Movie Travels – Batman’s Gotham, New York and the other real cities that inspire him

Batman’s Gotham is mainly inspired by New York, but also by other cities where the different films in the series took place.

Where is Gotham City, the city where Batman fights evil? At the moment, in the dark superhero comics and movies. But everyone knows that Gotham is New York, and even many New Yorkers refer to their city that way. Gotham is once again the setting for the new installment “The Batman”, with Robert Pattinson as the protagonist:

Gotham City was first identified as Batman’s place of residence at number 4 of the comic in December 1940. According to Bill Finger, the original Batman screenwriter, who didn’t know the name of the city, reached out to Randomly on the phone. from New York book: “I saw the name ‘Gotham Jewelry’ and said, ‘There, Gotham City.’ We didn’t call it New York because we wanted anyone in any city to identify with it.”

However, the origin of New York’s nickname must be traced to the writer Washington Irving, who already referred to the city as Gotham in his 1807 writings.

The interesting thing is that the Marvel Universe comics use real cities. The Avengers defend New York and Spider-Man swings between its skyscrapers and bridges. However, DC’s heroes inhabit fictional cities, which are sometimes identified with real cities and are sometimes a mixture of multiple cities.

Superman’s hometown is Metropolis, which many people also identify with New York. Comic book writer Frank Miller said that ‘Metropolis is New York by day; Gotham City is New York at night. In the movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, in which Batman fights Superman, Gotham City and Metropolis are separated by the mouth of a large river and connected by a huge suspension bridge.

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In “The Dark Knight: The Legend Rises”, this bridge becomes the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, which is also a common setting in the “Gotham” series.

Where is Gotham City in the world?

Although New York is the natural setting, the actual urban locations of the new installment “The Batman” appear to be a little further west, in the city of Chicago. The 2006 Batman film “The Dark Knight”, directed by Christopher Nolan, also chose the Windy City as the embodiment of Gotham.

Batman Dark Knight Chicago

La Salle Street in Chicago as the location of “The Dark Knight”. Source: WB

In this film, the Chicago Chamber of Commerce building became the skyscraper for Wayne Enterprises, Bruce Wayne’s company, Batman’s public identity.

Chicago Chamber of Commerce Building on La Salle Street

Chicago Chamber of Commerce Building on La Salle Street

Locations used as inspiration or filming locations for the urban part of Gotham City in Batman live action films include New York, Los Angeles, West London, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Newark, Tokyo, Hong Kong and St Neots, while British country houses locations in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire were used for Wayne Manor country scenes.

No self-respecting Batman movie or comic can do without gargoyles on skyscrapers. These figures of animals, monsters or demons are present as drainage channels from the roofs of European cathedrals, and many skyscrapers in the United States built in the early 20th century adopted them as distinctive. Batman has a penchant for climbing gargoyles to see or jump out of Gotham City.

Precisely the most famous gargoyles are those of the Chrisler building in Manhattan, whose sights have inspired many scenes from the dark knight movies and comics:

Will there be gargoyles in the new movie “The Batman”? One thing is certain: it will take place in a city, and that city will be Gotham.

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