Joel Schumacher died last week. Schumacher was one of those idiosyncratic directors who, through his exceptional visual flair, caught my eye before I even knew his name.
I started developing an interest in film at a very young age after seeing Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) in the movie theater more than 40 years ago. Although it scared the hell out of me – the image of a grisly, pale-white E.T. lying lifeless in a small creek is forever etched in my memory – I knew I had just witnessed something truly special and life-altering.
From that moment on, I tried to see every film I could get my greasy little hands on. No small feat, considering I was growing up in The Eighties. I saw every new release in theaters of course, but back then really the only way to build your “mental back catalogue” was to watch or record films on TV and to raid the video store.
Part of my burgeoning love for cinema was to catalogue every film that I saw in a little black book and later an electronic organizer. I added information such as principle cast and crew, year of release and what I thought of the film. In retrospect, I realize that this database was an early, offline version of IMDb for personal use. Unfortunately, I did not have the vision to think bigger and see the potential…
What I did notice however, was that a lot of the films I really liked were directed by the same people. One of these directors was Joel Schumacher. At the pinnacle of his career, Schumacher directed two Grisham adaptations and two Batman films for Warner Brothers within the timespan of just four years. Although all of these films were very profitable – which indicates to me that a lot of people must have liked them – the so-called critics were already out for his blood. Schumacher is to this day reviled and ridiculed for giving the Batman costume nipples and sadly, a lot of reports on his death still appear to focus solely on that achievement.
I have always been completely flabbergasted by the whole nipple issue, because I never even gave it a second thought when I saw Schumacher’s Batman films back in ’95 and ‘97. Yes, the costume appears to show the lining of the nipple, but so what? What is inappropriate or offensive about a nipple? The uproar about something perfectly natural and innocent like a nipple – see also the whole Janet Jackson - Justin Timberlake Superbowl SNAFU – is to me a perfect example of the twisted and hypocritical attitude towards judging the “suitability” of content.
To be perfectly clear – I am not trying to trivialize the fact that Jackson was assaulted. Ab-so-lute-ly not. But the actual assault was not what caused the collective outrage about at the time. People were upset because a nipple was shown on national television. God forbid.
I guess being a proud fellow-countryman of Paul Verhoeven has blessed me with a more relaxed and mature attitude towards the physical form, but the majority of Hollywood still appears to think that sex is dangerous and guns are not. That, to me, is the real danger.
I had originally intended this piece as a celebration of my two favorite Schumacher films – Flatliners (1990) and Falling Down (1993). I even rewatched them both this morning to get in the mood but apparently, I subconsciously felt that addressing the undeserved flack Schumacher endured for sexualizing Batman was more important. I am in no way suggesting that either Flatliners or FD was ever perceived as a bad film and therefore needs to be discussed on my platform, but Schumacher did always have the stigma of being a somewhat campy director and I feel I have to defend him.
Box-office wise, his career was never really quite the same after the whole batsuit-ridiculousness, but I for one kept following his output with great interest. He found muses in Kiefer Sutherland and Colin Farrell and made several films with both actors, eventually uniting them in the excellent Phone Booth (2002). Yes, Sutherland is really in PB, just not in the traditional form...
Schumacher, like many other great directors, recently made the transition into streaming / television and directed two episodes of House of Cards. It would have been interesting to see what else he could have done within this medium. I will miss him.
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Twitter (X): Robin Logjes | The Screen Addict