30 Years Ago, Val Kilmer Actually Saved Batman
This wasn't a blip in the Bat franchise. It was a comeback.
Val Kilmer has sadly passed away at the age of 65. He leaves behind countless broken hearts but also an incredible oeuvre of popular films. And exactly 30 years ago, in the summer of 1995, his lead performance in Batman Forever changed everything. Here’s why.
Pop culture nostalgia, like classic art and literature, has a kind of undeclared canon. With the ‘80s, there’s a sense that certain shows and films are still cool (Back to the Future, Transformers), while other things are largely forgotten (Sky Commanders, Space Camp). On top of this, there’s a constant shift in the definition of what an ‘80s or ‘90s movie or show is. For example, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which debuted in 1987 is a ‘90s show, while Batman Returns, hitting theaters in 1992, is certainly an ‘80s movie.
In fact, looking through the Bat-film canon is one of the best ways to get honest about prevalent nostalgia versus the reality of the time. Yes, Michael Keaton’s Batman is regarded as groundbreaking today, but by 1995, when Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever came out, the primary demographic for the movie was happy to put that version of Batman firmly in the past. And that’s because, 30 years ago, Val Kilmer’s turn as the Dark Knight wasn’t just a one-off film in a twisty franchise. For the 14-year-olds waiting in line to see the movie, it was a comeback.
As a tween who built a model of the Kilmer’s Forever Batmobile, bought the soundtrack on cassette, and saw the movie five times in the theater, I can say with authority that when it was released, nobody who was fueling the conversation about the movie missed Keaton. Today, as a professional adult who writes about movies for a living, I can say that yes, in terms of artistic quality and utter uniqueness, the two Tim Burton movies are beyond special. But, if you’re talking about sheer entertainment value and a version of Batman that kids wanted to be, Val Kilmer takes the Bat-cake.
Kilmer played Bruce Wayne like he was James Bond. Yes, we know Bruce is a tortured guy and has some serious physiological issues, but Kilmer played Bruce/Batman more like Superman. That famous mouth looked like the mouth of a badass who knew how to party, not necessarily a guy who was in therapy five days a week. Mature comic book fans generally consider a darker Batman is a better Batman, but thanks to Joel Schumacher, that didn’t have to be the case. Batman Forever channeled the kitsch of the Adam West series without sacrificing any of the cool.
Val Kilmer and director Joel Schumacher at the debut of Batman Forever in 1995.
And none of that is possible without a good actor playing Batman. Or rather, a believable actor playing Bruce Wayne. Arguably, the number one problem with Batman and Robin in 1997 is that George Clooney’s face felt too recognizable as himself. His Bruce Wayne felt like your dad. Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne felt like your cool cousin with an awesome car.
In many of his movies, Val Kilmer channels a kind of charming bad-boy energy, which could be the closest thing to defining what made him so great to watch in huge films. However, in Batman Forever, Kilmer took that smiling bad-boy thing and turned it into unapologetic, old-school heroics. The subversive thing about Kilmer’s Batman wasn’t the nipple on the Bat-suit. Kilmer had nothing to do with that.
The subversive thing is that he wasn’t trying to be edgy. And that is why Batman Forever will always remain at the center of Venn diagrams about what Batman fans want. It’s weird and creepy enough for the people who like that kind of thing and lighthearted enough for the rest of us. And at the center of it all is the brilliance of Val Kilmer, the most underrated of the dark knights.
