The trailer for Matt Reeves’ The Batman which dropped a few days ago received much praise from fans and critics alike. It looks like the film, will be just as Reeves previously promised, a dark, gritty, character-driven noir that will showcase a side of Batman that’s very popular in the comics, but never before seen on the big screen — the world’s greatest detective. Many who watched the trailer also said that it emitted Fincherian vibes, particularly Fincher’s 1995 film, Se7en.
While the director himself did not say that he was inspired by the Morgan Freeman-Brad Pitt crime thriller, he did say that he drew plenty of inspiration from 70s noirs, such as Chinatown and Taxi Driver. During a DC FanDome panel, Reeves said:
“Chinatown was a key one, because in Chinatown, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), in investigating the series of crimes that were part of that story, he discovers the depth of corruption of Los Angeles. So in that way, [The Batman] is like a classic noir. This series of murders that Batman is investigating are very much in that mode. Because the movie is a detective story, because it is a thriller in this sort of cop world, and because it’s about corruption, we’re treating this Batman story as if this could’ve happened. Batman doesn’t have the ability to have super-heroic powers, he just has super-heroic focus and super-heroic drive.”
Reeves also added that The Batman “was very much inspired by those kinds of movies like French Connection, and cop movies like that… A lot of ’70s street, grounded stories.” The director also provided Taxi Driver as an example, particularly the way the film takes you inside the twisted head of its “protagonist.”
