Essay Question 7 Justin Wyatt on High Concept Film – Tristyn Akbas z5214101

Justin Wyatt described the high concept film in his book High Concept: Movies and

Marketing in Hollywood. He described it as “a form of differentiated product within the

mainstream film industry. This differentiation occurs in two major ways: through an

emphasis on style within the film, and through an integration with marketing and

advertising”.1 To analyse these two aspects of high concept films which Wyatt proposes, this

argument will expand upon the ideas that he introduced in his book with a close analysis of

the 1989 high concept film, Batman.2 The argument will also introduce other ideas about the

film with regards to how it is high concept. These ideas which lie within those two aspects

were not written about by Wyatt.

Batman proves Wyatt’s claim concerning high concept film’s differentiation from the rest of

Hollywood film through an emphasis on style. One way that the film does this is with the use

of Hollywood film stars and another is with the film’s soundtrack. Jack Nicholson’s

performance as the Joker comes after his performances in Easy Rider, One Flew Over the

Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining.3 By this point in his career he had already cemented himself

as a charismatic actor. By the time Batman flew into theatres, his image was so large that he

was already playing a caricature of his performances in his past roles, like with his

performance in the 1987 film, The Witches of Eastwick.4 Therefore his larger than life

performance in Batman fit in with Nicholson’s star image that had been created throughout

those films. The argument here is that Nicholson contributed to the film’s standing as high

concept because he contributed to the film’s emphasis on film style as he played The Joker in

a ‘campy’ way. The other element that highlights how the film is high concept, is Prince’s

soundtrack. The film highlights this soundtrack in two scenes and both utilise a different song
1
J. Wyatt, High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1994, p. 7.
2
Batman, Blu-ray, Warner Bros. Pictures, United States, 1989.
3
Wyatt, op. cit., p. 31.
4
ibid., p.31.

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from Prince’s Batman album, ‘Partyman’ and ‘Trust’.5 The album focuses on the characters

of the film rather than an emphasis on narrative.6 That is why the album fits with the film.

Prince’s album is upbeat and the opposite of dark which blends perfectly with Nicholson’s

portrayal of the Joker and these elements make up the style of the film. The scene which

shows the argument about an emphasis on film style is the scene where The Joker breaks into

the museum.7 Nicholson dressed in purple with makeup covering his pale white face, walks

into the museum with his goons and we see a close-up shot of his face with his permanent

grin. The shot then moves into a mid-shot as one of the goons turns on a boom box and we

start to hear Prince’s ‘Partyman’ which functions as diegetic sound. This is where we start to

see The Joker twirl his cane and dance. The next shot is a long shot which is a match on

action as we continue to see The Joker and his goons dance. Nicholson, still in the long shot,

knocks over a statue as he twirls his cane. Joker and his goons throughout this scene continue

to vandalise the paintings, for example there is a close up shot of one of the paintings,

followed by The Joker writing ‘The Joker Was Here’. The colours of the vandalism, purple,

pink and green, are juxtaposed with the set, which is mostly white and brown. This is true of

the Joker’s outfit as well. Later, in the same scene The Joker sees a statue of a woman

balancing on one leg and in a long shot, still accompanied by ‘Partyman’ Nicholson mimics

the statue, pulling a face and moving with the diegetic music before waving his hand and

knocking the statue over. The costuming and set mixed with Nicholson’s ‘large’ performance

and Prince’s upbeat song, demonstrates how this scene places an emphasis on film style, thus

fitting into Wyatt’s description of a high concept film.

Wyatt touches upon Jack Nicholson and Prince’s involvement with regards to an emphasis of

style within Batman. Other elements of style which are emphasised in the film are the

5
ibid., p.49.
6
ibid., p.50.
7
Batman, op. cit.

