Setting the status quo for Batman post Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman: Year One, resonates hard to this day. Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s four-issue story redefined Batman, going beyond the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams ‘Man of Mystery’ adventure stylings, zipping right by the werewolves and space aliens, and bringing the street-level vigilante back in vogue. I generally reread the story every year, and it never feels any less intense or establishing. The New 52 may change this, but most everything about the Batman character in the past 20+ years comes from this story, in some way.
It isn’t surprising that DC hasn’t tried to adapt Year One in the past. In 2000 DC made several efforts, working with Darren Aronofsky (of Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler fame) to generate a screenplay that fell ill in Hollywood, as most do (Geek Fact: Aronofsky’s first choice for Batman was Christian Bale).
DC has been releasing a few PG-13 animated Direct-to-Video movies a year, allowing for adult aspects of their comics be seen by wider audiences. This includes exruciating scene in
Green Lantern: First Flight, where a character is sucked into space by his asshole, ripping his insides out in the process--not for kids. When DC announced last year that Year One would be one of the animated films on the docket, there was the usual fanboy reaction: “About Time!” vs. “How Dare They!” I, for one, was ecstatic; I thought it fit the mold well. It is a small, personal story that highlights a side character along with a star that doesn’t need the introductions. The timing was also perfect. Hot off of The Dark Knight, and a year shy of The Dark Knight Rises, interest in Batman will be peaking very shortly.
Batman: Year One tells the story of an early-twenties Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham, after many years of training across the globe, to fulfill his promise to his parents to stop crime somehow. Meanwhile, Detective Jim Gordon, fresh off the Chicago Police Department (more on that later), is coming to Gotham--essentially an assignment in Hell. Bruce flies by private jet, lamenting that he can’t feel the city from those heights, while Gordon takes the train, holding back disgust at what he’s gotten himself--and his expecting wife--into. The story operates in a series of juxtaposed situations between Bruce and Gordon, often times telling two angles of the same story. They are enemies right now, unaware of the other’s motive; and in the case of Gordon, under strict orders to obtain Batman.
Bryan Cranston, formerly Hal, patriarch of TV’s Malcolm in the Middle, now a cable megastar as the lead in AMC’s Breaking Bad, was rightfully cast as Jim Gordon, who Cranston commented in interviews was “the main character.” Hard to argue. The choice of Cranston for Gordon was such an obvious choice, he even looks enough like Gordon to play him in a live action adaptation. Cranston has also had several years playing a character on Breaking Bad who is constantly at odds with his own morals.
Gordon occupies at least 2/3 of the movie as we follow a year in the lives of these characters. The force is on the take; the mayor is in the pocket of the mob; and the police commissioner works the back rooms. It was hard explaining to my fiance as we watched it how corrupt Gotham is, and that Gordon was truly alone. Gotham is regularly depicted as a New York skyline with the poverty of Detroit and the crime of the Congo. It is a pure hellhole where you can expect a dozen murders, a hundred or so gun incidents, and a massive drug shipment a night. Year One removed the glamour from Gotham and really brought out the disgusting nature of it all. On Bruce Wayne’s first patrol, he immediately is encountered by a teenage prostitute who is beaten up by her pimp. The filth in the street set the necessity for this creature he will become.
When work is adapted, you have to immediately understand that this is a different medium and some things won’t work; but this never stops the “purists” from raising hell at the smallest changes. Year One stays right on cue, recreating the comic almost panel for panel, word for word. This works in some cases, as there are very deliberate story beats that are kept in which normally wouldn’t work on screen: small chit chat between background characters that hang on a page, but zip by in motion, and overall I think a lot of it works really well. On the other hand, there are a lot of sequences that miss the weight and importance they are intended to display. The best example is Batman’s first night out, the original scene of Kevin Smith’s famous Batman ‘Bladder Control’ fanfiction.
