Article by Eric Lee
Batman Forever and Batman and Robin director Joel Schumacher died after a year-long battle with cancer.
Schumacher passed away in New York City on Monday morning. He was born and raised in New York City. He is an alum at Parsons the New School for Design and Fashion Institute of Technology. After a stint working in fashion, he switched career paths to movies and television making. He started in the film industry as a costume designer. He also earned a masters in fine arts at UCLA.
Filmography
Arguably, his first big hit was directing the 80’s young adult rom-com movie St. Elmo’s Fire. His next film The Lost Boys was also a smash-hit. The vampire-adventure achieved a cult classic and is primed to be a CW show soon. Later on, he has directed The Phantom of the Opera and a few episodes of the Netflix show House of Cards.
Of course, for Batman fans, Joel Schumacher is best known for being the director of the controversial Batman Forever and Batman and Robin movies. The films have garnered a-shall we say- contentious reputation with its fans.
For all the criticisms of the films, they contained nuggets of really good ideas too. Forever had a lot scenes that retained a darker tone with more psychological insight. Unfortunately, most of those scenes were cut out of the theatrical cut of the film.
Even Batman and Robin had some good points. The subplot where Batman and Robin have partnership conflict is decent. Similarly, the scene where a dying Alfred and Bruce was genuinely touching.
Schumacher was 80 years old when he passed.
