Before seeing “Birds Of Prey”, I had never envisioned LA as being a potential real-world avatar for Gotham City, good old Batman’s hometown – or even thought about it for that matter. Had I read about a movie shooting a version of Gotham City in Los Angeles, I would have guessed the reasoning would be budgetary – via tax credit – or maybe a scheduling move due to some of the bigger names involved in the project or sheer laziness even. But when Margot Robbie and Cathy Yan decided to film Birds of Prey in LA back in 2018, it wasn’t because they had received a California tax credit. It was an affirmative artistic choice (they received a tax credit but months later, after pre-pro and shooting had begun – and relocated some of the previously assigned Georgia filming locations BACK to LA). And in my opinion, it was a bold, maybe even genius one that managed to use our expectations of both Gotham and LA to enhance each other and the film in the process. They’ve filmed Batman movies in LA before (Batman Forever, Batman and Robin) but there they hid LA, tried to shoot LA for a more Eastern-type city. But not here. Not this time.
But Margot Robbie and Cathy Yan not only embraced the city of LA. They used iconic LA locations (that we have seen in other movies awash in postcard glory) to push ideas heretofor seen only in the cinema of people like Tony Scott and Michael Mann. This Gotham, like LA itself, is a city awash in sunshine but rotting to the core on the inside.
For anyone who thinks LA is just 3-4 story plastic and stucco condos (including me sometimes), Cathy Yan finds numerous locations and makes them whole again. Using iconic LA locations like the Third Street Bridge, Chinatown, the garment district, and Downtown’s main drag – Broadway. From the fashion/arts district and Santee Alley where Harley is chased by Renee Montoya and a gaggle of thugs…
To the Third Street Bridge where Harley and Cassandra Cain elude captors…
To Harley Quinn’s single apartment in Chinatown…
To Spring Street in Downtown LA, the scene of a crucial pickpocket and police investigation.
To a taco and breakfast stand close-by also in the middle of the Downtown LA…
To the place of the final fight, an amusement park and Harley’s hideout, the Booby Trap, that mimics aspects of LA’s long lost Pike in Long Beach and the Santa Monica Pier.
Yan has truly managed to make old things new again. Hidden at night and made to look “cool and edgy”, the LA sunshine exposes the grime and grotesqueness of Gotham, now bright and in HDR color in the daytime.
Now sure, we’ve seen Chicago as Gotham (“The Dark Knight), Pittsburgh and NYC as Gotham (“The Dark Knight Rises”), Kowloon, Hong Kong (“Batman Begins”), and Detroit (BVS). All have given us a feel of what we think Gotham is, what we’ve known it to be – from reading plenty of comics. But maybe for too long we’ve been resting on the laurels and expectations of things visual. These places all visually mimic Gotham City of the comics to some extent or another. But do they leave something to be desired in terms of thematic spirit? It was a question I had never asked before seeing “Birds of Prey”. But after seeing it, I can tell you that the answer is yes.
If we look beyond visuals representation and toward a thematic Gotham, we can say that Gotham is a hell-scape, a den of some of the best and worst qualities and people on earth – existing simultaneously, mostly in balance. It is a place where criminals have the highest of aspirations and will sink to the lowest depths to see their dreams come true. And perhaps the best place to look for that kind of Gotham isn’t NYC or Chicago or Pittsburgh – but Los Angeles.
As an LA native, I can say that this characterization of LA’s qualities being analogous to Gotham comes from a place of love. I love my hell-scape, but people need to recognize and love LA for what it is. I get offended when people present Los Angeles as some idealized bullshit postcard rack (I’m looking at you “La La Land”). This city is mean. It’s fast-paced but also hard to get around. It’s dirtier than you think. But because there are beaches and mountains and Disneyland and lots of grass and the sun is always shining, people tend to think “it’s great! What an amazing city” – when what’s going on inside, if you look even just a little bit closer, is not that. The inside is rotting. And is there a more perfect analogy for that in terms of a character than Harley Quinn? This isn’t Joker’s Gotham (that’s NYC or Chicago), LA is Harley’s Gotham. And Harley Quinn is one of my favorite DC characters, probably for the same reasons I love LA – even though I know neither LA or Harley ain’t the fantasy some make them out to be. I’m fascinated by their dualities, their complexities, their contradictions and their power.
