Batman & Bill
/“Batman is a cultural phenomenon with numerous comics always on the stands and films that have grossed $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office, yet many people don’t know the story about the men who created him.”
Filmology Rating: 3 out of 4
I would like to hypothesize that everyone in the American culture now from the age of seven up knows about Batman, they might know his entire rogues gallery or all of the members of the Bat family but they know of the man who dresses up as a bat. Batman is a cultural phenomenon with numerous comics always on the stands and films that have grossed $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office, yet many people don’t know the story about the men who created him. While some might know the name Bob Kane, since it has become synonymous with Batman, few people know about the real voice of the Batman, Bill Finger.
In 1939, the world would be changed forever when Bob Kane and Bill Finger together created the caped crusader who would be known as The Batman. Kane would later meet with National Comics Publications; which would later become DC Comics, to sell the creation but he would demand sole creator credit for Batman. Finger would continue to work on Batman, while never receiving credit, and would create characters like The Joker, Penguin, and Scarecrow. For generations, Kane would insist that he was the sole creator of Batman and all the characters that would be seen on the pages of the book and continue to take in all the money that the character would rake in while Finger was left penniless and close to homeless by the time of his death.
Anyone who grew up watching Batman on television in the 60s or Batman: The Animated Series or any of The Dark Knight trilogy, you owe it to yourself to watch this documentary. This documentary comes from the directing team of Don Argott and Sheena M Joyce, who also directed The Art of the Steal and The Atomic States of America so they are a good at tackling unique subject matters that most people should know about. I would even argue that if you have no connection to the character of Batman but you have a sense of morals and ethics that Argott and Joyce made a film that will still appeal to you. The focus of the documentary is that Bob Kane lied for his entire life about the creation of Batman, most likely to the point where he believed it to be true; and how Bill Finger never received credit for the spectacular creation. The documentary starts as a truth telling campaign, basically a David v Goliath situation which slowly escalates into a legal thriller.
Personally I followed the battle between the Finger family and Warner Brothers with great interest. I felt that Finger was given one of the worst deals ever since he wasn’t given a seat at the table even though he helped create some of the more interesting aspects of the Batman mythology. For generations the name Bob Kane was synonymous with Batman and I now hope that this documentary will help fix many years of errors to the Finger family and will help Bill Finger now also be synonymous with Batman.
An issue I have with this documentary, however, is that it is completely one sided, while that one side is clearly wronged and I haven’t heard anyone in the comic community upset about Finger’s family challenging Warner Brothers, it would have made for a stronger film to have a spokesperson from the Kane family or Warner Brothers speak about why they never wanted to change the creator credit. After both of the creators passed away it just becomes a stubborn battle of egos that should have been buried with the dead. Basic kindness and righteousness should have been shown from the start and I think those who were willing to deny that should be given the chance to speak and defend why they thought that was the correct route to take.
As a comic book fan I always heard the name Bill Finger whispered about but never understood the context of how much he did for Batman before this film. I believe that Batman & Bill should be screened before every showing up of the upcoming The Batman film so that every audience member will know the true history of the character and they will know that the true hero of the story made a fighting comeback at the end.
Rating: See It
-Jonny G