Patrick Explains BATMAN: THE MOVIE (And Why It’s Great)

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Patrick Explains BATMAN: THE MOVIE (And Why It’s Great)

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Patrick (H) Willems

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you’re right we should talk this

might be the last time we see each other

for a while i wanted to ask you guys

have either of you recently

watched the 1966 batman movie

do you think we can get a reward if we

turn them in

weird question i know but see i’ve been

walking through the woods for the past

few days

and at one point to feed myself i had to

eat bugs which reminded me

of bats which then obviously reminded me

of batman

now i’ve talked about batman here before

i’m sure you remember my

exhaustive explanation of the 1993

animated film

mask of the phantasm and why it’s great

but today

i want to talk about a very different

version of batman

i want to talk about the 1966 movie

commonly known as batman colon

the movie which was a spin-off of the tv

show that premiered

that same year for decades it was hated

by

vast swathes of bat fans who complained

its campy tone made a mockery of the

character but i

disagree i think this version of batman

should be celebrated

for being more faithful to the comics

than it gets credit for

for its inimitable extremely cool style

for being a good adventure movie and a

great comedy

for the genuinely brilliant adam west

performance

that still does not get the credit it

deserves and

for being a movie that forever changed

my life

you see batman the movie rules

and today we’re gonna talk about

why holy lecture series

[Music]

[Applause]

sponsored by raycon this

is a movie from a different time a time

when 20th century fox

still existed and they owned the movie

rights

to batman batman the movie directed by

leslie h

martinson is a 1966 film that spun off

from the 1966 abc tv series

it was created and produced by william

dozier and developed by writer lorenzo

semple jr who also wrote the screenplay

for the movie

it is for lack of a better word

a silly film it’s full of comically over

dramatic dialogue

some of the angles of that rectangle is

too monstrous to contemplate

absurd costumes sets that resemble pop

art installations

dutch angles on dutch angles on dutch

angles and of course

animated sound effects

usually when i show up here to explain a

movie to you guys it’s some kind of

autourist masterpiece made by one of my

favorite distinctive filmmakers

this is not that batman the movie is a

glorified episode of the tv show

the director is a journeyman television

director

the movie brought over the same crew the

same composer and same cinematographer

from the show

the writer was the head writer on the

show also

fun fact lorenzo semple jr would go on

to write the screenplays for the

parallax view

and three days of the condor holy

versatility batman

while the movie lacks a few of the

show’s famous elements namely the batusi

and the iconic narration that would come

at the cliffhanger endings of episodes

same bat time same bat channel

it represents the best version of the

show

it has just about everything that made

it great in one

tight beautiful 105 minute package

movie’s under two hours you love to see

it so let’s

talk about what actually happens in the

movie because it is

exactly what the title of some 41’s

debut album promised

all killer no filler except unlike that

album

this actually delivers yeah i’m coming

for you some 41.

the film starts in a truly bonkers way

with a dedication inscribed on a brick

wall

saying the film is for lovers of

adventure and

enemies of crime and yes i know what

you’re thinking but i do not consider

the stuff i did to actually

be criminal activities so this movie is

still for me

from there it goes into this rad as hell

quintessential mid-60s title sequence

that introduces the cast

in bright vibrant primary colors and

also has a little narrative of its own

kind of like the pink panther title

sequences that doesn’t really have

anything to do with the rest of the

movie

if you’re a kid this is exactly what you

want

from a batman movie it is all non-stop

adventure and action and crime fighting

it’s almost all batman and barely any

bruce wayne

there’s none of the boring stuff no

angst no brooding

no wayne enterprises business subplots

and thank god

no flashback to bruce wayne’s parents

getting

shot because this movie is fun

and i just don’t really know how you

make that scene fun

[Music]

