Remembering the real Batman: Adam West
Adam West's Batman is the one that will be remembered a hundred years from now
I stopped being interested in Batman (and other DC and Marvel characters) years and years ago because of the woke communists that have vandalized those comics. But, despite the commies, I still had a few thoughts to share about Batman, and which Batman will be remembered in one or two hundred years.
Adam West: The real Batman
Adam West’s Batman will be the one that is remembered, but all of the Dark Knight Batmans will be forgotten.
Does that sound strange or crazy? It shouldn’t if you stop and think about it. The Dark Knight Batmans are a dime a dozen, going all the way back to Michael Keaton’s portrayal back in 1989.
When Keaton’s Batman first came out, it was a breath of fresh air. In terms of film, it was a reimagining of Batman that we hadn’t seen on the screen before. Unfortunately, what seemed to be refreshing and different quickly became tedious and commonplace as one Dark Knight movie after another was rolled out to cash in on Batman.
At some point, I realized that I had gotten sick of all the darkness, gritty violence, and Batman walking the edge between hero and villain. How many films like that can you watch until it all becomes a blur of boredom?
The real Batman is fun, not dark and depressing
But there is a different Batman, a Batman that existed long before the Dark Knight's dreariness: Adam West. Yes, the Batman from the TV show and one film that was colorful, fun, and certainly over the top at times in terms of campiness. I grew up watching the Batman TV show, and I also remember watching the original Batman movie when it came on TV.
So what sets it apart from the Dark Knight schlock? Well, for starters it’s not depressing and you aren’t staring at a post-apocalyptic Gotham City all of the time. The villains are also silly and not psychotic mental cases that want to slaughter every citizen of Gotham because something bad happened to them in their lives.
The original Batman movie and TV show offer a hilarious range of villains such as the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, and numerous other lesser-known villains that show up each week. None of them is a psychotic maniac, and all of them will bring a smile to your face instead of making you feel that humanity is hopeless and that violence and crime are everywhere at all times.
Adam West’s Batman, campy as it is at times, is also rooted firmly in the hero camp. There is no moral ambiguity in it whatsoever, he stands against “the forces of evil” and is in no doubt as to what is morally right and wrong. The Dark Knight movies are the exact opposite, and leave you wondering how long it will be until Batman himself goes completely over the edge into evil.
Batman: Battle of the movie trailers
Compare this trailer for a Dark Knight Batman, with the trailer for the original Batman movie from the 1960s:
Which one would you rather watch after a long day? Which one is going to make you feel depressed and sad, and which one will make you laugh and feel good?
As I was watching the Dark Knight trailer, my eyes started to roll back in my head. We’ve seen it all before, over and over again. There’s nothing new, fun, or entertaining about it, and the cinematography is dark and depressing. The original Batman movie is filled with bright colors and wacky gadgets, and it immediately brought a smile to my face, and I started to laugh as the trailer unfolded.
Don’t get me started on the exploding shark, Batman running around with the bomb on the dock, and the other funny moments in the film. All of it is fun to watch, and each of those moments stands out in my mind in a way that the Dark Knight films cannot match. I cannot recall a single moment in any of the recent batches of Dark Knight films that even comes close.
The 1989 film with Michael Keaton had the virtue of having Jack Nicholson as the Joker, and Nicholson’s Joker comes the closest to the villains from the 1960s TV show and film. But even Nicholson’s portrayal still veers into psycho territory, albeit in a more understated way than the Jokers that came after him.
Batman: Funny fight scenes!
It wasn’t just the atmosphere or the villains that made the Adam West version of Batman stand out, it was also the fight scenes! They were hilarious and exemplified how the 1960s TV show and movie never took itself seriously.
Get a load of some of these fight scenes:And here’s a few more with some very funny dialogue:
There is nothing in any of the Dark Knight films that come close to being as memorable as the scenes above, which is why the Dark Knight films will ultimately be forgotten as just more of the same in the future. How many Dark Knight films will there be until they all just run together in a tedious miasma of depressing violence and darkness?
Adam West will always be remembered as the real Batman
When all is said and done, the only notable and memorable Batman will be Adam West’s Batman. All of the others are more or less the same thing recycled over and over again, but there is nothing like Adam West’s Batman.
Nor will there ever be anything like it again, such a portrayal of Batman could not be replicated in today’s woke communist society. The people who make films and TV shows are not capable of producing such art again as everything is reduced to woke communist narrative shrieking.
As I write this post, I understand that I am likely to get hammered by Dark Knight fans, particularly those too young to have seen Adam West’s Batman. That’s fine, but to those people, I say this:
The Dark Knight Batmans are a dime a dozen, they are a never-ending cliche that has nothing to offer Batman fans beyond mind-numbing darkness, violence, and boredom.
But there is only one Adam West Batman, and he will forever be remembered in history as the REAL Batman.
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Interesting argument. I’m re-watching the original Star Trek series right now, and it strikes me that you could say the same of it vs. most of today’s sci-fi.