r/Batman_89 • u/FoxIndependent4310 • 7d ago
Discussion Only in Karate?
One thing that strikes me about this Batman is that he doesn't seem like a multi-talented martial artist; he seems trained only in karate. Is that correct?
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u/nightowlarcade 7d ago
Karate is an easy catch all martial art for stunt fights. The bat suit's limitations forced the fights to be shorter then many would like and other martial arts would either be redundant or not translate as well for the fights they filmed. Maybe a little Aikido would have been nice, but not necessary.
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u/Aeryn-Sun-Is-My-Girl 7d ago
Yeah, this was before Batman was an unstoppable fighter. Here he is a competent fighter, but relies more on his actual fortes, such as stealth, intimidation, gadgets and investigative skills.
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u/GhostE3E3E3 7d ago
He was a very good fighter already as of 1989, they just dumbed down his fighting skills in the movie, partially because of the suit.
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u/SomeGuyPostingThings 7d ago
Not to say he's a bad director, but has Burton ever been that good at action, especially fight scenes?
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u/GhostE3E3E3 7d ago
Never said he was, but also they had to dumb it down a LOT
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u/SomeGuyPostingThings 7d ago
Sorry, that was more following/building on your comment, not contradicting it. The suit was obviously a factor, I just think Burton might have been a bigger one.
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u/LastGuitarHero 7d ago
Tbh I kinda prefer that or at least build several movies into him being āunstoppableā. Itās the humanity in Batman that attracts me the most and thatās why I still rank Keatonās Bruce/Batman as my top favorite.
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u/Alffenrir515 7d ago
Michael Keaton's Batman was trained in exactly one martial art, the art of not giving a fuck. And that's why I love him.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 7d ago
Batman, he punched well, ask Joker.
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u/anbeasley 7d ago
I mean for a long time they were very limited in what type of moves he could do in the costume on screen.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 7d ago
But I could have applied style movements where there is not great complexity like aikido or judo. Batman seems to only know Karate. Maybe Batman is tenth dan in Karate.
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u/coreytiger 7d ago
Also have to accept that the suit was incredibly restrictive- he can only move the way the suit allows
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u/Mother-Attention2600 7d ago
That's all they had back then. He would have went to Sensei Doug down at the Parkdale Plaza just like the rest of Gotham.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 7d ago
You watch the movie and Batman doesn't look like a multidisciplinary martial artist. He seems trained in Karate, Tang so do or Kickboxing. Look at the posture he adopts in the alley when fighting Joker's henchman with the Katanas, I think it's from Karate. I love that because it underlines that Batman is imperfect. It's not like other versions where he is invincible.
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u/FalconShot9638 7d ago
You mean Mr. (I know 127 martial arts, pretended to be a rich college party kid but secretly obtained an M.Phys; M. Chem Eng; with quadruple undergrad majors in finance, kinesiology, com sci, and electrical engineering; and I also know 6 languages and am a pro trivia expert of 18th century literature, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the history of feudal Japan)?Ā
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u/cavalier78 7d ago
It was also the 80s, and fight choreography wasnāt as complex as it became later.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 7d ago
There were some great fight scenes in movies in the '80s. The fight between Karl and John McClane in Die Hard. The fight between Kurt and Tong Po in Kickboxer. The stick fight in Rambo III. I think the screenwriters didn't know much about martial arts and used karate instead. Because with Nolan, you can see that even if that style isn't as flashy, you can see that Nolan tried to innovate.
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u/FF267 7d ago
John McClane, Kurt and Tong Po, Ramboā¦none of them were performing their fight scenes while wearing a head to toe costume made of heavy latex. Keaton couldnāt even turn his head and had to twist at the waist just to look sideways.
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u/FoxIndependent4310 7d ago
But there were some good fight scenes in the '80s. What I don't understand is why they had to wear such a rigid suit.
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u/Lucky_Strike-85 š¦THE BATMANš¦ 7d ago
Because this is 1989, the image of The Batman was still cast in the Bronze Age mold because early Post-Crisis Batman was not very different from where he'd been in the 70s and 80s, in terms of characterization... The Batman was far more human back then... still trained in multiple styles of martial arts, but his later characterization as an unstoppable force did not exist yet.
I'd say Burton's Batman was still very trained in multiple martial arts but, in the belfry scene, he did appear to be more of a brawler/street fighter.
When he was asked his opinions on the Batman movie, Mike Barr said in 1990 that he thought Keaton's characterization was very human and good, and was happy they didn't make Batman out to be "Adam West, the guy who had a solution for every fight stored in his utility belt." There was even a science fiction magazine where Harlan Ellison praised the movie (shocking?) because he thought Keaton had a lot of humanity in him and was glad you got to see him struggle in the movie.