yeah just doesn’t work instead of a

tedious origin story flashback which to

be fair was not

even really a thing yet since this was

the first feature-length superhero movie

the story jumps right into the action

bruce wayne and dick grayson

rush back to wayne manor to get the

batmobile which brings them to the bat

copter

which brings them to a stolen yacht this

is not a movie that needs to waste time

explaining how batman got a helicopter

he just has it

get on board we’re doing this in the

story

batman and robin as well as commissioner

gordon and sergeant

o’hara with his wonderfully terrible

irish accent while they were luring you

to a watery grave

the commodore’s yacht was being hijacked

someplace else precisely

plus alfred who gets to wear a little

mask in one scene uncover a

spectacularly sinister plot

all of their greatest enemies the joker

the penguin the riddler and catwoman

have teamed up

stolen a deadly piece of experimental

weaponry

and plan on using it to take over the

world their minimum

objective must be

the entire world you know how

so many modern superhero movies try

really hard to make things grounded and

realistic

they make everything gray and metal and

concrete and just

boring looking well this is a movie that

has some real [ __ ] style

the villains ride around in a

penguin-shaped submarine and fly through

the sky on jetpack umbrellas

the riddler has multiple costume changes

including this very cool suit with a

nice patterned lining that i

genuinely would like for myself and they

have a secret headquarters

over a bar down by the gotham waterfront

and for some reason

all of their henchmen are pirates that’s

right this

is technically a pirate film

and there’s also a pretty compelling

batman story going on here

catwoman disguises herself as a russian

journalist who seduces bruce wayne so

the villains can capture him

to lure batman into a death trap but

bruce actually falls in love with

catwoman without knowing she’s catwoman

and to quote robin when the truth is

finally revealed

holy heartbreak the movie creates the

feeling of reading a bunch of comic

books in a row

every few minutes there’s a new bonkers

twist or cliffhanger

batman and robin are stuck to a magnetic

buoy as the villains fire torpedoes at

them

the penguin infiltrates the bat cave

with an army of dehydrated assassins

batman must dispose of a bomb and a

crowded seaport

a shark jumps out of the water and bites

onto batman’s leg as he hangs from the

bat copter on the bat ladder

and that last one happens less than 10

minutes in this movie wastes

zero time getting to the good stuff now

i

know what you’re thinking patrick a

shark a bat ladder

isn’t this all kind of ridiculous well i

forgot to mention that the shark is also

a robot shark that explodes but this is

where we need to talk

about the tone of the 1966 batman

because this

is where its brilliance becomes apparent

[Music]