A comic book page is a flat space--unmoving, unchanging. It can be read over and over again or observed for however long the reader wishes. Time moves at the speed of the page, and storytelling versus on screen time moves fluidly unless otherwise made to move slower or faster with effects. Batman’s first night out, in the comic book, is almost a complete failure, where Batman tries to stop three punks stealing a television and almost gets them killed. On the page, the entire 30-second encounter takes a few pages. Every panel highlights an inner-dialogue with Batman as he plans for the events unfolding in real time: how he’ll catch this crook, that he forgot about the television, and ultimately how he could’ve done better. On the screen it’s literally just a 30-second action scene that gets the point across that this is his first night as Batman, but loses all of the emotion of the page.
Frank Miller’s comic book also relied heavily on inner-dialogue, even using the handwriting of Bruce, an elitist cursive script, against Gordon’s harder print style from years of regulation. On the page, it was a great way to get across the struggles the two characters are going through on these paths; in the movie it just makes you wonder why everyone talks to themselves. This would work in small doses, but as a whole it becomes dull towards the end.
That isn’t to say all of the translations didn’t work, specifically a scene towards the end of the movie dealing with the larger political plot. It directly translates one panel as 15 seconds of video, and it really works. It makes me think of The Dark Knight or The Departed; fast storytelling with real life discussions, where what’s not said is more important than what is. Each character is aware of the threats that hang overhead, but would dare not speak them. It shows a lot of confidence on DC’s part in their fans.
The animation is a mixed bag. The character designs are spot on and the action sequences are handled very well. The inspiration of the bat flying through Wayne’s window is particularly dramatic, but the movement is stilted and unmoving. It became a running joke to count the seconds when there was no movement. For example, wide pans of Gordon on the bed, holding a gun, in a very dramatic pose, while a minutes worth of inner-dialogue plays over the static image. The outdoor shots and car chases have a CG quality that isn’t very satisfactory, and very sparse in background items such as other vehicles on the road. When it moves, it moves well; but the action is infrequent and quick. The movie is, for the most part, a street-level cop story, so the animation does it’s job nicely; however, in a more action-oriented feature such as The Justice League, it would become a huge annoyance.
The rest of the voice acting cast is really inspired, especially Alex Rocco as Carmine Falcone. I have a hard time accepting anyone other than Kevin Conroy as Batman, but Benjamin McKenzie was especially uninspiring, never developing a distinguished voice compared to Cranston’s hard-as-nails Gordon. The supporting cast did a fine job with some other shining moments--and, despite only having one scene, the lawyer hired to defend the pimp is especially spot on.
Catwoman’s involvement, in both the comic and the movie, has always been a bone of contention with me. She is not a necessity, and she doesn’t have any plot resolution. She’s there, we get to see her become Catwoman, and she gets one interaction with Batman that doesn’t go anywhere. They also use her old, purple outfit which I think is just too campy even for homage. Catwoman is also the functional backup feature that hardly distinguishes itself or highlights the character in any meaningful way.
There is a little-talked-about series from 1998 called Gordon of Gotham, explaining how Gordon went from the Chicago Police Department to Gotham. It’s a very nice character piece of Gordon busting a smuggling ring, shooting dirty cops, busting ass, usual Gordon stuff; and at the end, he has to leave Chicago because he’s uncovered the top of the corruption pole. It’s a nice companion to Year One, and could’ve served as a much more fitting Prologue to the feature along with giving Gordon, a character with growing popularity, another shot for the mainstream to latch onto.
Batman: Year One tells the story it was intended to tell. There’s some loss in translation, but the feature is there. Bryan Cranston does a phenomenal job as the lead, Jim Gordon, giving the movie a little more dramatic cred. It is definitely not a children’s story: there’s lots of violence, adult themes of drugs and prostitution, and deep character struggles involving infidelity and morality; but, at the end of the day, a Batman behind the backdrop of a ‘Cop Conspiracy’ flick is as interesting as old-school Batman gets.
Verdict: Stream or Rent, Buy if you need it on the shelf
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