Batman: The Dark ... Makeup

[tealin]

I finally saw The Dark Knight. I'd waited because I wasn't excited enough about it to brave the hordes, and had plenty of Dr Horrible to tide me over. It was good; it wasn't the life-changing experience some people make it out to be but it was worth my $9.50 and didn't feel like the three hours it ended up being. I don't know whether it was the filmmaking or if I was in a particularly odd state of mind but I kept being distracted by little things: They made Gotham license plates! Batman has black makeup around his eyes under his mask, I wonder how long that's supposed to take him? Did they custom-print the fabric for the Joker's shirt or did they happen to find it somewhere? Harvey Dent was the guy in Thank You For Smoking, and we're supposed to believe he's a good, honest guy? (Or did they cast him with that irony in mind? In that case, thanks for taking me out of the movie, buster!) But #1 on the list of distractions is this:














This was so distracting that I literally did not even realize he was the mayor until talking about it afterwards with my sister (something which she will never let me live down). I kept trying to remember, while watching him, if he was going to turn into a villain at some point, if there was in the Batman mythos a mayor who became, say, The Mad Bedouin or something ... no?

Fail at drawing arms in forced perspective, there. Shaaame.

Comments

[octaveleap.livejournal.com]

Omigod. THANK YOU. Seriously.

[regeener.livejournal.com]

OMG eyeliner man! He was on a couple episodes of Lost too and also had eyeliner. I think he may just have really thick bottom lashes :)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

No, I LOOKED, on the really close closeups, it's actual pigment on the skin, under the lashes. If he had it in something else too I can only guess it's either a tattoo or he wears it ... for ... religious reasons? Gah, I dunno. So bizarre.

[theatreotter.livejournal.com]

Excellent.

[buttfacemakani.livejournal.com]

He's the evil eyelash man from Lost! He looks like that in every role! SERIOUSLY LIKE IS IT TATTOOED IN OR SOMETHING?

Also lol I love crazy gary oldman's face in the last one x).

[regeener.livejournal.com]

WEIRD. I've always thought it was probably natural. It's still strangely distracting nonetheless.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lore/]

*SNICKER* There goes the Best Makeup Oscar....

love, lore

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Is he seriously Gary Oldman? Holy crap, this must be the one role he's even been in where I've been able to watch him and be able to take him seriously because I'm not reminded of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I'm amazed that didn't distract me too. I guess a moustache, glasses, and 20-some years are the minimum requisite disguise to keep me from making the connection.

[leia-grace.livejournal.com]

*falls on the floor laughing*

My lord, that was one of the first things to jump out at me when I saw that first scene, and then I complained about why he was wearing guyliner to surreal_saetan. You'all are right about him being from 'Lost', and having the same guyliner issues in that...I even remember him on 'Suddenly Susan', when he used a Latin accent!

[mekkio.livejournal.com]

Ahh, Nestor Carbonell. It's not eyeliner. His eyes are naturally like that.

Here's a large close-up of him. You can that he has super thick lashes that make him look like he's wearing liner. But then there are gaps between a couple of them that show you that he is, in fact, liner free.



He's Cuban. That's where the naturally thick, dark lashes come from.

Batman has black makeup around his eyes under his mask, I wonder how long that's supposed to take him?

I have this idea that Batman uses those sticks of black paint that football players use to draw lines under their eyes. So, I suppose it wouldn't take him that long. A circle here. A circle there. Done.

I wonder what he uses to get the paint off. Cold cream? Noxema?

I love the comic, by the way.

[timba.livejournal.com]

OMG, yes!

My boyfriend laughed at me, cause I definitely practically yelled out "EYELINER?"

[timba.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. I have never seen anyone able to rock the 'stache like that before.

(we call them "molestaches" in the Navy, cause...well, obviously. But this dude is quite fantastic.)

Nestor, you say?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

They look like normal lashes there (albeit thick) – it did not look like that in the movie. It was like a solid line around his eyes, there weren't any breaks between bunches of lashes like you can see there. And it was under the line of lashes, extending about a milimetre onto the skin. (This is how distracted I was.) Maybe someday I'll screencap that specific scene I remember and post it as proof ...

As for Batman, whatever he uses, he has to be pretty careful to get it so perfectly around his eyes ... football players just smudge a blob on their face but he goes all the way over the eyelid, carefully painting around the eyes so no skin shows. That's craftsmanship, but also no doubt time-consuming.

[rupertistheone.livejournal.com]

I know omg, when I read the credits I almost jumped out of my seat. The entire time I watched the movie I had no idea he was Gary Oldman, and I was so weirded out. I loved him in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (and I must say I totally had a crush on him in that role) and to find out he was this mid-life crisis-esque 55 year oldish police dude was quite a weird experience.

[pooryorick.livejournal.com]

Oh geeze FOR REALS. YEAH. Ahahaha, glad I wasn't the only one.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

That explains why he was so good ... By far the most engaging character in the movie, I thought.

[adalanne.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as I can remember, every live-action Batman since Adam West has had the eye make-up. For me, I've always just considered it a clever way to get the comicbook eye effect without having the "you better hope the villains are standing right in front of you" type mask that West wore. And as a friend reminded me, we are talking about a man going around in a bat suit. Logic only goes so far.

And I got over eyeliner man in Lost, so I actually didn't think to remark on it until people on lj started going, "bzuh?" Maybe it's thick lashes, or it's thick lashes that the make-up department decides looks odd with small gaps so they fill it in. I do love your Crazy Gary Oldman, though. *lol* And I can't believe you didn't recognize him. Batman Begins came out before PoA and I remember, the scene with Oldman and young Bruce, I was beaming ear-to-ear because it was the first time I thought, "My god, he could be a wonderful Sirius after all."

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

So am I – my sister gave me impression that I was singularly unbalanced in my distraction.

[infiniteviking]

LOL! I'm definitely going to watch for those eyes when I see the movie!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

They're reeeeally hard to miss. Not something you need to take special care to see, at all.

[adalanne.livejournal.com]

...Or it totally came out after PoA. I guess that thought was more towards future movies and Sirius taking on a slightly-paternal but uncertain role, rather than being crazy and recently broken out of prison. *shrug*

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

For me, I've always just considered it a clever way to get the comicbook eye effect without having the "you better hope the villains are standing right in front of you" type mask that West wore. And as a friend reminded me, we are talking about a man going around in a bat suit. Logic only goes so far.

I know, I know, it was just a mark of my distractibility that I was thinking about this rather than, you know, paying attention to what was going on in the scene.

To play devil's advocate a little bit, though, Nolan does set up his Batman universe as being OMG FOR REALZ so that does invite a bit of rational questioning.

Batman Begins was seriously pre-Prisoner? ... whoa. Perception of time shattered. I do have pretty buggy facial recognition software (viz. not making the connection between man-shot-at-at-funeral and man-with-eyeliner-in-closeups) and throwing on a heavy moustache and kind of bizarre glasses is a great way to disguise anybody ...

[stevie-roch.livejournal.com]

YES. There were a few little things that drove me nuts. But I spent most of my time watching the Joker's scars and his assorted facial tics.

[moonmystique.livejournal.com]

Jyah, my bf didn't believe me when said it's not makeup :/
I've seen men like that in scandalous calenders with long black curly hair, when they're half naked and oiled up. They got that eyeliner look, but it's aaaall natural.

[moonmystique.livejournal.com]

Scratch "all natural", I just think it's not something that's put on and taken off daily, like it was mentioned; tatoo or something, hm.