for decades the show and movie’s

reputation has been as the

silly comedy batman a parody who’s

always dancing

and joking around when it premiered many

batman fans

hated the show four so they claimed

making a mockery of the character

for decades comic book fans complained

that it ruined the reputation of the

medium and the superhero genre

turning it into a joke that did not

accurately represent the source material

but that’s not entirely correct you see

the 1966 batman is actually an

incredibly faithful adaptation more than

half the episodes in the first season of

the show

were directly based on specific issues

of the comics

the costumes sets vehicles and even the

framing of shots

were all ripped directly from the source

material

because as much as some comic book fans

might insist that these have always been

serious stories intended for adults

we must acknowledge uh that there has

always been an inherent absurdity to

this stuff

batman comics of the time were about two

friends in brightly colored costumes

masks and capes

who beat up a guy in a top hat wielding

weaponized umbrellas

who commits bird-themed crimes and in

the 1950s

the comics had been even sillier with

batman and robin constantly going on

wacky sci-fi or fantasy adventures and

hanging out with a magical

interdimensional imp

named batmite is that character

ridiculous and stupid

yes do i love him yes so the master

stroke of the batman show and movie was

to embrace

all of that absurdity the costumes the

overdramatic dialogue

the secret lairs and themed henchmen and

endless array of clearly labeled bat

gadgets

and to take it all totally seriously

on my way over here walking through the

woods when i wasn’t tracking the police

radio signal

i was using this pair of raycon earbuds

to listen to the audiobook of the caped

crusade

batman and the rise of nerd culture by

glenn weldon

in the section on the 1960s batman

there’s a quote

i wrote down the abiding irony

that hardcore fans decry the show for

not taking batman seriously

lies in the very fact that taking batman

seriously was precisely the show’s

organizing principle

the particular genius of the show’s

approach and the key to its mass appeal

was this tonal jujitsu they reproduced

the conventions of the era’s

one-dimensional batman comics

in three dimensions and asserted them

with a species of

terrible poker-faced gravity that

producer william dozier

characterized as like we are going to

drop the bomb on hiroshima

in doing so they achieved something that

television

let alone the culture had never seen

before

this is what makes adam west’s

performance truly essential

he treats batman like he’s playing

hamlet there is never a moment

where you doubt his belief that what

he’s saying is the most

important thing in the world

i swear by heaven if you’ve harmed that

girl

i’ll kill you all i’ll rend you

lem from lamb watching this you realize

the mistake of casting george clooney in

batman and robin

joel schumacher mostly does a good job

of capturing the spirit of the 60s

batman

but the problem is that clooney is

winking why are all the gorgeous ones

homicidal maniacs is it me he’s smiling

through the whole thing clearly aware of

how silly

it is but for west every moment

is life or death this is the brilliance

of batman the movie

if you’re watching it as a kid it’s an

awesome straightforward faithful batman

story ripped

right from the comics but as you get

older

you start to see the second layer to it

you start to realize

that this is one of the very best

comedies of the 1960s

now the word everyone associates with

this version of batman

is camp camp can be hard to define but

susan sontag in her famous essay notes

on camp

described it as a sensibility whose

essence is

it’s love of the unnatural of artifice

and exaggeration it usually refers to

unpretentious pieces of mass culture

defined by their sincere commitment to

stylization

that are playful in her essay sontag

lists old flash gordon comics as an

example of

camp so if those are camp then the

batman comics of the 50s and 60s are

definitely camp batman was camp way

before the 1966 show

so let’s stop complaining that this is

what made batman camp

or that a camp batman is in any way a

bad thing

so as i mentioned a minute ago while

walking through the woods i was

listening to the

audiobook on a nice pair of raycon

earbuds

come on you’re on a run from the cops

and you’re doing an ad

this is ridiculous and these things are

great

they are premium wireless earbuds that

are only half the price of their

competitors and the company is

co-founded by rayjay

who everyone knows i am a huge fan gotta

respect that hustle and

diversifying your income streams they

fit great and look great and the

bluetooth pairs seamlessly with this

phone that i stole from one of the

prison guards

they have over six hours of battery life

which

let me tell you is great when you’re

spending all day walking through the

woods and eating caterpillars for

sustenance

and they come in this cool little

charging case so i can discretely charge

them when we stop at gas stations for

supplies

right now you can get 15 off your own

raycon earbuds by clicking the link in

the description

or going to buy raycon.com patrick

williams

this is a product that i genuinely

recommend and plus

any money i make from this sponsorship

goes directly towards the free patrick

foundation

an important cause i care about deeply

batman the movie is not a comedy with

traditional

jokes setups and punchlines once in a

while there’s something

resembling that like when batman says

the drinking water dispenser is clearly

marked

and the camera pans over to a machine

with a giant drinking water dispenser

sign but more often the comedy comes

from the combination of delivering

utterly

bonkers absurdity with a completely

straight face

like when west dramatically calls for

the shark repellent

bat spray hand me down the shark

repellent bat spray and the scene

reveals this entire collection of

oceanic repellents

including one for wales or the total

conviction of their performances

as the heroes deduce which villains are

responsible for a crime

with some truly head-spinning logic

pretty fishy what happened to me on that

ladder

you mean where there’s a fish there

could be a penguin but wait it happened

at sea

see see for catwoman yet

that exploding was

pulling my leg the joker it all adds up

to a sinister riddle

riddler riddler if you wanted to make

grand declarations you could say that

adam west’s performance here

paved the way for leslie nielsen in

airplane and the naked gun

i’m not sure i’m gonna go quite that far

but it’s a thing

that you could say i love the way that

each of batman and robin’s near-death

cliffhangers is resolved

thanks to true absurdity but presented

as great drama

they are saved from a deadly torpedo

when a noble

porpoise hurls itself in the way it was

noble of that animal to hurl himself

into the path of that final torpedo

when the bat copter is hit by a missile

it crashes toward the ground

but miraculously lands on a foam rubber

wholesale convention

this stuff was laying the groundwork for

gags and goofs for

years to come paving the way for jokes

like this

now i’m a man who loves a good silly

name

and this is a movie that truly has some

of the best

silliest names around there’s a major

character

named commodore schmidlap another named

admiral fangschleyster

and then there is catwoman’s alias

she disguises herself as a russian

journalist who goes by

miss kitka but kitka is actually wait

for it

an acronym which stands for her full

name

catania arena to tanya karenska alisoff

my name is kitanya irena tatania

karenska

like seriously holy [ __ ] what a goddamn

name

every element in this movie works

together in harmony to

perfectly create this bizarre wonderful

tone

every performance is on the same

wavelength every costume is the right

kind of theatrical

the cinematography makes the brilliant

choice of shooting

every single shot in the villain’s

hideout with a dutch angle

the art direction not only labels every

bat gadget but also gives each villain

their own shelf in their hideout full of

their own individual traps and weapons

and then there is nelson riddle’s score

first of all nelson riddle great name

and yeah he’s got the catchy theme song

that we all know and love but start to

finish

the score just completely slaps i mean

the bat boat theme

[Music]

