Kurt here from Your Movie Buddy, offering a circus-themed post to coincide with the release of Water for Elephants, 20th Century Fox's spring tentpole (nyuk, nyuk). My three-ring subject is a pivotal scene from Batman Forever, that neon-coated guilty pleasure that gave way to what's likely my most hated movie of all time. It begins with a cube of cheese:
I've really got to get you out of those clothes...
"Excuse me?"
...and into a black dress. Tell me, doctor, do you like the circus?"
And with that, Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) and the bankly-named Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) head out for a very script-friendly first date, conveniently opening the door for The Birth of Robin. We soar into the Hippodrome, a waterfront arena just outside the downtown area of Joel Schumacher's rainbow vision of Gotham, and pass multiple instances of the production designer's imperialist-society-by-way-of-paper-mâché aesthetic.
Inside, Gotham's finest gather to watch the acrobatic stylings of The Flying Graysons, a carnie clan that includes Dick (Chris O'Donnell), his brother, and his mom and dad. To my knowledge, this setup adheres rather closely to the lore of the Batman comics, though Dick/Robin was just a wee lad of 10 when taken under Batman's cape.
Anyway (getting ahead of ourselves), the Graysons prove a crowd favorite.
They smile...
They soar...
And they make quite the fan out of a riveted Doc Meridian...
Yes, baby!
I love the link between the doctor's fervent fascination with the acrobats and her lustful yearning for the Caped Crusader (this, you'll remember, is the movie wherein Nicole knowingly asks Batman, "Do I need skin-tight vinyl and a whip?"). You know she's fantasizing about him as she watches the Graysons at work, their leaping from trapeze to trapeze akin to his bounding from building to building. She's interrupted from her trance by Bruce, who asks her to go rock-climbing with him (a startling proposal, seeing as nothing in the Batman milieu seems to ever exist beyond the metropolis). Chase would love to, but she's "met someone," which, of course, equals a big win-win for Mr. Wayne.
"He just kind of dropped out of the sky," she says, "and BANG!"
Attentions are drawn back to the big show, where the bangs continue. Dick's "Death Drop" supermove gets big cheers from the audience, and a gaping-mouth reaction from the ever-enamored doctor. But a scratchy cackle interrupts the merriment, as Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones + purple prosthetics) emerges as the satanic new ring leader. The best part of the Tommy Lee takeover is by far the sick glee it elicits from mad scientist Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey), an ex-employee of Wayne Enterprises who's watching a telecast from home and who's still plenty pissed about Bruce shooting down his "brain-drain" concept. Whenever Two-Face gets especially vicious with his threats, Edward loses his s**t.
I have to hand it to Schumacher. For all the damage he did to this franchise, he and his Oscar-nominated cinematographer, Stephen Goldblatt, certainly givea lot of great imagery. One of the better setpieces of the movie (which, end-to-end, is rather carnivalesque), this scene is comprised of wild, contempo-evocative action shots, and a whole lot of juicy close-ups. The best, naturally, are of a perfectly porcelain Kidman, whose delight turns to terror once it's clear that Two-Face's should-I-or-shouldn't-I coin flip doesn't land bright-side up.
amused by viciousness
elation to terror
Despite Bruce's efforts to answer the cloven villain's call for Batman's true identity ("I'm Batman!" Val screams to deaf ears amidst the din – another contrived tidbit and close-up opportunity), Two-Face grabs a neon machine gun and takes out the wires supporting Dick's relatives, who were (somehow, I don't know) trying to stop the ascending bomb timed to blow the whole circus to bits. The Graysons plummet, and Dick, who does manage to ditch the ticking device, returns and peers down from above, in shock. Don't ask me to explain the logic of the scene's environment (is he atop a circus tent? I thought we were in an arena...), but Dick's horrified mug is, appropriately, its final image – a close-up to cap things off.
And thus, Robin is born.
What do y'all think of Batman Forever? Big-top disaster? The greatest show on Earth?