Essentially the film centers on political and gender related themes. On one hand there is Oswald Cobblepot, nicknamed The Penguin due to his appearance, who is abandoned by his parents when still a baby due to his physical deformities. Raised by a russian circus, Cobblepot grows to be the leader of an urban terrorist movement that kidnaps the wealthy and powerful capitalist Max Schreck (who among other things leads a chain of supermarkets with a Mickey-Mouse-like mascot). Cobblepot then blackmails Schreck into helping him find the name of his real parents to determine his true identity. Schreck, however, realizes he can use The Penguin to his own opportunity: Shreck previously wanted to enlist himself as a candidate to become Gotham's mayor, but as can be seen in the scene in which he leaves his written speech at home, is less a leader than a puppeteer. Forced to come up with an improvised speech, he only comes up empty kitsch phrases. Cobblepot, however gruesome looking, is a gifted speaker and has the sympathy of the crowd due to his tragic past. Thus Schreck enlists his help and simultaneously tries to have Cobblepot elected mayor while he would become the force to pull the strings.
As the plan fails, Cobblepot decides to steal the "first borns" of each Gothamite and escort them to death in a clever WW2-metaphor. As Batman manages to spoil the plan, Cobblepot finally decides to destroy "his" city through his own private army of penguins, killing hundreds of thousands in the process, while he sits in his bunker. Batman spoils the plan, the Penguin falls to death and is escorted as an officer would be to his watery grave. This idea of a physically deformed fascist leader whose ground is readied by communists and helped rise to power by capitalism, who in the end targets the very rich and beautiful families that voted him out of jealousy, while they celebrate their egomaniac hedonism to "Can't Touch This", is so clever an allegory it would have been enough to make this film brilliant, but Burton even ups the ante by including Catwoman.
Selina Kyle, here an awkward and naive secretary, is thrown out a window by her employee, again, the capitalist Schreck, after she finds out about his plans to steal power from Gotham instead of providing it through a new plant (which is also a clever metaphor for capitalism, that is meant to provide luxury yet actually takes it in the form of money). Kyle survives (or, rather, is revived by cats in a truly haunting scene), and returns to her pink home with a pink phone and pink clothes. In a fit of rage as she listens to her answering machine (on which a commercial message is left that she should buy "Gotham Lady" in order to smell so good her boss might ask her to "stay after work for a very special candlelight dinner", as if a woman didn't have anything else to aspire to in her life), she destroys various symbols of her patriarchy-imposed, conservative gender identity (pink girlish clothes with cats on them and a pink room of a doll house, among other things) and destroys the letters of a pink lamp saying HELLO THERE to spell out her true opinion of her room of humiliating, condescending, pre-liberized feminine gender ideals: HELL HERE. Thanks to her feminine skills, she manages to make herself a new skin to fit her emotional state - Catwoman is born!!
Selina Kyle, here an awkward and naive secretary, is thrown out a window by her employee, again, the capitalist Schreck, after she finds out about his plans to steal power from Gotham instead of providing it through a new plant (which is also a clever metaphor for capitalism, that is meant to provide luxury yet actually takes it in the form of money). Kyle survives (or, rather, is revived by cats in a truly haunting scene), and returns to her pink home with a pink phone and pink clothes. In a fit of rage as she listens to her answering machine (on which a commercial message is left that she should buy "Gotham Lady" in order to smell so good her boss might ask her to "stay after work for a very special candlelight dinner", as if a woman didn't have anything else to aspire to in her life), she destroys various symbols of her patriarchy-imposed, conservative gender identity (pink girlish clothes with cats on them and a pink room of a doll house, among other things) and destroys the letters of a pink lamp saying HELLO THERE to spell out her true opinion of her room of humiliating, condescending, pre-liberized feminine gender ideals: HELL HERE. Thanks to her feminine skills, she manages to make herself a new skin to fit her emotional state - Catwoman is born!!
As she returns to Schreck's office the next day, she not only recalls a number of memories that deal with females suppressing her sexuality (a nun being pregnant among other things), but also flirts with Bruce Wayne as a sign of her newfound sexuality. In their relationship, she is obviously the man.
She then goes on a rampage, scars what would have likely been a rapist in a non-PG film and informs a woman of her weakness to "wait for a Batman to come and safe you". After that, she goes on to behead mannequins wearing typically female clothes and blows up the entire consume temple. Meeting with Batman and The Penguin outside, it quickly becomes clear that we have here three opposing political forces: The right, the middle, and the left (it was also interesting seeing Kyle destroy a mall without killing anybody inside, a mirror of the german RAF's first generations acts of "liberation from consumerism).
After being beaten up by Batman, although it was her who used her sexuality to hurt him, she chooses to side with the extremist, Penguin, to destroy her "male enemy", but quickly realizes that Batman is not her enemy - he is only a more liberal, less radical fighter whose goals are the same as hers - and is almost killed by the Penguin. Realizing that Schreck, the figurehead of a capitalist society aimed at consumerism, is her real enemy (who oppressed her throughout, supports the image of a passive and conservative lifestyle and is at the heart of Gotham's consumerism - and in a way formed her).
At the same time she looks to celebrate her newfound sexual power by dating Bruce Wayne, but as, in one scene, he reveals her vaginal-shaped scar (which he himself caused), she refuses him. This scar is in a way her weak spot, exposing to Batman not just the identity of the crated feminist, but also of a woman who, after all, may be, in her own perception, weak through sexuality. She is not the man after all, and it induces a great fear in her.
Her thematic climax comes with a masked ball, in which her and Bruce are the two only attendees without masks (or, rather, wearing the masks they wear in everyday life). Repeating a line said by Batman earlier on in the film, Seline reveals herself (and so does Bruce when he finishes the line) - ironically, it is a line about the danger of a kiss when it is meant seriously (implying the power of sexuality both a man and woman can possess). In costume, Catwoman's "kiss" sees her licking Batman's face, proving that in her radicalized incarnation, Selina is unable to have a normal and fulfilling sexuality, and only able to perform a parody of a real sexual act. So Selina's costume, while liberating her to live out her character, also prohibits her to exert her own sexuality.
In the end, she is able to finally confront Schreck, her costume now torn (as her opposing, less radicalized femininity breaks free, symbolized mostly by her blonde, girlish locks), rejects Batman's offer to have a normal relationship in favor of her political agenda and kills Schreck with a spark inducing kiss. Batman, once again, is left alone, and visibly scarred by Catwoman, but finds in the snowy Gotham streets Selina's cat. A part of her has chosen to live with him, even if Catwoman, her dress repaired, rises above the city's rooftops once anew.
I was also surprised at how adult and sleazy some of the humor was (Penguin going "Now there's the pussy I've been looking for!" when Catwoman lies on his bed and Batman calling her a rug muncher were truly surprising). The german dub also includes a risky line when Catwoman says "I feel... dirty. I should lick myself right here." (in the english version she says "take a bath, right here") and while Penguin grins, starts licking her arm and brushing her head, freezing Owald's grin to a baffled expression. Same goes with some of the movie references, with Cobblepot a negative John Merrick ("I am not a human being! I am an animal!") and Gotham an ever-transforming Metropolis AND Blade Runner homage (and I wonder if Burton saw Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre).
Batman Returns is a brilliant film, dealing with politics and feminism as well as with the problem of identity of those who choose to live a life behind masks. The only downside is that Burton never managed to flesh out his version of a Riddler and Two-Face themed Batman Forever.
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