Which Actor Will Always Be Batman To You?

[worrell4077]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 2:54pm

Everyone should have their own opinion on this, but anyway, which actor who has donned the cape and cowl of The Dark Knight will always be Batman to you?

For me, it's a tie between Michael Keaton and Christian Bale because both were the only ones that I thought really captured Bruce Wayne/Batman. They weren't over the top campy like Adam West or George Clooney, and I thought that both were very convincing as a man obsessed with revenge.

So who will always be Batman to you?
Adam West
Michael Keaton
Val Kilmer
George Clooney
Christian Bale

[Patronus]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 2:59pm

You forgot Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery on your list.

I think Christian Bale is the only actor who has come close to portraying the role the way that I'd like him to be portrayed. I enjoyed the Nolan vision of Batman and Gotham quite a bit, but I still think that Batman should be played darker than any of the film versions.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 3:10pm

Adam West -- it's what I grew up on and I still prefer the original series, with all of its campiness and fun celebrity cameos, to any of the movies (which always have struck me as taking themselves way too seriously for what is, after all, just a comic book).

Updated On: 2/17/07 at 03:10 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 3:14pm

Bam!

Pow!

[Jon]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 3:56pm

BIFF!!!

Was that a shout-out to Death of a Salesman?

[Patronus]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 4:10pm

I agree with you Margo. I absolutely love the Batman TV series because it realized it was campy and played it up. It was actually quite faithful to the original early comic book series as well.

My issue with the Burton/Schumacher series was that they didn't seem to know if they wanted to be dark or campy. Keaton handled it okay in the first film of that series and I actually felt like Kilmer was decent in Batman Forever but all in all the films bounced back and forth from dark to camp and it didn't entirely work for me. I still watch them because I'm a huge Batman fan, it just isn't what I would have preferred.

The Christopher Nolan vs of the Dark Knight is much more up my alley and is more in the Frank Miller Batman: Year One image which is the version of the comic series that I like the most.

My favorite Batman story arc is actually Batman dealing with the death (or so we thought at the time) of Jason Todd who was the 2nd Robin after Dick Grayson left and became Nightwing. That type of darkness is really what I love about the Bruce Wayne character.

I'd really like to see HBO do a Batman series that focused on the 350-500 stretch of the Batman comic book.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 4:14pm

Adam West!

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 4:21pm

Seeing as Batman Begins was the first Batman movie I saw, Christian Bale will always be Batman for me.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 5:11pm

Adam West! though I grew up on re-runs...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 5:59pm

Not to mention that cute little Burt Ward as Robin, Yvonne Craig as Batgirl, Eartha Kitt and Julie Newmar as Cat Woman, Burgess Meredith as The Penguin, Frank Gorshin as The Riddler, that crazy queen Cesar Romero as The Joker and all the other villains (Victor Buono, Anne Baxter, Tallulah Bankhead, Otto Preminger, Ethel Merman, Shelly Winters, Roddy McDowell, Vincent Price, Liberace, Joan Collins, et al -- pure camp heaven).

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 7:41pm

Adam West

I know both he & Ward wrote books about Batman but both are out of print

It was one of the most original & enjoyable shows ever televised.

It was a Camp Fest to the NTH degree . I think all those who appeared in it had an absolute ball doing it

Eggsactly

Updated On: 2/17/07 at 07:41 PM

[stagegrrrl]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 9:07pm

me

[Elphaba]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 9:13pm

Michael Keaton

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 9:32pm

Margo, you've whetted my appetite yet again for a stellar DVD release of the old series.

I worked on the recent Batman box set, and I know what's going on with the series, as far as "legal tangles."

I have to say it pisses me off. WORK IT OUT, people. There are too many fans out there (me included, and you included) that would love to have a great DVD set of this show... complete with "rogues gallery" etc.

It is now "officially" the most requested DVD not yet released.

Believe me, we've been on the verge several times of going into production on it, only to have it go into "limbo" again, every time.

Everyone "owns" a piece of it, and no one wants to split up the potential profits. Which would be huge!

So it's a stalemate, every damn time.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 9:37pm

Let's hope they get it together while Adam West is still around and able to do some extras and audio commentary. He's looks great and like he's in great shape, but he is damn near 80, after all.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 9:42pm

I agree, Margo. Adam is terrific. We had Julie Newmar come in for some Catwoman video and audio bites. I adore her too. She's still a sexy, crazy, talented, confused beast. And a very dear, sweet lady.

It won't be long before these "legends" will be gone.

