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Batman and Robin Were Never Gay, According to Director Joel Schumacher

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (20493)
9 replies | jump to latest

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/batman-robin-were-never-gay-182808809.html

It’s no secret that superheroes have always been a little gay. The tights, the hulking muscles, the secret powers always threatening to come to light — it’s a veritable field day for queer academics. Give Batman an eager young sidekick and you’ve practically got a rom-com. Which is exactly what happens in Joel Schumacher’s “Batman and Robin,” the 1997 flop that is as critically derided as it is held up as a shining example of a gay-coded movie that’s not actually gay. The Warner Bros. action flick starred George Clooney as Bruce Wayne and Chris O’Donnell as Robin, and theories have long persisted that Schumacher, who is gay, intentionally added campy elements to the movie in order to play up the gay subtext.

Sorry, gay Batman fans, Schumacher is here to rain on your parade.

“If I wasn’t gay, they would never say those things,” Schumacher said in a sweeping and somewhat shocking interview with Vulture. “This all started way before me. Long before I came along, someone wrote a whole thing about what the real message of fairy tales and children’s stories are. Snow White was all about having bad stepmothers. And Batman and Robin are two homosexual men living in a cave, living together. There’s always been this thing about Batman and Robin being gay.”

Schumacher expressed regret at making a sequel at all to his 1995 “Batman Forever,” which starred Val Kilmer as the winged crusader. Calling “Batman and Robin” “the cheapest Batman movie ever made,” the director skirted around admitting that the movie is considered one of the worst in the history of the franchise.

Schumacher not only denied that his movie alluded to the characters being gay, but he said he doesn’t think Batman and Robin are canonically gay. He also implied that because the gay community loved Clooney so much, many may have seen what they wanted to see.

“There were a lot of people who I would say, in one particular community, wanted George Clooney to be gay so badly,” he said. “The only people who ever said that to me were definitely gay men. I think it happens with people that are romantic sex symbols who are on somebody’s wish list.”

Read the full interview with Vulture here. It’s wild.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/joel-schumacher-in-conversation.html?fbclid=IwAR2F_gzodgFfr7oSsQ5Ni6USz-lsxDaNOEbA7hOu7ljswBuaaS__oV-O6z0https://pmc.com

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 5 years ago

Never knew Schumacher was gay, not that it matters.

Robin had the hots for Batgirl in that movie, and Batman had the hots for himself, by the way Clooney played him!

[–] TMC-4 (20493) 5 years ago

I think the fact that George Clooney was fairly close in age with Chris O'Donnell (even more so than Val Kilmer and Michael Keaton before that) made people scratch their heads. Think about it, two single grown men (not counting Alfred) who aren't related by blood, are living together under the same roof. And what about that scene with George Clooney and Ell MacPherson, where Bruce Wayne is clearly scared of a full-time commitment (in a half-baked reimagining of that scene between Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger in Vicki Vale's apartment form the 1989 movie) with Julie Madison. What does Bruce have to hide besides the fact that he's Batman?

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 5 years ago

A Keaton Batman alongside O'Donnell's Robin would of been better, I never was a fan of child sidekicks so can understand why they aged Robin up, but maybe too much.

[–] MickyMac (3254) 5 years ago

Compared to other films Batman & Robin looks and feels very gay.

[–] Satan2016 (26203) 5 years ago

They wake up from a good sleep! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Batbed.png

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Did he actually pull the gay card? He's full of crap! Even before I knew who directed the movie or what his orientation was, I thought after seeing this film, "Man, this is so gay, like La Cage Aux Folles gay!" This movie is not only filled with homoerotic imagery (uhhh, crotch shots, nipples on breastplates, leather), the art direction has an over the top, campy drag aesthetic to it. No way was that unintentional! I'm positive that Schumacher put them in there purposely--not because he's gay himself, but that it's obvious that Batman and Robin were supposed to be a return to the super campy 1960s show and also be self-mocking, like The Brady Bunch movies. It had been a joke for a long time that they were probably gay, so I have no doubt that he threw in the gay overtones as a joke.

[–] MickyMac (3254) 5 years ago

It was a take on Batman that had become time worn, it's like if someone did a movie only about Golden Age Batman people who are twenty are gonna think "how is this the Batman of today?".

All the visuals look like something out of a ride at Universal Studios.

[–] MickyMac (3254) 5 years ago

Schumacher looks like someone who I want to punch in the face for looking like a old granny in men's clothes and having raised eyebrows and half open eyes.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (18433) 5 years ago

It's clear by just watching the movie, since they're both attracted to Poison Ivy. It was just a pile-on accusation by fanboys unhappy that the camera lingered on their asses just as it did Alicia Silverstone.