The Batman: 5 unlikely films that inspired the Robert Pattinson reboot

While The Batman fits into the trend of longer terms, director Matt Reeves seems to be relying on more than the work of Bob Kane and Bill Finger to shape his DC Comics adaptation. Aside from the original character’s creators, Reeves also seems to be mostly looking past Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, Joel Schumacher, and every other director who’s cleaned up on The Bat.

So where is Reeves looking? When his interview with filmmakers is to believe the 1970s.

While there has been a long debate as to what was the best single year for movies, there is a loose consensus that the 1970s is the best decade. The emergence of a Hollywood overloaded with historical epics and stifled by the censored Hays Code, “New Hollywood,” as the moment was called, began in the late 1960s and reached its full potential in the decade that followed.

Reeves Name reviews five ’70s classics on his MovieMaker profile. Here’s a breakdown of each and how to preview them The Batman could improve your viewing experience.

All the President’s Men (1976, Alan J. Pakula)

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

What is it: All the President’s men focused on one of the biggest stories of the decade: Watergate, the primordial scandal of modern Washington that forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon. With Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, President’s men is a thriller that focuses on two journalists who work step by step to bring down the most powerful man in the world. It’s not a violent film, but the threat of violence constantly hovers over the two of them.

The Batman Connection: All the President’s menThe poster’s slogan read “The most devastating detective story of this century”. It’s an ethos that Reeves wants to embody: “This story, in addition to being almost a horror film, a thriller, and an action film, is also a detective story at its core,” he tells MovieMaker.

But there’s more here than lip service to Batman’s detective past. Two characters, Gotham Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. (Rupert Penry-Jones) and District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard), have names related to Nixon’s scandal. John Mitchell was Nixon’s Attorney General and has the distinction of being the only United States Attorney General to serve a prison sentence. Charles Colson was one of Nixon’s confidants.

“I wanted to make a story where the corruption of Gotham is one of the most important aspects of the story because Gotham is a sick place. Bruce is desperate to make a change,” Reeves told MovieMaker.

All the President’s men is available for streaming HBO Max.

clod (1971, Alan J Pakula)

What is it: clodThe name is somewhat misleading. While Donald Sutherland’s character, detective John Klute, has a starring role in the film, Jane Fonda’s Bree Daniels is the lead character. Bree is a sex worker in New York City trying to survive as best she can while she lets off steam with her psychiatrist. Klute is on the hunt for a missing man, and police have found obscene letters addressed to Bree in the man’s office.

When Klute finds Bree, the two begin an uneasy partnership fraught with sexual tension.

The Batman Connection: Zoe Kravitz tells MovieMaker that clod “became a bible to me in terms of tone and the relationship between” between Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne. “What I love about Donald Sutherland in this film is that he judges her – he judges her and yet falls in love with her. And I just thought there was something to it that referenced a Batman Selina Kyle thing.”

clod is available for rent Amazon, Apple, and vudu.

The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (1972 and 1974, Francis Ford Coppola)

What they are: Being tagged as the “greatest movie of all time” is empowering The Godfather Movies sound staid when in fact they are deeply human stories, a moving saga of immigration and corruption that follows the Corleone family of patriarch Vito (Marlon Brando), his son Michael (Al Pacino) and the rise of organized crime in America .

The Batman Connection: Reeves seems to draw on a smaller part of the gripping saga: Fredo Corleone, Michael’s older brother, memorably played by John Cazale. Fredo grows increasingly resentful that Michael was chosen for leadership despite his place in the pecking order, and it’s that kind of jealousy that will bring Colin Farrell to The Penguin.

“There’s a certain brokenness in there [Oswald Cobblepot] I’m thinking that, as a reference, not for me performance wise, just emotionally, as a reference for Matt – I’m thinking Fredo off The Godfather was kind of a reference,” Farrell tells MovieMaker.

The Godfather films are available to rent Amazon, Apple, and vudu.

Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)

What is it: One of the classic neo noirs Chinatown follows detective Jake Gittes (picking a trend here?) in 1930s Los Angeles who is hired to capture images of a woman’s allegedly cheating husband. Gittes is drawn deep into an underworld of deceit, corruption and violence that affects the entire city.

The Batman Connection: While the film is only given a passing reference in the MovieMaker profile, the elements resonate throughout: a corrupt city in need of a hero, gorgeous ladies with dubious motives, people trying to survive and do whatever it takes. Things aren’t going too well for Gittes in his hunt for corruption, so it will be interesting to see the fate of Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne.

Chinatown can be streamed with a library card canopy and hoopla.