When I think back to my childhood, there is one movie that simply grabbed my imagination and at the same time scared the hell out of me (in a creepy way).

Batman! (nananananaa .. etc.)

It's difficult to remember exactly what I remember as a child because I have seen the movie multiple times since then and have read critiques and even seen one blooper scene in the film. The thing is, though, that I know what effect this movie had on me, and can deduce what scenes stuck out in my mind (this is partially do-able because, well, I know how I used to think when I was younger).

Came out in 1989, I was four years old, Kindergarten.

I don't remember much about why I liked it when I was younger, other than it was the first 'hero' movie I've ever seen. In some of my various trips to Hong Kong(since it was a British colony, they had double-decker buses - and they also drove on the wrong side of the road), my dad would take me to ride on the buses with Batman stuff painted on them (for some reason, I loved it).

My cousin Francis was a great artist (drawing), and even drew me a detailed picture of Batman standing with a background of clouds and the bat signal plastered on the clouds (I still have it at home, laminated). I remember trying to imitate his drawing, but my not being anywhere near talented, would draw something that didn't look remotely like the original. I guess this kind of exhibits my artistic perfectionist side (since i'm bad, nothing is ever good so i'm embarrassed of it)

For Halloween, I was Batman, and I had the sheets and towels (still do, actually - the towels, I mean)

I wished that I could fly. Well, not necessarily fly, per se, but kind of float/flutter down like Batman. Therefore, I had a light blue blanket, and would jump off my bunk bed and imagined I would get a little more air time than normal.

(cape)

I was creeped out about the whole laughing, dying with a smile theme. In particular, the news casters, when the woman keeled over and died, that kind of hit me, particularly, I think because I felt news stations were safe, and untouchable. The other thing I found scary was the scene in the art museum-restaurant when Joker takes off the mask off of his ladyfriend and her face was massively scarred and he called it "art".

(6:15 mark.)

Lastly, I recall near the end of the movie, when Batman is capturing the poison balloons, the Joker shoots him down with a huge-ass gun. I watched the movie a few times, and every time I saw it, I would think that it was very unrealistic, yet I would secretly hope that he wouldn't shoot him down.

As I viewed Batman again, several things popped out at me (perhaps I was actively trying to draw similarities between my other pages and this one.)

Joker did not attack society's necessities, which would have made economic sense, he attacked their desires, their wants, their .. makeup. It seemed like this was a direct attack on American Culture, in a way.

Secondly, the movie was actually pretty funny. It possibly could have been the lacking technology at the time, but Tim Burton's consistent theme of darkness with Jack Nicholson's obvious attempts to be creepy struck me as fairly humorous when I watch it now. That bumbling Knox character and Keaton's introverted demeanor also seem odd, but funny to me. When he shot the guy doing all the kung-fu .. yeah .. I laughed.

Third, Michael Keaton is and will always be the original (best) Batman. Christian Bale is almost there, but overacts too much.

>

Fourth, i'd never really though about why, but since i'd started college at UT, i'd had this odd fear that if something were to happen to my parents, I'd think about how devastated i'd be, and how my brother and I would cope, along with what we would end up doing afterwards. Now that I think about it, though, this (the movie) had disturbed me slightly when I was younger.

How does this have to do with my other discourse pages?