Batman: Mask of the Phantasm(Radomski/Timm, 1993)
I like undressing in the dark. That way I can't see things I don't want to see. It's the last shot of the movie. An executive on a luxury cruise liner nervously approaches a beautiful stranger standing by railing. He is brushed off: "I am alone." The woman is Andrea, Bruce Wayne’s ex-girlfriend and nemesis, the Phantasm, a ghostly apparition who has recently cleaned up Gotham City’s scum -- basically doing Batman’s job, but using murder as the weapon of choice. Andrea careened over the deep end of vengeance after her father was killed. Finally unmasked by Batman she exclaims, "Look what they made us…they took everything away from us." On this point, Batman and the Phantasm are one and the same; they are both scarred, damaged goods. What makes them different is how they have decided to deal with the pain of losing their parents. The difference between them is what separates revenge from justice.
The Phantasm (who is never referred to by name) looks like Batman, and so its cold-blooded murders make the Dark Knight a primary suspect. Murder is an act, Commissioner Gordon concedes, Batman can never do. But the district attorney doesn't agree and -- in an obvious homage to Frank Miller's graphic novel "Batman: Year One" – he dispatches a SWAT team to bring him in dead or alive. As Batman is ambushed in a desolate factory, he engages in a bloody fight for survival, and is rescued by Andrea who is, presumably, back in town after 10 years to look for her daddy. The interesting thing is she has long guessed Bruce's secret identity; there's no Lois-Lane-suspense-delay in that discovery, which is to the film's credit. What is slightly unbelievable is that the world's greatest detective Batman is himself unable to guess Andrea’s own alter-ego. Guess he's too love-struck for that. But since their relationship is believable we support Bruce as he seeks permission from his parents’ portraits and gravestones to absolve him of the vow he took; the promise of dedicating his life to fight crime.
With a feature-length running time and bigger budget the creators of the acclaimed show Batman: The Animated Series can now afford cinematic techniques like striking camera shots and action sequences. The focus in the film is less on narrative and more on characterisation: we are introduced to figures in Batman's present through flashbacks -- the friends, the villains, the love of his life. Interestingly, the Commissioner Gordon character is kept out of the loop for most of the film; it’s a minor role.
“Batman: Mask of Phantasm" is a dark and gritty film, drenched in pathos. Slow-paced and moody, it really comes together in the end with the Joker's involvement (references to "The Killing Joke" are apparent with the playground setting). The denouement confirms Batman's choice: justice over vengeance, the valor and nobility of a hero over punishment of a judge-jury-executioner. Batman was never this human again until Christopher Nolan's nimble "Batman Begins.”
