Christopher Nolan’s take on DC’s superhero flick The Dark Knight undoubtedly changed pop culture’s understanding of Batman to such an extent that no other Batman movie could match his level. But it seems that Matt Reeves finally broke Nolan’s record with his darker and more serious Caped Crusader film The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson.
As critics offered their rave reviews to Matt Reeves’ 2022 iteration, the director purposefully opened up about what inspired his film’s visual style and tone. During different interviews, director and co-writer Reeves shed some light on how he followed Robert De Niro’s psychological thriller Taxi Driver alongside the story of a popular serial killer for his DC movie.
Matt Reeves was Inspired by Robert De Niro’s Movie
Matt Reeves effectively set apart The Batman from its previous iterations with his unprecedented dark take on the role of the Caped Crusader. Curing people’s franchise fatigue once and for all, Robert Pattinson’s DC movie even broke the record successfully set by Christopher Nolan with his The Dark Knight trilogy. But what exactly inspired Reeves to offer his drastically different take on Batman?
Addressing comic fans and audiences’ curious questions about the inspiration behind The Batman, Matt Reeves spoke at great length about the many sources of inspiration for his 2022 movie. According to an interview snippet shared on X, the filmmaker listed several movies from different genres that inspired him. But among all, what stood apart was his inspiration from Robert De Niro’s Taxi Driver.
“For my story, I took inspiration from a variety of sources and genres when writing The Batman, including the real world story of the Zodiac killer, 1970s neo-noir film such as Taxi Driver and Chinatown.”
Drawing out the psychological aspect from De Niro’s movie, Reeves noted owing a lot to Taxi Driver. With the 1976 film being obsessed with crime and its effects on male psychology, Robert De Niro’s movie became a blueprint for Reeves’ vigilante archetype. Funnily enough, Taxi Driver was also named as a major influence for 2019’s Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix.
The Batman was Inspired by Zodiac Killer’s Story
Meanwhile, how can we overlook the inspiration that Matt Reeves drew from the real-life serial killer known as Zodiac for Robert Pattinson‘s The Batman? While it might be an unconventional source of inspiration, Reeves seemingly had reasons for going through the story of the maniac who spread terror through Northern California with his gruesome murders during the 1960s.
According to reports from SlashFilm, Matt Reeves apparently took inspiration from the story of the Zodiac Killer for the iconic character of the Riddler. In an interview, the director stated that the popular serial was “the real-world analogy” used to ground the Riddler. He then mentioned how the antagonist character in The Batman not only evokes Zodiac’s “crudely made costume”, but also leaves ciphers behind for Batman to crack.
Therefore, focusing more on the psychological elements and the dark tone of the film, Matt Reeves overall derived inspiration from neo-noir movies like Taxi Driver and gruesome serial killer stories like that of the Zodiac. In the end, no matter which film or storyline inspired Reeves, what matters is the filmmaker turned The Batman into a masterpiece when other superhero flicks were suffering the audience’s fatigue.
The Batman is available on Max.
