Batman 1989

June 23, 1989: The date the super-hero movie genre was reborn thanks to Tim Burton’s Batman. The movie overcame jokes of “Mr. Bat-Mom” and that Michael Keaton did not have the chops to be the Caped Crusader.

The naysayers were wrong. Keaton did a great job, just as Ben Affleck will do a great job.

I saw the movie opening day with my brother and good buddies. We arrived at the Century 10 theater in Mountain View two hours early for the first show. There was already a line of people who had spent the night to see the film that went deep into the parking lot. One attendee dressed for the occasion with horned Viking helmet.

The Century 10 (now Century 16) theater had six ticket counters at the box office. Everyone had lined up behind one window on the far left. Our group lined up at the one at the far right. We stood our ground, because the theater operated all of the windows, not just one ticket counter.

There were mild shouts of anger when the window we were standing by opened first. My brother, friends, and I were the first ones in the theater.

Lessons Learned: Do not have a line mentality. Look around and get in the one that makes sense. It’s what Batman would do.