Batman (1989)

Some heroes are born from tragedy, and the darkest villains often come from the same shadows. Tim Burton's "Batman," written by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren, was the blockbuster of 1989, delivering the goods despite an occasionally spotty script and giving the Caped Crusader a dark overhaul in keeping with his evolution in DC Comics. Michael Keaton, a controversial choice at the time, strikes just the right brooding note as Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who fights crime in grimy, crime-ridden Gotham City as Batman, a masked vigilante most people believe is only a legend. Kim Basinger plays ambitious photojournalist Vicki Vale, who teams up with a wisecracking reporter (Robert Wuhl) to investigate the Batman rumors and soon falls for Bruce. Jack Nicholson goes gleefully wild as Jack Napier, a vain, ruthless gangster whose boss (Jack Palance) sets him up to be killed at a chemical plant. After a fateful encounter with Batman sends him plunging into a vat of chemicals, he emerges disfigured with a permanent grin, reinvents himself as the Joker and seizes control of the city's underworld. He poisons Gotham's cosmetics with a deadly laughing gas, gleefully vandalizes an art museum and sets his sights on Vicki, while Bruce discovers a shocking link between the Joker and his own past. It all builds to a spectacular showdown atop a towering cathedral. Anton Furst's Oscar-winning production design makes it a visual feast, and Danny Elfman's now-classic score and Prince's songs propel the action. Michael Gough plays Alfred, Pat Hingle is Commissioner Gordon and Billy Dee Williams is District Attorney Harvey Dent. It launched a hit franchise.