Noir Theatre: Batman: Under the Red Hood

The strongest genius of Batman: Under the Red Hood, now on DVD and Blu-Ray, is the adult presentation.

There are brutal acts of violence, overt sexuality and brooding on death and resurrection. Combined with a dark noir atmosphere that matches that of Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Under the Red Hood appears as if DC Comics is selling to an audience, now all grown up, who grew up watching the animated series and want to see something similar but with adult storylines. This is good not only for the audience but also for future cartoon adaptations of comic book storylines, with the paradigm no longer being limited to Saturday morning cartoons.

The homage to the old animated series goes beyond mere aesthetics. The storyline is a strong mirror to the excellent 1993 film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (which you can stream online for free). In that film, like in Red Hood, a mysterious and brutally violent figure starts to take out Gotham’s criminal syndicates. When Batman starts to pursue this mysterious figure, he finds that they know him personally, leading him to use his investigatory skills to discover who they are. In both films, Batman’s discovery leads him to find that a figure from far back in his past has come back to haunt him.

Like Mask of the Phantasm, Under the Red Hood is filled with excellent montages of fruitful parterships in the past of Bruce Wayne, the limited life of his secret identity providing the only real joy in Batman’s life.

Also like in the Mask of the Phantasm, the Joker plays a supporting role as the madman who lurks in the dark channels of Batman’s most intimate corners. While his role was more supporting in Phantasm, in Red Hood the parasitic relationship between the two is tackled head on, with Batman being asked with confrontation why he has allowed, after years of murderous rampage, the Joker to stay alive.

The Joker in Under the Red Hood is the nihilistic sociopath that dominated The Dark Knight, with a mix of the Animated Series persona to chill it down mildly. The portrayal of Gotham as a gang-dominated city with helpless and inept law enforcement stays continuous from The Dark Knight, with the slightly conservative dogma that criminality must be squashed down for order to resume manifesting again.

There is one flaw with the story and the believability of the entire Batman series of films and comic books. In the real world, anyone who publicly wreaked as much havoc and carnage as the Joker would not simply be placed in an asylum for safe keeping. Even in the most liberal areas in which the death penalty is viewed with disdain, he would be executed and no one would think twice about it. That Batman’s moral code would keep from personally executing the Joker is believable, but that Gotham City’s people or politicians would not act upon themselves to execute the Joker is not.

Holistically Batman: Under the Red Hood is one of the best of the wave of comic book adaptations released by Marvel and DC. With its adult themes and smart storyline, it’s a sign of a stong trend towards intelligent animated films.

Next: The Stranger

(I promise this time! The next few installments will be very intensively geared towards the great Orson Welles.)