Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “ A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, to celebrate its 60th anniversary, let’s revisit 1966’s Batman: The Movie, which began a cinematic legacy of camp & queerness in superhero movies.
This past week marked the 60th anniversary of Batman: The Movie, the Caped Crusader’s first-ever big screen adventure. And with Spider-Man: Brand New Day bringing another super-powered saga to the multiplexes this weekend, we thought it was the perfect time to revisit one of the earliest cinematic depictions of superheroes; one that left its stamp in pop culture for decades—and resonated particularly with our community because of its glorious sense of camp.
Batman’s Origin Story
How about we take this to the next level?
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Batman first appeared as a character in DC Comics in 1939, which makes him almost 90 years old. His mythology is perhaps one of the most recognizable story tropes in global pop culture: his beginnings as an orphan whose parents were murdered, his secret identity as millionaire Bruce Wayne, and the dozens of villains he’s had to wrangle with. Whether across film, television, print media or beyond, Batman is a permanent fixture of American culture.
Although it may sound strange now—when we’re arguably oversaturated with Batman—the superhero wasn’t always thought of as a box-office draw. In fact, it wasn’t until January 1966 that he was first brought to the screen, when the Batman television series premiered on ABC and quickly became wildly popular.
Starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin/ Dick Grayson, the series emulated the colorful and heightened aesthetics of the comic books. The tone was remarkably comedic and light-hearted, the performances were broad and larger-than-life, the dialogue was stylized so much it became a point of parody, and the production design resembled a cartoon world—a far cry from the gritty version of the hero we mostly see today.
After the success of the first season, 20th Century Fox decided to capitalize on its popularity and produce a feature-length version, which combined all the major supervillains into one extended narrative arc. The film was released in theaters on July 30, 1966 to moderate success, and would later air on television in 1971, years after the series had been cancelled.
The Caped Crusader’s Cinematic Debut
Batman: The Movie represents the superhero genre at its most bare-bones. Its story follows Batman and Robin (West and Ward reprising their roles from the series) as they try to stop four of their greatest enemies from taking over the world: The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), and Catwoman (Lee Meriweather, replacing Julie Newmar from the series).
Fittingly, the film feels like a series of comic vignettes in which the Dynamic Duo fight obstacle after obstacle, from jumping sharks and torpedo attacks, to bomb threats and a dehydrator that turns world leaders into dust.
Contrary to the kinds of superhero storytelling we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years, there’s no emotional backstory here to be found—no explanation for why Batman turned to crime fighting, no Machiavellian motives from the villains, and little dimension for any of the supporting characters.
It’s all very black-and-white: the bad guys do bad things because they are bad, and the heroes save the day because they are good. These are the archetypes at the very foundation of the genre, and in that sense the film shares more in common with the action serials of the ’40s.
A Bat For All Seasons
The heavily stylized visual look and tone heavily influenced the way audiences perceived Batman as a character, and in turn affected how future interpretations would be shaped. It became the franchise’s North Star, almost as if filmmakers taking on new versions of the hero asked themselves: “How much do I want to diverge from Adam West?”
After Tim Burton reintroduced Batman to the big-screen with Gothic flair in ’89 and his follow-up Batman Returns, out director Joel Schumacher’s pair of totally ’90s films, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, harkened closest to the campy sensibilities of the original series & movie. Though they’ve retroactively been embraced by queer viewers for that very reason, they were deemed so garish & over-the-top at the time that they nearly derailed the franchise entirely. It would take Nolan’s grim and grounded approach to The Dark Knight to get the hero back in mainstream audiences’ good graces.
Because of this, there’s been much debate over the years about which “approach” to Batman is the most legitimate: Should the stories stay true to the comic-book origins, or does the hero finds his thematic power in interpretations that reflect & refract our modern times? (We haven’t even mentioned the long-running animated series, the two recent cinematic takes from Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson, or the delightful LEGO parody!)
But at least for the queer community, 1966’s Batman: The Movie will also hold a special place in our hearts.
Camp & Queerness In Batman: The Movie
Of course we tend to gravitate to media with broad & deliciously committed villain performances, and on that front Batman over-delivers: With their biting wits and remarks, their over-the-top costuming, and the no-hold-barred scenery chewing, the quartet of supervillains here might as well be competitors on Drag Race!
As Catwoman, Lee Meriweather’s purring sensuality is to die for, as is The Joker’s overt flamboyance. Not for nothing, actor Cesar Romero is widely considered to have been closeted at the time, so as far as we’re concerned, that means our first on-screen Joker is canonically queer.
There’s also the not-so-subtle homoeroticism that between Batman and his trusty sidekick Robin: C’mon, two close friends that live together, work together, and fight crime together in tight spandex? They become each other’s greatest emotional leverage in the villain’s plan, and the script’s bareness leaves a lot of room for interpretation as to what the true nature of their relationship could be behind closed doors.
But at its core, Batman displays a shameless sincerity and openness that has become rare in this genre. There’s no cynicism about humanity, there are no anti-heroes that need to subvert their flaws to conquer evil, there’s no restraint when it comes to the larger-than-life depictions of its characters. And, ultimately, there’s pride in how ridiculous it all gets, because it remains authentic to its comic-book origins. Because if there’s anything we gays can relate to, it’s authenticity.
Batman… Returns???
Batman feels quite dated when watching today; its approach to characters we now know too well, its economic storytelling, and its pre-CGI practical effects do make the six decades that have gone by since its release very obvious.
Yet it also has an embrace of whimsy that is sorely lacking in today’s cinematic landscape, superhero movies or otherwise. The moment we started taking these stories too seriously is perhaps also the moment that its core tenets became diluted. And to that we say: Make Batman Campy Again!
Batman: The Movie is currently streaming on Fubo TV, and is available for digital rental or purchase via Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
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