The nineties was a weird time for Batman. Where are the nods to all this? I’ll tell you where… They’re housed within a dusty jewel case adorned by a picture of Val Kilmer in a pointy-eared mask. All my memories are rife with hearing American rap and R&B on every radio station on the school run, watching emo and alt-rock videos on MTV2, drinking Hooch to the latest Offspring album with my mate’s older brother as he failed to convince me that The Joshua Tree was some kind of masterpiece and, above all, the omnipresent sensuality of Seal. As a collection of songs that supposedly captured Britain at a point in time and “changed music”, it made it look like we were listening exclusively to white, mostly male guitar players, pausing only to shout “LAGER LAGER LAGER” when Underworld came on.įor all the good that Trainspotting’s characters did in humanizing those on the fringes of society, few of us spent the 90s retrieving opium suppositories from shit-brimming toilets or celebrating lucrative drug deals with Keith Allen by sticking Sleeper on the jukebox. Other than Carol “KYO” Leeming’s appearance on Bedrock’s token trance track, Trainspotting’s soundtrack is also staggeringly one dimensional. Apart from Pulp’s peerlessly bittersweet "Mile End", in fact, all the soundtrack’s best moments are vintage classics rather than 90s hits: Iggy Pop’s "Lust For Life" (1977), Lou Reed’s "Perfect Day" (1972), Brian Eno’s "Deep Blue Day" (1983), New Order’s "Temptation" (1987 version) and Sleeper’s carbon copy of Blondie’s "Atomic" (1979). Far from capturing the innovations of the burgeoning electronic scene, it included one of the shortest and least essential compositions that Leftfield ever piddled out of their keyboards ("A Final Hit"). Trainspotting used a plodding Blur song from the Essex group’s unexceptional baggy period ("Sing"), not to mention a farty-horned Damon Albarn solo piece. The soundtracks to Trainspotting and Batman Forever could not be more different. I am talking, dear reader, about Batman Forever. I am talking about the Brit Award winner of Best Soundtrack in 1996.
But sandwiched between those two giants stood a soundtrack that has been historically eclipsed by both and criminally underrated by all. Prior to that, Pulp Fiction had won it in 1995, and Trainspotting won it in 1997.
The once mighty Brit Awards used to have an award for 'Best Soundtrack', but it stopped in 2001, when it was presumably decreed that nobody would ever beat American Beauty. Danny Boyle’s ode to Irvine Welsh might have encapsulated that decade for some people, but it certainly didn't for me.Ĭast your mind back a bit. But the narrow roster of floppy-haired musicians that made up its OST wasn’t the 90s that I remember. We are told that Trainspotting’s indie-dance soundtrack “defined 90s cool” and provided the “perfect snapshot of 1996”. He was the first comic character to really branch out into an extended filmic franchise, and he had the place all to himself.As it celebrates its twentieth birthday, Danny Boyle’s film is being hailed by all quarters as the Brit flick that epitomized the 90s. But I do think the film was very much Batman as a big action icon.
I was 6 years old when it came out, and everything seems special when you're a kid. I'm happy to include it in the 'good' category. He makes a good point which can be applied to various critiques, such as re-flipping coins for desired outcomes.įorever is nothing to be ashamed about as a Batman fan. Joaquin Phoenix says he doesn't believe in 'out of character' behavior when depicting fictional characters, as he himself does 'out of character' stuff all the time. Some are better than others, but the variety is there. We now have many incarnations of characters. He's trying and trying to achieve something and he really wants it. TL Jones was mostly aiming for entertainment value, but I feel he did capture a restless frustration, especially evident during his "Why can't you just DIE?!' outburst. Forever is big on spectacle and has surprising depth.Īpart from being associated with B&R, I think a lot of the savaging is due to the portrayal of Two-Face, which doesn't really bother me that much anymore.