Features and Columns · Lists · Movies

15 Movies to Watch After ‘The Batman’

We recommend the movies that influenced and inspired Matt Reeves’ take on the Dark Knight.
The Batman
By  · Published on March 5th, 2022

The Godfather (1972) and The Conversation (1974)

The Conversation Sax

Two movies directed by Francis Ford Coppola have been in the mix in discussions of The Batman‘s influences. The first is his breakout Best Picture-winning classic, The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando as the mafia boss Vito Corleone. The original, based on the Mario Puzo novel and partly on true American mob stories, links to the Gotham City underworld aspect of the latest Bat-film. That would seem like a generic recommendation for anything crime-boss-related, but actor Colin Farrell acknowledged the inspiration for his gangster villain, Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin:

“There’s a certain amount of brokenness in Oz that, I think, as a reference, not for me performance-wise, but just emotionally, as a reference for Matt — I think Fredo from ‘The Godfather’ was a bit of a reference.”

Fredo, played by John Cazale, is much more substantial in The Godfather Part II (1974), but I can’t really recommend the also Best Picture-winning sequel without recommending the first movie (unless you’re experiencing the events chronologically, in which case you’d be checking out the 1977 The Godfather Saga TV version combining the two movies — not so fun fact: that’s how I was mistakenly introduced to The Godfather).

The other Coppola movie to spotlight in the discussion of The Batman is his other 1974, also Best Picture-nominated release, The Conversation. As Robert Pattinson told GQ magazine:

“The first shot is so jarring from any other ‘Batman’ movie that it’s just kind of a totally different pace. It was what Matt was saying from the first meeting I had with him: ‘I want to do a ’70s noir detective story, like ‘The Conversation.’ And I kind of assumed that meant the mood board or something, the look of it. But from the first shot, it’s, ‘Oh, this actually is a detective story.’ And I feel like an idiot because I didn’t even know that Batman was ‘the world’s greatest detective’; I hadn’t heard that in my life before — but it really plays. Just ’cause there’s a lot of stuff where he’s in amongst the cops.”

The Godfather is available to rent or buy from your favorite VOD outlet.
The Conversation is streaming free on Pluto TV.


Chinatown (1974)

Hulu Chinatown

Chinatown was already mentioned above, with Klute, but here’s a full recommendation of the Chandler-influenced neo-noir. Jack Nicholson (who would later play the Joker in the ’89 Batman) stars as the Marlowe-esque detective Jake Gittes, who is investigating a complicated case involving murder and political corruption in 1930s LA. Even more than the Caped Crusader in The Batman, Nicholson’s private eye delivers the sole point-of-view throughout the film. As Reeves explained at the DC FanDome event in 2020 about the inspiration:

“‘Chinatown’ was a key one, because in ‘Chinatown,’ Jake Gittes, in investigating the series of crimes that were part of that story, he discovers the depth of corruption of Los Angeles. It is like a classic noir. This series of murders that Batman is investigating are very much in that mode.”

Reeves more recently explained to Den of Geek the connection between Chinatown and the Batman and Catwoman dynamic in The Batman:

“[The dynamic is] sort of this mix of ‘Klute’ with ‘Chinatown.’ Because in ‘Chinatown,’ I think the Evelyn Mulwray character [played by Faye Dunaway] is a classic femme fatale, but as you get deeper into the story, [Jack Nicholson] assumes that she is a certain kind of person and assumes certain things about her morally, assumes she might be connected with this murder. But as he gets deeper into it, he understands the larger story and starts to realize that her story’s quite tragic and that he’s completely misjudged her.”

Chinatown is streaming on Kanopy and HBO Max.


Christine (1983)

Christine

Many movies have characters inspired by characters of the past (see the Godfather entry above), but rarely do we see movies with vehicles that recall old movie cars. Well, The Batman is different than most movies. But its Batmobile is not particularly unique. As Reeves told Empire magazine, the latest incarnation of Batman’s trusty automobile is partly modeled after the titular ’58 Plymouth Fury in the Stephen King adaptation Christine. Here’s what he said of the John Carpenter-helmed horror flick about a killer car:

“It has to make an appearance out of the shadows to intimidate, so I thought of it almost like Stephen King’s ‘Christine.’ I liked the idea of the car itself as a horror figure, making an animalistic appearance to really scare the hell out of the people Batman’s pursuing.”

Christine is streaming on Netflix.


Se7en (1995) and Zodiac (2007)

Zodiac

My first thought after watching The Batman was, “I love David Fincher’s Batman!” So much of the movie was either reminding me of Se7en or Zodiac, two of Fincher’s greatest movies, both of which deal with detectives investigating homicides linked to a single serial killer. Like Se7en, The Batman is dark and grimy and often rainy, or at least wet-looking. Batman is a younger and sometimes naive detective, a la Brad Pitt in Se7en, and the case starts to get too personal for him. Meanwhile, the killer is committing his murders with intricate designs and contraptions, similar to a few of the deaths in The Batman.

For Zodiac, the influence is mostly felt in Paul Dano’s portrayal of the Riddler as well as the villain’s costume and methods. Of course, the Zodiac Killer was a real figure of the 1970s, the same decade that we know cinematically inspired The Batman. And I could have included movies of that time that were also inspired by the Zodiac, such as the 1971 films The Zodiac Killer and Dirty Harry, but Fincher’s movie is still the best fit. Here’s what Reeves told Den of Geek magazine of the real inspiration:

“When you look at the Zodiac Killer, who was leaving all of these ciphers and puzzles and taunting the police and the newspapers, I thought, ‘That sounds like the Riddler!’ [Zodiac] made a costume that, frankly, isn’t so different from Batman. You have a guy who basically went around in a black hood, dressed in black, with an insignia on his chest. And it was utterly terrifying to think that somebody did that. And I thought, well, maybe there’s an iteration of the Riddler that does that.”

Se7en is streaming on Peacock.
Zodiac is streaming free on Pluto TV.

Next Page

Pages: 1 2 3

Related Topics: ,

Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.