Batman

Millionaire Bruce Wayne by day, avenging Batman by night, the caped crusader encounters a grinning face from his past when a madman known as the Joker threatens Gotham city.

Directed by Tim Burton it’s Jack Nicholson’s weirdly lovable Joker that described himself as “the world’s first fully functioning homicidal artist” in 1989’s Batman which launches this distinctive Joker character driving him through the decades in the first film installment for the Warner Brothers and DC Comics film franchise released 50 years after the original comic’s debut.

Most fans will admit that Michael Keaton made the best and deepest Batman, and there's little to beat the first of the franchise, with Burton's Gothic vision and Anton Furst's looming set design remains astonishing, as does Keaton's Bruce Wayne. Nicholson provides the brilliant colour in this gloomy expressionist world, which has since become a Burton trademark. With a completely unrestrained a performance, Jack cuts a showboating swathe that pretty much dominates the movie. “Where did he get those wonderful toys?”

Launching our Batman Day 2023 the Batman classic is not to be missed on the UK’s largest screen.