The Batman Director Matt Reeves Reveals Inspiration From Film Classic Taxi Driver
Move over, Joker -- a new Gotham-centric film is here to steal your Taxi Driver-loving spotlight. That's right -- in the filmmaker's commentary track for The Batman, director Matt Reeves cited the Martin Scorsese classic as a key influence on how he wanted to depict the movie's violent, unstable Bruce Wayne. The commentary, now available with certain digital purchases of the film, features Reeves looking into some of the film's development and inspiration.
While the parallels between Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese's 1970s output and Joker were impossible to miss, The Batman has a bit more going on. Still, it's Bickle all over again.
"[I] wanted him to have this almost Travis Bickle-like quality of keeping a journal. And it was really inspired – a little bit – by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; the idea of Dr. Jekyll charting [his] experiment – seeing what the effect of becoming Mr. Hyde is on him and what happens to him, and then keeping track of it and writing it down," Reeves said in part.
He later added that the journal was not entirely inspired by the unstable Bickle, though; we also have a young police officer to thank.
"[I] thought, 'Okay, we have a year-two Batman. This isn't an origin tale," Reeves said. "We're gonna start right inside of his head, and how do we do that? Let's start in his journal, and the journal will be a recording of the nights, when he goes out into the city.' And I actually – when I was writing – also found a journal online from a rookie cop. The first year of his career. [He worked the night shift], and he talked about becoming a nocturnal animal, because he was coming out at night. And I just thought that was so great, and I thought it so spoke to this idea of Bruce going [out]."
You can read the official synopsis for the film below.
Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman (Robert Pattinson), striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. With only a few trusted allies -- Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) -- amongst the city's corrupt network of officials and high-profile figures, the lone vigilante has established himself as the sole embodiment of vengeance amongst his fellow citizens.
When a killer targets Gotham's elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World's Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle/aka Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Oswald Cobblepot/aka the Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Edward Nashton/aka the Riddler (Paul Dano). As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator's plans becomes clear, Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.
Starring alongside Pattinson (Tenet, The Lighthouse) as Gotham's famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) as Selina Kyle; Paul Dano (Love & Mercy, 12 Years a Slave) as Edward Nashton; Jeffrey Wright (No Time to Die, Westworld) as the GCPD's James Gordon; John Turturro (the Transformers films, The Plot Against America) as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard (The Magnificent Seven, Interrogation) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson; Jayme Lawson (Farewell Amor) as mayoral candidate Bella Reál; with Andy Serkis (the Planet of the Apes films, Black Panther) as Alfred; and Colin Farrell (The Gentlemen, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Oswald Cobblepot.
The Batman is still in theaters, is also available to stream on HBO Max, and to buy or rent on other digital platforms.
h/t Comic Book Movie