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director, Tim Burton’s use of noir filmmaking and Danny Elfman’s orchestral score. Tim

Burton had made two films and one short film before he made Batman; Frankenweenie, Pee-

Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice.8 Both Frankenweenie and Beetlejuice are examples of

how this particular auteur utilises film style, particularly the noir style of filmmaking, while

Beetlejuice specifically is a prior example of how he can use noir filmmaking to make a

somewhat comedic film. In Batman, he utilises shadows and sets, creating dark environments

which support the comic counterpart. While in the previous paragraph this essay pointed out

how the diegetic sound, that is Prince’s soundtrack, showed how Batman has an emphasis on

style, the use of non-diegetic sound achieves a similar effect. The film is scored with Danny

Elfman’s orchestral score. Elfman was a relatively unknown composer at that time, getting

major breaks with Burton’s previous films.9 He walked through the Gotham City sets as he

wrote the score and knew he wanted a grand theme to match the city.10 In other words

Burton’s vision, a dark Gotham and a dark Batman helped inspire the score and the film

places a rather large emphasis on these elements. The opening titles and the first scene of the

film demonstrate how both Tim Burton’s film noir style and the score of Batman contribute

to the overall style of the film.11 The film begins with a close up shot on what is revealed at

the end of the shot to be the bat-symbol. The shot is quite dark, leaving the viewer in

suspense to find out what the shot is tracking. Yellow credits fade in on top of the dark

symbol. While this is occurring onscreen the non-diegetic score by Danny Elfman is playing.

The opening scene establishes Gotham city as we journey to the city rooftops when Batman

is introduced with the famous line, “I’m Batman.” The scene begins with a mid-shot showing

us the back of the mugger’s head as Batman raises his cape in the background. Batman

proceeds to attack the muggers, while Danny Elfman’s non-diegetic score is playing. Later in

8
B. Scivally, Billion Dollar Batman: A History of the Caped Crusader on Film, Radio and Television from 10c
Comic Book to Global Icon, Henry Gray Publishing, Illinois, 2011, p. 160.
9
ibid., pp.185-186.
10
ibid., p.186.
11
Batman, op. cit.

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the scene, when Batman utters “I’m Batman”, there is a close up shot of Batman holding one

of the muggers. As it is night, the rooftop is quite dark, so much of Batman’s face is

obscured, but his cowl’s features and the back of the mugger’s head are lit. This use of

chiaroscuro lighting supports Burton’s noir style. This scene communicates the film’s

emphasis on style as the scene is strengthened by Burton’s noir style and Elfman’s orchestral

non-diegetic score. This is however, not a trait which is unique to the high concept film,

while it does occur in these films often.

The next aspect of the high concept film that Wyatt uses to describe it is the integration of

marketing and advertising. Wyatt with regards to marketing and advertising for Batman

mentions the tv show and multitude of comics that came before it, writing that it “benefited

from the comic books and old television series, both of which greatly strengthened the

potential of merchandised product from the new film.”12 This quote demonstrates the nature

of the adaptation high concept film. The film sold on pre-existing material which means that

there is already an audience who is interested in that material, no matter their size. That

audience starts as the market for the film, so people who watched and enjoyed the 1966 TV

series or read the comic books would probably watch the film. However, the 1989 film was

vastly different to the series. Providing a much darker tone than the series ever did, the 1989

version does not necessarily benefit in that sense.13 A member of 1966 audience might not

have appreciated the change in tone in the darker scenes, yet they probably appreciated the

‘campiness’ of the Joker scenes. This is juxtaposed with the members of the comics audience

as The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, a comic published in the 1980’s, showed a dark

and gritty version of the character, so the comics audience probably would have appreciated a

12
Wyatt, op. cit., p. 153.
13
I. Gordon, M. Jancovich and M. McAllister, ‘Block Buster Art House: Meets Superhero Comic, or Meets
Graphic Novel?: The Contradictory Relationship between Film and Comic Art’. Journal of Popular Film and
Television, vol. 34, no. 3, 2006, p. 113.

