haps the best testament to the effectiveness of Elfman's conception of the theme is its continual use in the trailers for even the most recent Batman films. Most interestingly, Elfman first thought up the tune on an airplane ride, and went to the toilet so he could hum the tune into a tape recorder in private...And I suppose "fun" would be a good way to describe the entire score. It is so reminiscent of the overtures that a person would hear from a European symphony 200 years ago; like the film, Batman a timeless composition. A considerable team of composers and orchestrators, conductors worked on this score, and the effort shows. It's mixed well with the film and the percussion never drowns out the rest of the orchestra. This CD is a classic and I recommend it to everyone. In sales, it has rivaled Prince's song album for the film even ten years after the initial release of both albums. And even though Elfman employed the same theme a few years later in Batman Returns, that sequel (as well as Goldenthal's contributions for the other sequels) fails to come even close to the original *****Tim Burton is an imaginative filmmaker with an obsession for the visual aspects of films, especially the darker motifs. After his quirky 1988 movie BEETLEJUICE starring Michael Keaton, in 1989 he resurrected the BATMAN series, which was last seen in the 1960s TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward. As the lead, Burton again cast Keaton, but the script by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren has a Robin who is AWOL.When reviving a series or a movie, there should be an idea of what new can be said. Burton's vision was that he wanted a dark Gotham City and little more. Anton Furst's Academy Award winning sets are massive monuments to nothingness. They are ugly without form or purpose, but they do create just the right mood of hopelessness and despair that Burton wanted. (An experiment worth making would be to turn off the sound and see if the movie has just about as...
