That origin flashback in Batman (1989) is such a heartbreaking and haunting nightmare-like scene that gets to me every time. Those two gunshots shook my soul. And that neo-noir retro atmosphere in the alleyway is awesome with long shadows, billowing mist and 1930s style fedoras and trench coats.
In Fantazone #1 (1989) Batman (1989) scriptwriter Sam Hamm explained that, "At one point they did discuss doing it as a period piece, possibly in black and white with an art deco look to it. Tim [Burton] and I decided that the neatest way to do it would be to give it a 'retro-futuristic' look, the same sort of thing you see in Brazil [(1985) by Terry Gilliam]."
Batman- The 1989 Film: Vintage Magazine Article: "Fantazone" Issue #1 Summer 1989
Frank Miller didn't create Batman. Tim Burton's Batman (1989) went past Frank Miller's Batman: Year One Post-Crisis reboot origin with a hooker Selina Kyle, etc., and instead went all the way back to the 1939 original Detective Comics by Bill Finger and Bob Kane as source material to base his movie off of, as producer Michael Uslan had requested and shown him. Michael Uslan said, "I said 'I want to produce a definitive Batman movie.' A dark serious movie, just the way Bob Kane and Bill Finger created him in 1939. I only let Tim [Burton] see the original year of the Bob Kane/Bill Finger run, up until the time that Robin was introduced. I only let them see the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers and the Neal Adams/Denny O’Neil runs. I was very careful to not show the comics from the ’60s."
Michael Uslan: Man Behind the Batman - Part 1 - SuperHeroHype
In Starlog Yearbook vol. 5 (1989) Anton Furst explained, "We were very interested in the Bob Kane one, the original. We were going back to the original DC comic and the look of Batman as Bob Kane originally did it. But there was another one, The Killing Joke, which had a very strong, graphic look to it, and was based on the Joker. This Batman script that we're doing has the Joker as a major character. Those two really influenced us."
Batman- The 1989 Film: Vintage Magazine Article: "Starlog Yearbook" Vol. 5, 1989
It's not Tim Burton's fault that apparently most contemporary comic book guys have not even read those original 1939-1940s Batman stories [even though DC has reprinted them many times over the decades] because they don't fit in with whatever the current rebooted mess of a DCU continuity is in the monthly comics.
Batman (1989) scriptwriter Sam Hamm explained in Fantazone #1 (1989), "It struck me as a much better solution to treat his origin as a mystery and gradually work back to it."
Batman- The 1989 Film: Vintage Magazine Article: "Fantazone" Issue #1 Summer 1989
Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 (1939) "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate" and worked back to Batman's two-page origin flashback in Detective Comics #33 (1939) "Legend: The Batman And How He Came To Be."
Sam Hamm explained in Comics Scene #3 (1988), "I felt it was just like that original Batman story ["The Case of the Chemical Syndicate"] in 1939 which starts out with this mysterious Batman who goes off on his exploits. And the shock at the end is it [Batman] turns out to be Bruce Wayne. The twin agendas I thought were right to work with were: 1) Determine what is the kind of story structure that will make Batman sufficiently menacing. He's a frightening character. His whole gimmick, the only reason to wear the bat costume, is to frighten people. And 2) Do what that initial [1939] Batman story did and take Batman as a fait accompli. In other words, if you start with Batman and work backwards to [show he is] Bruce Wayne, then you have a structure that allows you to see this character's impact on the rest of the people in the story. You don't have to waste half-an-hour [on the origin and] getting him into the costume. People are paying to see the guy in the suit kick some bad guys. If you're paying to see Batman, then you want to see Batman."
Batman- The 1989 Film: Vintage Magazine Article: "Comics Scene" Issue #3 July 1988
However, the origin flashback in Batman Begins is unintentionally comedic to me the way Linus Roache's Thomas Wayne calmly says "It's fine" repeatedly to Richard Brake's Joe Chill pointing a gun at him and mugging him and even calmly says "It's okay" after he was shot and dying, and his wife was apparently already died.