4
darker screen interpretation.14 A scene from the film that encapsulates this dichotomy is the

scene in which Bruce Wayne is in Vicki Vale’s apartment trying to tell her that he is Batman

until he is interrupted by The Joker.15 The comedy in the scene is brought out with the shot

reverse shot close up of Vicki Vale and Bruce Wayne while he is fumbling to tell her his

secret. There is then a direct switch in Bruce’s characterisation when The Joker enters the

apartment and Bruce starts to monologue. This monologue is mostly a shot reverse shot

sequence between Bruce and The Joker and contains multiple close ups. That is until Bruce

Wayne utters the lines “Now you wanna get nuts? Come on! Let’s get nuts.” This shot is a

long shot designed to show the spatial separation between The Joker and Bruce. Keaton’s

delivery makes him seem insane to everyone else in the scene, showing a dark complexity to

his character. The camp qualities of the scene are highlighted after The Joker believes that he

has killed Bruce and he quite mockingly, sadly, recites a poem to Vicki before leaving the

scene. This combined with his costume, the dancing and the raspberry he blows as he leaves,

allows this shot reverse shot to bring out The Joker’s camp qualities showcasing how prior

marketing and advertising, in this case the previous Batman iterations, can be a quality of a

high concept film. This is also a trait that seems to be unique to the high concept film, for the

high concept film is usually the only type of film to have any previous iterations.

A strong element of marketing and advertising which Wyatt does not focus on with regards to

Batman has to do with the merchandising associated with the 1989 film. The marketing and

advertising campaign that ran before the release of Batman was quite large and a number of

tie-in products were released, including “board games, bubble gum cards, books, bedspreads,

toy Batmobiles, dolls, keychains, hats, raincoats, towels…”16 Some of this marketed

merchandising even demonstrates horizontal integration particularly with the film’s

14
G. Debona, ‘The Canon and Cultural Studies: Culture and Anarchy in Gotham City’. Journal of Film and Video,
vol. 49, no. ½, Spring-Summer 1997, pp. 52-56.
15
Batman, op. cit.
16
Scivally, op. cit., p. 191.

5
novelisation as well as the film’s soundtrack by Prince.17 Some of the merchandising proved

to do quite well, for example, the video sales after the film came out were quite large and

there were so many Batman T-shirts being made that the world faced a shortage of black

material.18 Almost, if not all of the merchandising and marketing material contained the

Batman logo. Even the poster sold the character as the star of the film, rather than the actors

themselves.19 Other quite obvious means of merchandising with Batman includes the

costuming and design of his vehicles, i.e. the Batmobile and the Batwing. A scene which

perfectly encapsulates the films marketing is the aforementioned opening credits of the film.20

The opening credits are a lengthy close up on what is a large, dark bat-symbol, which was

present throughout the entire marketing campaign.21 This demonstrates the nature of the

advertising. The merchandise had the same logo that was present in the film, therefore

audiences would recognise the logo and all of the tie-ins would become synonymous with the

film. The merchandise element of marketing and advertising seems to be unique to the high-

concept film as Wyatt suggests.

Wyatt sets out to describe the high concept film and this description sets the high concept

film apart from other types of Hollywood film. This essay has analysed Wyatt’s claims,

showing how an emphasis on style and an integration of marketing and advertising can be

present in a high concept film. The argument has also shown how the elements which make

up the high concept film, as presented by Wyatt, would not be present in other types of

Hollywood Film.

17
I. Gordon, M. Jancovich and M. McAllister, op. cit., p.111.
18
Scivally, op. cit., p. 191.
19
ibid., p. 187.
20
Batman, op. cit.
21
Scivally, op. cit., p. 187.

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Bibliography

Batman, Blu-ray. Warner Bros. Pictures, United States, 1989.

Debona, G ‘The Canon and Cultural Studies: Culture and Anarchy in Gotham City’. Journal

of Film and Video, vol. 49, no. ½, Spring-Summer 1997, pp. 52-65.

7
Gordon, I, Jancovich, M and McAllister, M ‘Block Buster Art House: Meets Superhero

Comic, or Meets Graphic Novel?: The Contradictory Relationship between Film and Comic

Art’. Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 34, no. 3, 2006, pp. 108-114.

Scivally, B Billion Dollar Batman: A History of the Caped Crusader on Film, Radio and

Television from 10c Comic Book to Global Icon. Henry Gray Publishing, Illinois, 2011.

Wyatt, J High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood. University of Texas Press,

Austin, 1994.