And we'll be coming up with hand puppets and "graphic enhancements" for the DVD, because no one will be left to tell it like it is!

[worrell4077]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 10:00pm

"My issue with the Burton/Schumacher series was that they didn't seem to know if they wanted to be dark or campy. Keaton handled it okay in the first film of that series and I actually felt like Kilmer was decent in Batman Forever but all in all the films bounced back and forth from dark to camp and it didn't entirely work for me. I still watch them because I'm a huge Batman fan, it just isn't what I would have preferred."

Burton started it off with his version of the original 1939 Batman, the first issue ever and there was also a combination of Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. When he did the second one, he went a little more darker, more like the Batman comics of the late 80s and onto today, because of Returns's really dark moments and it's sexual innuendo and other bits, WB wanted to restart the franchise by making it kid friendly, which basically meant "We don't like this dark Batman that Tim gave us, we want the campy Adam West Batman back."

Schumacher never really took it serious. John Glover actually said in the behind the scenes of Batman and Robin that Joel would pick up his megaphone and say "Remember everyone, we're making a cartoon." After the dismal returns for Batman and Robin, WB realized that they had to give the fans want they want and that is what Chris Nolan gave us with Batman Begins.

"which always have struck me as taking themselves way too seriously for what is, after all, just a comic book."

Well Margo, Batman is intended to be serious. I mean, you really shouldn't do a comedy about a man who as a child witnesses his parents murdered in front of him. That doesn't really sell as a comedy, that's probably one of the reasons why they rarely mentioned it on the tv show, along with Dick's parents being murdered as well by Tony Zuko.

In a couple of the documentaries on the first Batman's dvd, Frank Miller was saying that he felt that the worse thing that they did on the tv show as give Batman a badge and he also felt that the show mocked the original source material, and he actually said that the superhero films and other things that were successful were the ones that were the truest to the source material.

I for one, loved both Christian Bale and Michael Keaton as Batman and I'm looking forward to seeing Bale reprise Batman in The Dark Knight, along with Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius, Gary Oldman as Gordon, Heath Ledger as The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. Katie Holmes is not coming back, and it's rumored that Maggie Gyllenhal(sp) will replace her.

"It is now "officially" the most requested DVD not yet released."

You know, best12bars, I would've thought that the most requested dvd not yet released would be for The Real Ghostbusters being released in seasons and not just a dvd with random episodes like they released already

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 10:22pm

No contest for me. I hate all the films. Adam West. But, even more, the villans. None of the movie villans compare to the television villans.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 3:00am

I liked Adam West when I was a kid, but now......that show just seems dorky

[pemberlee]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 4:00am

Christian Bale is definitely the Dark Knight of my dreams.

But the Batman of my childhood was Adam West because of those reruns on Nickelodeon.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 9:58am

I think Christian Bale captured the true essence of what Batman really is.

[mominator]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 10:34am

Very easy Adam West. Oooooof... POW..... Bammmmmmm

[worrell4077]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 11:20am

I just want to say, and this is no disrespect to Adam West or anyone on here who choose Adam West, but if all of the actors who played Batman got into a fight, Adam would be the first one out. Adam couldn't throw a punch without Biff or Wham.

"No contest for me. I hate all the films. Adam West. But, even more, the villans. None of the movie villans compare to the television villans."

Oh really. Jack Nicholson's Joker is ten times better than Ceaser Romero's Joker. The movie villians are more in line to what their comic book counterparts are. I mean sure, The Joker started out as more of a comical criminal that resembled a clown for the first batch of Batman comics, but after the 60s, the villians started getting darker and more complex than they were.

The Scarecrow is one of the best examples of that. Originally, he was Dr. Jonathan Crane, but he didn't have the fear toxin yet. He basically went around and killed people, and he was basically also a hitman. Then later, they recreated him as a deranged college professor who uses unorthodox methods in his teaching on fear/phobias, and thus creates a fear toxin that he uses on his victims.

If you go onto Wikipedia, you can get the biographies of just about every character in the Batman universe. That and there are some articles that address Tim Burton's idea for a third Batman and Joel Schumacher's idea for a fifth Batman. Both are really interesting to read about.

For some interesting reading, go out and buy either The Long Halloween or The Killing Joke.

[mattonstage]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 1:17pm

Sentimentaly: Adam West
Now: Christian Bale
Am I the only one who didn't care for Michael Keaton? I found him a really dull Batman. I'm not really sure I liked any of the movie Batmans until Bale came along. And as far as the movie villians, only Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman did anything for me.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 3:04pm

Kevin Conroy, the man who voiced Batman in BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES and BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM