a reminder of the light touch that superhero entertainment once had. This week’s trailer mashup is built around an obvious joke, but its resonance suggests there’s a sizable contingent of viewers (comic-back fans or otherwise) who find it refreshing to see Adam West’s Batman mix it up with Burgess Meredith’s Riddler. For Moore, West most understood Batman’s appeal, praising the actor because he “didn’t take it at all seriously.” He knew comedy, and he knew humanity.” And everyone from Christian Bale to Watchmen creator Alan Moore have called West their favorite Batman. His positivity, good nature and sense of fun were undeniable, and it was always a big jolt of the best kind of energy when he walked in to record the show. When West died in the summer of 2017, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who’d cast him to play the town’s peculiar mayor, called him “a joy to work with, and the kind of guy you always wanted to be around.
For years, West was held out for ridicule by hardcore comics fans, even though there was also plenty of affection for the man. And yet … I confess that Corridor video made me chuckle a little. But this year’s The Batman proved to be an exciting reminder of why people can’t get enough of the Caped Crusader. Soon, West was doing his best to lean into the joke, voicing an exaggerated version of himself in an early-1990s episode of The Simpsons in which he hasn’t let go of the fact that he’s not the people’s Batman anymore.Īfter suffering through the Zack Snyder DC films, you’d be forgiven for having your fill of grayscale superhero flicks, especially with Ben Affleck making Batman all sad and middle-aged. (“I tried to do Batman as a very likable nut,” he explained.)īut by that point, the culture had already largely dismissed West’s Batman as dopey, and when Burton’s Batman came along, starring Michael Keaton as an edgier, more somber Bruce Wayne, its huge commercial and critical success felt like a repudiation of West’s tongue-in-cheek turn. West supposedly cried when he wasn’t approached to reprise the role, and in interviews he’d insist that he’d always seen Bruce Wayne as a troubled soul. With its German Expressionism production design, malevolent Joker (Jack Nicholson, replacing Cesar Romero’s jokey villain) and psychological underpinnings, Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman was funny, but in a hipper way than West’s pseudo-square show.
ADAM WEST BATMAN MOVIE
was trying to bring the character to the big screen - not counting the Batman movie West made, of course - the studio wanted the property to hew closer to the tenor of the original comics. “If they see us winking, it’s dead,” Dozier supposedly said.īut when Warner Bros. Executive producer William Dozier wanted West to do the whole thing with a straight face, never letting on that it was all meant to be hilarious.
ADAM WEST BATMAN SERIES
Running three seasons, the hugely popular series was meant to be lighthearted, taking an irreverent approach to the Caped Crusader and his eager sidekick Robin (Burt Ward). Now, nearly five years after his death, West may be having the last laugh.ĭebuting in comics in 1939, Batman appeared in serials in the 1940s before ABC cast West, who’d been on Westerns and Perry Mason, as the Dark Knight for its 1960s show. For a long time, it was dismissed as a joke. But what’s even funnier (albeit perhaps unintentionally so) is how this mock trailer underlines the cultural shift that’s happened around West’s 1960s portrayal.
The clip is cleverly done, making a funny but familiar point: Boy, these recent Batman movies sure are serious. The folks at Corridor have taken old footage from the 1960s Batman television show - specifically, Adam West’s campy Caped Crusader - and digitally added it to The Batman, replacing Robert Pattinson’s gripping sadboy.
0 kommentar(er)
