Batman Plays It Cool
The Age
Thursday June 26, 1997
LITTLE did the creators of Batman know almost 60 years ago that the character they called The Bat Man would still be alive and well and delivering the world from evil when they themselves were old and grey.
In the late 1930s, teenage cartoonists Bob Kane and Bill Finger released the Bat Man to an appreciative comic book audience. Robin came along a year later, and the dynamic duo has now travelled on an odyssey through six decades of development, alteration, reinterpretation in comics, movie serials, a wildly popular mid-1960s television program and feature film and graphic novels.
It reached its current form, in film, with the 1989 Warners Bros release, Batman. Then there was Batman Returns and Batman Forever, both huge-box office successes.
Now Batman is back and he's got Robin beside him again in the movie Batman and Robin. Also sharing the screen are some new bad guys in the form of the shimmering, terrifying figure of destruction, Mr Freeze, and the lethal Poison Ivy.
George Clooney is the latest actor to don the batsuit, Chris O'Donnell plays his motorcycle riding sidekick, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the cool villain, Mr Freeze, and Uma Thurman is transformed from good-girl botanist Dr Pamela Isley into the nasty Poison Ivy.
Alicia Silverstone plays the seemingly demure schoolgirl, Barbara Wilson, who, under the cover of night, becomes a fearless motorcycle racer and ultimately emerges as Batgirl.
Australia's Elle Macpherson co-stars as Bruce Wayne's companion, Julie Madison, and John Glover provides more evil as the wicked Dr Jason Woodrue.
When Mr Freeze and Poison Ivy, who can kill with just a kiss, form a liaison it takes all the gadgetry that the Dynamic Duo can muster to keep the streets of Gotham City safe.
According to George Clooney "The script was fun and entertaining and it gave me the chance to work with some really great people. This is the story of a family now - how they all survive together. There are sweet moments, especially in the father-son relationship between Alfred and Bruce Wayne and, of course, there's a lot of action and excitement too.
"It's fun to be Batman. He's got a great life - a mansion, good friends, beautiful women, all the coolest toys - and he knows it and has a sense of humor about it."
Arnold Schwarzenegger says Mr Freeze "is a villain with strongly sympathetic overtones, which makes him more interesting to play. This is a long way from the pure evil that I played in the first Terminator movie and I'd like to think that it's part of my growth as an actor."
As for Uma Thurman, her character (Poison Ivy) can be summed up as "basically a talker, a manipulator and a hustler".
And what does Bat Man's creator think of it all? Bob Kane is happy that his creation continues to thrive and entertain audiences around the world.
© 1997 The Age