Holy tour de force! Only director Tim Burton could take the Caped Crusader into the darkest realms of comic-strip nightmare yet still manage to weave an arresting tale full of doomy Shakespearean irony. From the camera crawling around the Bat symbol under the opening credits to the Hunchback of Notre Dame-inspired finale, this action fantasy captures the spirit of artist Bob Kane's creation, and the result is a sophisticated film noir full of black humour and creepy images. With Michael Keaton's brooding Batman/Bruce Wayne and Jack Nicholson's garish Joker on the knife-edge of good and evil, Burton cleverly places both tragic characters within the same psychological bracket. Shot on 18 sound stages at Britain's Pinewood Studios, the Gotham City set was the largest construction since 1963's Cleopatra, costing $5.5 million and using 60 miles of scaffolding; Oscar-winning designer Anton Furst said he wanted Gotham City to look like a New York that had gone without planning permission for 300 years. Burton went on to direct a sequel three years later that is arguably even better than this smash-hit original.

Having witnessed his parents' brutal murder as a child, millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne fights crime in Gotham City disguised as Batman, a costumed hero who strikes fear into the hearts of villains. But when a deformed madman known as 'The Joker' seizes control of Gotham's criminal underworld, Batman must face his most ruthless nemesis ever while protecting both his identity and his love interest, reporter Vicki Vale.