tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265014241875110812.post7140314281621128188..comments2024-03-10T14:04:48.024-04:00Comments on The Projection Booth Podcast: Guest Spots: Weedsmen, Lone Wolves and Killer PartiesMike Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17690940782275888014noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265014241875110812.post-36122978536198968612014-10-15T14:45:17.374-04:002014-10-15T14:45:17.374-04:00Looking forward to the Batman Returns episode. It&...Looking forward to the Batman Returns episode. It'll be interesting to hear whether the participants think Batman '89 or BR is the "darker" film. There's no consensus, I've seen it equally argued both ways. Personally, I think B89 is the darker film aesthetically. The Gotham City production design by the late Anton Furst feels much more "real" to me and the film has more of a hardboiled Noir aesthetic than its sequel, whose macabre aspects I feel are softened by its "Gothic fairytale" feel. <br /><br />As for the Prince music in B89... considering that Burton was forced by WB to use the Prince music but was able to choose how and where to place it, I think Burton managed to use Prince in a remarkably subversive way. Consider that the Joker blares Prince on his boombox while VANDALIZING AN ART GALLERY. The Joker's all about bad taste, and playing Prince gives an even bigger finger to the sanctity of art culture than if Joker had played GOOD music while defacing priceless works of art.<br /><br />I appreciate that Burton used the Prince songs only as background music played by characters in the film, not as actual score. Just imagine if it was used to score a montage of Batman's crimefighting like the Ghostbusters theme, that would be.... awful. <br /><br />(Mike, you owe it to yourself to rewatch Beetlejuice! It's a cleansing tonic to pure the mind of Burton's post-ED WOOD output. Macabre black humor & throwaway gags, inventive practical & stop-motion effects... it's as creative, unique, witty and hand-crafted as Alice In Wonderland is uninspired, generic & glossy.)J.P. Curwenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03834449219118940042noreply@blogger.com