THE VERDICT'S IN: BATPURISTS LOVE KEATON

By Steven Rea

From The Toronto Star, 07.07.1989, Final Edition

Last September, Batpurists were spinning in Batcircles over news that Michael Keaton--the comic star of Mr. Mom and Beetlejuice--had signed on to play the Cowled Crusader, the Dark Knight, the Batman himself, in the Warner Bros. movie shooting in London. Worse yet, Tim Burton, a guy whose only two movies were Pee-wee's Big Adventure and the aforementioned afterlife-farce Beetlejuice, was directing.

The last thing these Batphiles wanted was a comedy, and with credentials like Keaton's and Burton's, the project had yucks written all over it.

Nine months later, and less than two weeks since its massive opening in 2,193 theatres (on Sunday, Batman became the first movie in history to gross $100 million in its first 10 days and by yesterday it had sold $113.7 million worth of tickets), the hardliners have seen the movie and the verdict is in: Keaton pulls it off, Burton pulls it off, Jack Nicholson as the Joker is great and, most say, so is the film.

"I've seen the film twice and I liked it, I enjoyed it," says Frank Link, 41, the owner of Comic Universe stores in suburban Philadelphia, who has been reading Batman comics since he was a kid. "I was one of the first to be on the other side of the coin--the anti-Keaton side--but after seeing it I came away, ironically, feeling that they didn't give me enough of him. It left me wanting more of Batman, more of Keaton.

"Everybody's talking about it. It's been great. . . . Over-all, everyone was quite pleased with it and we were afraid we wouldn't be, considering all the hype."

Michael Yates, the manager of Comics & More in Philadelphia, is 27 and has been reading Batman since he was 3 ("I've also been reading books," he emphasizes, weary of the stereotyping of comic-book readers as dimwit nerds.) His reaction, also after seeing it twice: "I liked it better the second time, and I liked it the first time. There's no way in the world you're ever going to get a perfect Batman. . . . I loved the Joker, and I wished there was more Batman. I bought Keaton's portrayal."

Jason Gingrich, a 33-year-old investment banker from Wilmington, Pa., exiting Fat Jack's Comicrypt in Philadelphia last week with a fat stack of new issues, also applauded Keaton. "He pulled it off and then some. I found myself wanting more of Batman, more about his secret life."

Even Harlan Ellison, the grand pooh-bah of sci-fi and fantasy aficionados, has made a 180-degree Batturn. Although he now says he was quoted out of context, Ellison was quoted out of context all over the place about his opposition to the Keaton casting. His misgivings appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Comics Journal and, most recently, in American Film magazine, where the novelist--without having seen the movie--condemned the choice of less-than-heroically-jawed Keaton as "idiotic, in a word." American Film identified Ellison as a "Bat purist."

Having finally seen the $40 million (or $57 million, depending on whom you believe) film, the Batpurist filed a 4,000-word rave for the Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction.

What he really said, Ellison claims, was "that if I had any concern, it was that perhaps the selection of Keaton--strictly on the basis of his physique--seemed to me capricious, even though Keaton was certainly a box-office draw."

As for the complaint among the movie's fans that they wanted to know more about Batman, designer Anton Furst's elaborate set is still standing at the Pinewood Studios outside of London, and reports have it that Danny Devito is already signed on to essay the evil Penguin in Batman II.