hans zimmer top that i dare you batman

the movie

is not a satire or parody of batman it

is a totally

legitimate even great version of these

characters

and in terms of movies where batman has

to get rid of a big bomb

this is definitely the better one now as

i’ve made it very clear by now

i think this movie is great i love it

and there are so many things in it that

i love

but i just couldn’t fit them all into

this preceding speech so

now here at the end are an assortment of

several of my favorite things about

batman the movie i love that this batman

and robin

give press conferences the way lee

meriwether

says cossack in her russian accent

report these riddles to your police or

or perhaps to that mass cossack batman

the hand-drawn animation whenever

anything gets zapped

i love that the movie ends with batman

and robin accidentally swapping the

brains of the members of the um security

council

and then discreetly just climbing out

the window

i love that robin is not allowed to

drive the batmobile

catwoman’s cat-shaped radio i love that

bruce wayne’s romantic move

is to quote edgar allan poe and all my

days

our trances and all my nightly dreams

are where thy dark eye glances okay the

way

the riddler lays out this elaborate

death trap that will throw batman into

the waiting arms of the penguins

exploding octopus

penguins exploding octopus

and then in the middle of a fight one of

their goons just

accidentally triggers the death trap

himself

i love how batman and robin are beloved

members of the community

and everyone waves to them as they fly

overhead in the bat copter

it’s nice i love how when the batmobile

breaks down it just happens to be right

next to the spot where they have stashed

a hidden bat

cycle which makes me wonder did they

just get really lucky or does batman

have bat cycles stashed

all over the city now look if there is

one fact you know about me

it’s that i love to explain things but

if there’s a second

fact it’s that i love ranking things as

well

so don’t worry here are my top five

moments of alliterative dialogue in

batman the movie

each about treacherous trumps my fine

opinion the pirates

holy halloween plagueis with his

criminal conundrums

this brassy bird has us buffaloed and

now

the big one my top five bat gadgets

number five the magnifying bat

lens number four bat gas

another sniff of bad gas which just

sounds funny number three the

anti-penguin gas

tablets number two the super molecular

dust separator and number one

obviously the oceanic repellents

now we’ve had a lot of fun here today

but you may be asking

patrick why this movie there are many

batman movies you’ve even explained one

to us before

so why this one and why now well

dear parents it’s because this movie

holds a special place in my personal

history

i’ve had an exciting past few years full

of disorienting highs perilous lows and

moderately comfortable middles but none

of this would be possible

if it wasn’t for you two and a choice

you made

many years ago you see when i was

four years old you decided to show me

this movie until then i didn’t really

know anything about batman and i had no

great interest in movies or comic books

but this changed everything

as you may remember i would rent this

movie over and over and over again

because i could not get enough

i was obsessed and that obsession led to

more obsessions

which snowballed over many years and now

the path

you set me on has brought us all

to this point so you see mom and dad

you two are responsible for this

for all of this for creating a person so

obsessed with movies and comic books

that he can simply never talk about them

enough to fill the void at the center of

his being

so obsessed that he stopped caring about

frivolous things like

personal hygiene or what some stupid

company called the

irs had to say about his taxes

patrick williams we have the house

surrounded

please step outside with your mouth

taped shut

we would prefer duct tape but scotch is

also

acceptable okay looks like it’s my time

to boogie

patrick you really should turn yourself

in if you’re good

they might reduce your sentence okay

it’s been about 30 minutes

charles said he needed 30 minutes to get

the interdimensional portal ready

charles yeah charles my buddy from

prison

the one i mentioned earlier he’s

actually been out in the barn this whole

time getting the rift and the fabric

between dimensions ready

for our escape it’s a long story but are

you sure

there is no more vanilla extract in the

house

try the cupboard over the sink

hey take some of willem’s homemade maple

syrup for the ride

out the back window and go to the left

to the barn quick before they see you

hank

what and i got the youtube channel

covered okay

maybe a little more woodworking in la

crosse but it’ll be just fine it’ll be

here when you get back

mom dad over the past few years

i couldn’t have asked for two better

people to whom i could

explain why various movies and tv shows

are great

i’ve got a whole new universe of

potential subscribers to go meet but

just know that to me

you too will always be my first

subscribers

the very first people to ever smash that

like button

metaphorically speaking

a rift in the fabric between dimensions

i know we always encouraged him to be

imaginative

but this has gone way too far

charlie charles you looking good yet

you look different

a fresh look for our new

audience whatever you say buddy honestly

the new look

it’s pretty adorable

so we’re ready ready for a

new world and

new clout

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