captainsolo said:

The original film was supposed to have been so dark that people complained. Judging by just how dark Returns was printed, I can completely see that happening. On the untouched still form above you can see all the video nasties from LD era magnified and just how much everything was overbrightened to compensate. This was a common practice then and even is still upheld today. I always have my CRT dialed back a bit to mimic film a bit more, and I do this especially when watching the first film because it feels more appropriate.

I found the bit about the video telecine being brightened in the old Widescreen Review articles on the LDs for both films.

There's a 35mm print of Batman '89 on eBay right now, starting at $500: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BATMAN-ORIGINAL-35MM-FEATURE-FILM-/221355280283?

Anybody wanna chip in so we can find out just how dark the original was?