![]() He finally added Robin (Chris O’Donnell, the hunk who launched a thousand gay awakenings) and played his villains as larger than life nuts, rather than the tortured souls who faced off with the Dark Knight in the Burton films. He jettisoned the relentlessly grim tone that had marked the previous films and leaned more in the direction of the campy 60s Batman. Ostensibly sequels to Tim Burton’s visionary Batman and Batman Returns, Schumacher’s installments amount to a reboot before that term became trendy. In hindsight, it seems remarkable that Schumacher was able to make mainstream, high profile movies as blatantly campy and queer as these two Batman films. Michael Gough (Alfred), Chris O’Donnell and Val Kilmer in Batman Forever I myself came around from ranking on B & R to enjoying its loopy charms. In recent years, fans of both this movie and Batman & Robin have become increasingly vocal and have sought to change the narrative surrounding them while frequently shouting out their subversive queer sensibility. ![]() I did a piece on Batman Forever five years back, reflecting on how it’s underrated and was likely a victim of homophobia it was, however, a huge box office hit, scoring 184 million in the US. ![]() Freeze) and Schumacher on the set of Batman & Robin But for me, and many movie fans, he’ll forever be known as the guy who directed Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997), two of the most polarizing superhero movies in cinema history. ![]() Elmo’s Fire) to horror (cult classic vampire flick The Lost Boys) to a big budget musical ( The Phantom of the Opera). He directed everything from drama (the 1985 “Brat Pack” hit St. Although openly gay from the beginning of his career-he started out as a costume designer before making the leap to film directing with 1981’s quirky The Incredible Shrinking Woman-he wasn’t known as a “gay filmmaker” but rather a successful A-list, mainstream director with an impressively wide range. This week we lost gay filmmaker Joel Schumacher at age 80. ![]()
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