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Here's a quote from Burton about the "Batman Returns" backlash from the book "Burton on Burton".
"In retrospect I don't think Warners were very happy with the movie. That's my feeling. I had put them through a lot, but I was just trying to give them a good movie. The first one was very successful and there are all of those traps that go along with that, but I tried not to think too much about that and just make a good, fun movie. A lot of it was, I think, just the sheer size of the production. They always want you to go faster, they always want you to hurry up. These kind of productions are big; it's not an exact science and I was going through a lot at the time. It probably had more to do with personal things than anything else. There was the death of a friend of mine, I was having trouble in a relationship, and sometimes, consciously, you don't know until later what's wrong. I just thought it was the hellish shoot of this movie, which didn't help the situation at all.
But I really like the film. I like it better than the first one. There was a big backlash that it was too dark, but I found this movie much less dark than the first one. It's just the cultural climate. And they hear that. They listen to that. I guess they have to to some degree. I don't want to because I think it's dangerous and perverse. I think the culture is much more disturbed and disturbing than this movie, a lot more. But they just fixate on things and they choose targets. I like the movie and I don't feel bad about it, and in some ways it's a purer form of what the Batman material is all about, which is that the line between villain and hero is blurred. Max Shreck was like the catalyst of all the characters, which I liked. He was the one who wasn't wearing the mask but, in some ways he was. And the film in some ways, is just a visual comment on the differences in perception of what is good and bad."
About Burton not being able to tell a coherent story.
"I guess it must be the way my brain works, because the first Batman was probably my most concentrated effort to tell a linear story, and I realize that it's like a joke. I realized from Beetlejuice that there are some people who can do that, and that's fine. In any of my movies the narrative is the worst thing you've ever seen, and that constant. I don't know why people are so into that because there are lots of movies that have a strong narrative, and I love those. But there are other types as well. Do Fellini movies have a strong narrative drive? I love movies where I make up my own idea about them. In fact, there'll be movies that maybe aren't even about what I they're about. I just like making things up. Everybody is different, so things are going to affect people differently. So why not have your own opinions, have different levels of things you can find you want them, however deeply you want to go. That's why I like Roman Polanski's movies, like The Tenant. I've felt like that, I've lived it, I know what that's like. Or Repulsion, I know that feeling, I understand it. Bitter Moon, I've seen that happen. You must connect. It may not be something that anybody else connects with, but it's like I get that, I understand that feeling. I will always fight that literal impulse to lay everything directly in front you of. I just hate it.
Some people are really good at narrative and some people are really good at action. I'm not that sort of person. So, if I'm going do do something, just let me do my thing and hope for the best. If you don't want me do it, then don't have me do it. But if I do it, then don't make me conform. If you want it to be a James Cameron movie then get James Cameron to do it. Me directing action is a joke; I don't like guns. I heard a gunshot and I close my eyes. But again it comes down to your interpretation of action. I mean, there's plenty of action in a Godzilla movie, but I don't know if people would consider that action."
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