Batman: Year One (2011)
The Batman is not meant to be an adaptation of Batman: Year One. It takes place another year or so into Bruce Wayne’s stint as the Caped Crusader. Or “Vengeance,” as he calls himself at one point in the movie. However, the 1987 comic book storyline is still a major influence on Reeves and his take on Batman, so this animated feature adaptation (starring the voice of Ben McKenzie as Wayne/Batman) is definitely worth a look if you’d rather not seek out the publication. There are some certain connections still.
From here, though, you’ll also want to watch other animated films based on the comics that inspired The Batman. Last year’s Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One and Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two are particular essentials, based on the comic of the same name about a serial killer terrorizing Gotham City. There’s also Batman: Hush (2019), based on the comic of the same name that presents a shocking take on the Riddler and an even more shocking reveal about the Wayne family.
Batman: Year One is streaming on HBO Max (as are the others mentioned here).
Prisoners (2013)
Speaking of Zodiac and Paul Dano, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners is another movie that I was reminded of while watching The Batman, but it’s not something Reeves or anyone else has acknowledged as an influence. This time, unlike in Zodiac, Jake Gyllenhaal plays an actual detective, who is tasked with a case of some missing girls. The first primary suspect is a mentally challenged man played by Dano. Is he the kidnapper? Might he be a pedophile and possibly even a child murderer? Dano delivers another incredible performance and keeps us and the other characters — including Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard as the girls’ fathers — guessing.
Prisoners is streaming on Hulu.
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
Robert Pattinson’s version of Bruce Wayne and Batman is inspired by none other than Kurt Cobain. That’s right, the frontman of Nirvana who died at the peak of his fame at age 27. The idea came to Reeves while he was writing the movie and listening to Nirvana’s song “Something In the Way” (which can be heard a few times in The Batman). As he told Empire magazine, that led to him watching Gus Van Sant’s Last Days (2005), in which Michael Pitt plays a rock star who is obviously meant to be Cobain in solitude during his final days alive. He explains:
“That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse. So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s ‘Last Days,’ and the idea of this fictionalized version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.”
He also said that his casting of Pattinson was in part because of the Cobain inspiration:
“He’s also got that Kurt Cobain thing, where he looks like a rock star, but you also feel like he could be a recluse.”
As much as I do love Last Days, I would rather recommend a documentary about the real Cobain, and not just because I need at least one documentary pick on this list. Directed by Brett Morgen (who also made The Kid Stays in the Picture, a doc about studio head Robert Evans, who produced Chinatown and other ’70s films that inspired The Batman), Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is a biographical collage of a film. One thing I recall about it is all the material derived from Cobain’s journals. And journals are a part of The Batman as well, mostly those of the Riddler that could either be the scribblings of a psycho killer or a troubled rock star.
Cobain: Montage of Heck is streaming on HBO Max.
Good Time (2017)
When Robert Pattinson was cast in The Batman, the first movie that came to mind as a precedent was David Cronenberg’s 2012 adaptation of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, in which he plays a young billionaire playboy. But his Bruce Wayne is nothing like his Eric Packer, save for some relative psychological issues, and Cosmopolis is nothing like The Batman. Even while watching the new DC Comics movie, though, I wasn’t really thinking about the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time. However, Reeves was thinking about it when he cast Pattinson. The director told Esquire magazine:
“In the process of writing the movie, I watched ‘Good Time,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, he’s got an inner kind of rage that connects with this character and a dangerousness, and I can feel this desperation.’ And I became dead-set on it being Rob. And I had no idea if Rob had any interest! Because, of course, he had done all of these indie movies after he established himself in ‘Twilight.’”
In an interview with Little White Lies, Reeves also mentions seeing the “magnetic” Pattinson in The Lost City of Z (2016) and his work with Claire Denis and Cronenberg. But he again highlights Good Time as what drew him to Pattinson for The Batman:
“When I saw ‘Good Time,’ there was something in that story where you could feel he had an explosiveness, but also a vulnerability, and I think that’s what I was looking for.”
Good Time is streaming on Kanopy and Showtime.
Joker (2019)
The Batman is influenced by Taxi Driver? Well, so was Joker. Both of these recent divergences away from the main DC Extended Universe movies originate from a similar place: grimy, sleazy ’70s New York City crime films. They both have elevated production value, amazing scores, and stylish cinematography. They’re both relatively grounded and occupy enough of a like-minded space that I was surprised it wasn’t Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winning version of the Joker showing up at the end. You could easily see a crossover somehow, despite this movie technically being set much earlier.
Joker is streaming on HBO Max.
Related Topics: Movie DNA, The Batman
