Something curious happened in the wake of Tim Burton’s “Batman” in 1989. “Batman,” to remind readers, cost a rather considerable $48 million, but did record numbers at the box office, grossing over $411 million. In modern dollars, that equates to a $125 million film that would gross $1.07 billion. Tim Burton has become a box office superhero. Naturally, Hollywood rushed to produce more hits like “Batman,” and many other superhero projects were immediately greenlit across town. It’s important to note that Burton’s “Batman” film was highly stylized, designed to look like it was set in a fantasy version of the 1930s. This seemed strangely timeless, which may explain its success; it could not be easily dated. “Batman” felt more like a pulpy 1930s comic book than a modern, high-tech comic book movie.
When Hollywood decided to emulate “Batman,” they looked to that pulpiness rather than the source hero. Surprisingly, there hasn’t been a sudden flood of big-budget superhero movies about Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, or The Flash. Instead, there was a series of highly stylized films about, or at least reminiscent of, 1930s pulp heroes. In 1989, Hollywood didn’t want to touch Spider-Man, but they were very eager to put “Dick Tracy” into production. Sam Raimi directed “Darkman” and Disney released the very good “The Rocketeer”. In 1994, Alex Proyas directed “The Crow,” a gothic film, and Russell Mulcahy directed a highly publicized version of “The Shadow.” And of course, “Batman” had sequels in 1992 and 1995.
In 1996, there was one final push to the “pulp hero” trend in the form of Simon Wincer’s underrated superhero film ‘The Phantom’ based on Lee Falk’s 1936 newspaper strip. “The Phantom” starred Billy Zane as the main hero, and it’s much better than its reputation suggests.
The Phantom is actually pretty good
It’s safe to say that the producers of “The Phantom” wanted their film to seem pulpy and old-fashioned, since they hired screenwriter Jeffrey Boam, who wrote “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” to write the screenplay. Although set in 1938, “The Phantom” possessed a very 1990s tongue-in-cheek attitude, with characters fancifully admiring the adventurous situations around them. Billy Zane was a capable leading man, not only performing action/adventure scenes with aplomb, but also bringing a sense of light-hearted sarcasm to the proceedings. The Phantom, with his eggplant purple spandex outfit, was no brooding loner. Imagine if Batman was in Bruce Wayne mode 24/7, and you’ll get a good idea of the Phantom.
Zane only shows about 50% of the movie. The other half belongs entirely to Treat Williams as the film’s charismatic villain, Xander Drax. Williams isn’t so much a surly villain as he is a greasy-haired dandy, smiling and laughing throughout the film’s plot with glee. ‘The Phantom’ Needed More Treat Williams. His goal is to gather and assemble three mystical skulls made of gold, silver and jade which, when united, promise a weapon of immense destruction. Drax employs a grizzled explorer played by James Remar and a sexy biplane pilot played by Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The Ghost, meanwhile, attempts to romance innocent townswoman Diana (Kristy Swanson), conspires with her assistant Guran (Radmar Agana Jao), and converses with the ghost of her deceased father (Patrick McGoohan). The late Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa plays a pirate king with whom Alex and the Phantom must do business. Most of the plot involves the Phantom roaming the city using his secret identity, a wealthy playboy named Kit Walker.
Unfortunately, The Phantom exploded at the box office
There is additional mythology for the Phantom, but it doesn’t make the character seem terribly mythical. The Phantom is actually the latest in a multi-generational series of Phantoms that dates back a century. Usually, the Ghost stays in the jungles of Touganda (yes, a fictional country), but he travels to the big city for the film. The details are delivered in a matter-of-fact manner, however, which helps keep the film light. The filmmakers know we’re not here for heavy magic, but for adventurous, humorous fun, and on that front, “The Phantom” delivers. He only suffers from his budget. Although made for roughly the same amount as “Batman” seven years earlier, it looks much cheaper, with some FX sequences looking like the blue-screen bargains they were. The final weapon is little more than an animated green laser beam.
Audiences stayed away from “The Phantom.” It only grossed $23.5 million at the box office, mimicking the financial failures of “The Rocketeer” and “The Shadow.” Hollywood was wrong to assume that audiences wanted to see 1930s pulp heroes on the big screen; pulpiness wasn’t the reason people loved “Batman.” The reviews weren’t very kind either, giving “The Phantom” largely negative reviews; he only has a 44% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 46 reviews). Roger Ebert liked the filmhowever, giving it three and a half stars. (“Wonderfully entertaining, bloody and catchy,” he wrote.) Ebert liked the realism of the main character, emphasizing that he was a regular guy and not a super-powered being.
It’s a lively and fun film that’s definitely worth watching. It is currently streaming for free on Hoopla.
