Kevin Smith, DC Comics Reflect On Passing Of Batman Creator Bob Kane

Bob Kane, the man whose doodlings spawned the character of Batman some 60 years ago, died Tuesday at the age of 83.

Kane was an unknown artist in his early 20s when, inspired by the work of Leonardo da Vinci, he first drew the Dark Knight. Kane’s creation and its tale of loss and vengeance first appeared in a DC Comics publication in 1939, and has since gone from grim to kitsch and back again through incarnations in cartoons, a live action television series, a string of feature films, and numerous other outlets.

Janette Kahn, the president of DC Comics, called Kane, “a giant in the field of pop culture,” while “Chasing Amy” director and comics aficionado Kevin Smith chalked the enduring success of Kane’s character up to what he called “the wish factor” noting that unlike other superheroes of the time, Batman is “a guy in a suit. an exemplary ideal of what people can do if they put their minds and bodies to it.”

Private services were held for Kane in Burbank, California on Friday. Kane’s family has requested, that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Feed The Children, the Make A Wish Foundation, the Westside Children’s Center in Santa Monica, the Bay Area Youth Center in devoted to helping hungry, homeless, abused, or abandoned children.

I just got back from a test screening here in New York of “Shakespeare in Love” and wanted to tell you about it. First of all, the print we saw was a pretty early working print–the color wasn’t finished yet, there were no credits, but there was a finished score. The theater was completely packed and they even had to turn people away at the door.

The movie itself was pretty much what I expected actually. It’s a very well acted, beautiful little picture, that at times made a tear drop from my eye. Gweneth Paltrow gives another solid English accent (I think it is probably now written into her contract that she has one in every movie now) laden performance as Viola, Shakespeare’s muse and Ralph Fiennes little bro is believable and sweet as the love struck and inspired Will. Judy Dench as Queen Elizabeth I is very solid and powerful in the kind of role and giving the kind of performance one might watch come Oscar time. However, my main problem with the film, as with most films of this genre, is the very uppity English humor about manners or being proper that is either impossible to understand through the accents or is simply not funny to my sloppy American brain. In a wasted performance, Geoffry Rush is as occasionally incomprehensible as he was in “Shine” and Ben Afflek stands around scowling the whole time, probably pissed that someone else is kissing his main squeeze.

However, like I said, this still was a good movie. It clocked in right around 120 minutes, but should probably be cut down another 10. There are some very funny moments, but my recommendation on the survey afterwards, and here now, is to keep the focus on the love story wonderful moments in Romeo and Juliet and there are some passionate love scenes (which, by the way, will not disappoint fans of Ms. Paltrow), that have no lack of chemistry. The actual staging of Romeo and Juliet near the end of the film, the background of which contains spoilers I won’t ruin, are the best moments of the film. Unbelievably, this sparked some unusual laughter at one moment from a small part of the crowd, which I couldn’t believe because I was trying not to cry in my popcorn. The end of the film again ends on a really wonderful note, but there is too much of a lull between the two moments. Right now, the film is very respectable, but ultimately didn’t come together for me, because I was constantly disengaged when the film would shift gears so quickly. I think with a little work though, it could become more than just a good film and become a great love story and certainly a successful date movie if promoted right.