But Yan and producer Margot Robbie merged the looks with actual substance in the film, creating a satire of the club world, the trendy and hip, the carpetbaggers and the terminally insecure and frustrated – all types of people who are well known in LA. And all ideas that are perfectly at home in the City of Angels.
Take a look at Harley Quinn in this film. Presented with more psychological complexity than she was in Suicide Squad (though I loved her (especially her “You’re the bad guy, own it!” speech) – where she was not afforded the screen time (nor could she have been considering the large cast and complicated plot) – we immediately know more about her both in terms of back story and her actions within the story. And if you’ve lived in LA (or tbh any hipster/scenster type enclave) you’ll know her various faces well: She’s a roller derby star trying hard to fit into a subculture that rejects her as soon as she is out of earshot; she’s a club goer who is riding off the reputation of other people to act however the hell she wants to act in a club that is more nightmare than dream; she still looks great at 8AM after partying all night well buying an egg sandwich in a bodega. You get the idea. But there is something amiss between all of this try-hard, type life. Sure she is missing her ex-boyfriend The Joker, but she is also missing a purpose and a sense of joie de vivre (as so MANY people are in LA), stuck in a run and on a mission for so long you forgot why you were doing it.
Look at the primary antagonist of the film: club owner and crime lord Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask. Despite all of his riches, his success and his wonderful excess, he is also still unfulfilled. He works hard when his employee, singer and driver comes to visit his office, showing off all of his wealth in a way that screams for attention. If you’ve ever visited certain offices of the power elite in LA, it’s an energy you probably know well. And in one of the best scenes of the film, Harley Quinn calls him out, letting him know that all of this success, all of this posturing is also something that is just a misguided quest for the attention and approval from his father.
But the difference between Harley and Roman is that Harley, however manic and detached she may act at times, is actually still on some level aware of her choices – and knows that if she wanted to she could make a different choice. At one point in the film she even admits, “I guess I’m a terrible person”. And she eventually does – sort of. More on that in a second.
Now don’t get me wrong there is a large population in Los Angeles that is largely ignored by the powerful and rich and famous of LA. They are those stuck in their cars, in low wage jobs trudging to and from work every day and just trying to keep their head above water. And they are represented in Birds Of Prey as well, where we find protagonists like Dinah Lance and Cassandra Cain – good people stuck in shit situations who are working their asses off to stay alive and survive. Dinah has been working for Roman Sionis, singing in his club since her mother was murdered on the streets of Gotham. When she tells Gotham PD Detective Renee Montoya implores her to stop working for Sionis, she responds that “we do what we do to stay off the streets”. It comes with real feeling and pain thanks to Jurnee Smollett-Bell who excels in the role. Cassandra Cain lives in Dinah’s building, a foster child whose parents don’t pay any attention to her – and when they do, it’s doubtful to be anything positive. She’s schooled herself as a pickpocket to survive and has become quite good at it. This version Cassandra Cain has gotten a ton of flack from keyboard warriors who say she is not enough like the Cain of the comics and how could she be Batgirl one day. I’m guessing villains like Roman Sionis would discount her and say the same thing. But if you look even further you can see the spirit, the ingenuity, the fight and considering how Roman ends up, I’d say he learns his lesson for underestimating her – just as many people underestimate so many people these days. Lastly there is the aforementioned Montoya who is the well-worn character of good cop in a bad city – but played with verve and originality by Rosie Perez. She’s older, has been passed over – at the end of a career that has wasted her life. But she’s never stopped fighting, never given in.
And it is in fact when Harley steps out of her routines of roller derby and clubbing (albeit not by choice) and comes to the aid (by choice) of Cassandra Cain, she begins to find some direction, some meaning, however meager it is which allows her to move forward. As Harley then begins to form a haphazard team with Dinah Lance, Montoya and victim out for revenge Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress – she begins to find a purpose again. There is life and enjoyment in LA, outside of the scene chasing – or maybe in it as well – as long as it is with real friends in grounded and meaningful relationships, which sometimes may be much harder to achieve than defeating a super-villain. Harley challenges audiences to call her soft, she hasn’t gone soft, but she does have a new friend and seeming purpose again.
Needless to say I loved “Birds of Prey”. It’s a wonderful comic book movie and a wonderful film, for a variety of reasons – both stated herein and also existing well beyond the scope of this blog post.
No Scoops Club 