When I was living overseas, a kid in elementary school in the 1960s, I had heard that Batman was now playing on U.S. TV. I couldn't wait to see the show on home leave during the summer. However, when I did, I was disappointed. I wanted Batman to be a dark imposing figure and Robin not to be a golly-gee cartoon character. As for the villains, it was OK for them to be colorful. However, I wanted them not to be goofs, but authentically threatening. Like a James Bond villain. I wanted the show to be real, like the spy shows of the 1960s. Still, when the TV show was on, I watched it and grew to accept it as it was. Familiarity breeds content. The comic series was extremely popular, more popular than anything else, for a reason, and the show still presented the heroes and criminals. And like other types of humor, campy humor can have its moments. Plus, the females were always very sexy, and there were lots of celebrities: It was all part of popular culture.
"Batman" the movie is like the TV show, a campy satire. All the good-guy actors are the same: Batman & Robin, Commissioner Gordon & Chief O'Hara, Alfred & Aunt Harriet. The three male arch criminals are played by the same actors; only Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) is different, but she is just as voluptuous as Julie Newmar. This being a full-length movie, it was a good idea to include all the leading criminals. They do their pompous cackling and laughing, as on the show. Their hired thugs are the familiar impersonal, subservient losers.
The plot is grandiose: The four villains kidnap the nine members of the U.N. Security Council by dehydrating them into dust with a newfangled machine (rehydration is possible). The villains operate on board a surplus navy submarine. Their intent is to conquer the world. Bruce Wayne is kidnapped, set up through a romantic encounter by a Russian journalist, "Miss Kitka," who is really Catwoman. (Listen to those corny lines between her and Bruce.) The final fight scene takes place on top of the submarine, over the water.
The latter-day Batman films are real by the standards desired by the younger persona of yours truly. As with anyone else, I have my positive and negative comments about them, set forth elsewhere. Can there exist an idealized Batman movie for me? Regardless of the answer, if another Batman movie is coming, I will see it, as an adult. "Batman" of 1966 I would not see as an adult; perhaps some others would. Maybe some creativity went in, but this stuff cannot be taken seriously or have any meaning. As an adult, I can only say it is silly, which is what I thought as a kid too.
"Batman" the movie is like the TV show, a campy satire. All the good-guy actors are the same: Batman & Robin, Commissioner Gordon & Chief O'Hara, Alfred & Aunt Harriet. The three male arch criminals are played by the same actors; only Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) is different, but she is just as voluptuous as Julie Newmar. This being a full-length movie, it was a good idea to include all the leading criminals. They do their pompous cackling and laughing, as on the show. Their hired thugs are the familiar impersonal, subservient losers.
The plot is grandiose: The four villains kidnap the nine members of the U.N. Security Council by dehydrating them into dust with a newfangled machine (rehydration is possible). The villains operate on board a surplus navy submarine. Their intent is to conquer the world. Bruce Wayne is kidnapped, set up through a romantic encounter by a Russian journalist, "Miss Kitka," who is really Catwoman. (Listen to those corny lines between her and Bruce.) The final fight scene takes place on top of the submarine, over the water.
The latter-day Batman films are real by the standards desired by the younger persona of yours truly. As with anyone else, I have my positive and negative comments about them, set forth elsewhere. Can there exist an idealized Batman movie for me? Regardless of the answer, if another Batman movie is coming, I will see it, as an adult. "Batman" of 1966 I would not see as an adult; perhaps some others would. Maybe some creativity went in, but this stuff cannot be taken seriously or have any meaning. As an adult, I can only say it is silly, which is what I thought as a kid too.