I love the character of BATMAN. He is tormented, brilliant, vicious, and above all human. There are a lot of parallels between Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark, but I still feel that BATMAN takes that fight every time. I also love alternate history versions of comic characters.
This is an interesting version of the BATMAN origin reimagined as a 1920s era silent film. Entitled “The Silent Shadow of The Bat-man”, this looks like it actually was made 90 years ago. The director, Andre Perkowski, released the movie about four years ago but just this year had it live scored by Houston’s Two Star Symphony. The combination of the live music and the very detailed film give it a spooky Halloween vibe. I could not shake comparisons to THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI as I watched it. Granted, this uses footage from classic films, but it flows like an original creation.
Perkowski also lists his inspiration for the short film as including THE BAT, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS, Edison’s FRANKENSTEIN, THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, and CALIGARI. For fans of silent cinema, this is a cool trick. For BATMAN fans, this is a badass treat.
Check out the video of the live-scored presentation of “The Silent Shadow of The Bat-man” followed by the first part of the movie itself.