The Dark Knight (2008) is an action-thriller movie produced by Warner Bros. It follows the story of Batman protecting Gotham City from organized crime and criminals, especially the Joker. I decided to research and analyse this film opening because it is specific to our genre of action thriller and it will give us inspiration for producing our film opening based around the same genre.
Camera
The first significant shot in this scene is a contra zoom shot of a window breaking in a glass building block. This infers that shot a grappling hook to get over to the opposite building, suggesting that an organized crime such as a bank robbery is going to happen. This follows the conventions of action thriller because it keeps the audience intrigued.
The next shot that is also significant is the mid shot of the Joker with his back turned and facing the street while the camera zooms in onto the clown mask that he is holding. Because the camera zoomed in on to the clown mask, it suggests that it will become important later on in the scene. It also suggests that he wishes to conceal his identity before performing a bank robbery along with some of his henchmen.
This two shot of a henchman with a clown mask stood behind another is quite significant. It suggests that the person behind is going to kill or stab him in the back in order to suggest that he wants to bigger cut. Therefore, he kills him once his job is done in the hope that he himself can take a larger section of pay from the bank robbery.
The final significant shot in this opening is this contra zoom mid shot of the Joker looking down on the bank manager that he just shot. It suggests that he asserted dominance over the bank manager by nearly killing him with his sub machine gun. This creates an archetypal villain by showing him look down on the manager, a position of power, with higher superiority and probably disgust at him.
Editing
The effective use of editing really makes the narrative in this film opening very clear. This scene doesn't have any flashbacks but does have some cuts and makes good use of parallel editing throughout the scene. Therefore, it makes the story line extremely clear.
Parallel editing is used throughout this scene to show different narratives happening simultaneously. For example, this is first clear when the part with two henchmen disabling the bank alarm cuts to a part when the Joker enters a car with two other different henchmen. Once the Joker and his other henchmen enter the bank, it cross cuts back to the two henchmen on the roof. It then shows that henchman killing the one disarming the alarm. Once that happens, that henchman runs down into the bank and starts drilling a hole in the safe. It then cuts back to the Joker and his main henchman performing crowd control until they are confronted by the bank manager, who shoots the other henchman performing crowd control with a shot gun.
Once the Joker finishes confronting the bank manager, the camera cuts back to the first shown henchman trying to open the safe. This time, Joker's main henchman comes to assist him but once the other henchman finishes opening the safe, the main henchman kills him and starts stealing all the money in the safe by spilling it into multiple duffel bags. It then cuts back to the Joker standing with the main henchman that just brought over the duffel bags filled with money. A confrontation between the Joker and his main henchman then occurs but it then ends by the main henchman getting run over by a bus. Another henchman then comes out of the bus and starts putting all the money filled duffel bags into the back of the bus. Once he finishes doing that, the Joker shoots him dead as he is of no use to him anymore. This further reinforces the Joker as a powerful villain because it shows he can dispose of any henchman he wants to at any given time.
Sound
The sound used in this film opening is extremely effective in helping create a very important and captivating opening. It ranges from music and various different parts of dialogue to help shape a truly intriguing and great way to open a movie.
First of all, the atmospheric and fast paced music at the start slowly speeds up and creates tension right before important parts of the scene happen. This helps the audience feel the tension of the opening as it is a delicate operation of a bank robbery right at the start of the movie. The tense music conveys the tension felt by each of the henchmen in order to perform their jobs well and efficiently to ensure that the bank robbery is a successful operation.
The first piece of dialogue is between two main henchman at the front of the car debating the cut each person gets while also talking about who they think the Joker is. The next dialogue starts when it cut to two other henchman on a roof, one of them asks the other why the person they are working for is called the Joker. The other responds by saying the Joker wears make up or war paint to scare people. This is significant because all of this is happening while each of the henchmen perform their designated tasks.
The next piece of diegetic noise is when Joker's two main henchmen start shooting the roof of the bank to alert the tellers and crowd that they are going to be robbed. He tells them not to put their hands in the air and instead gives them all grenades to hold on to and them telling them that their lives are in their own hands.
After that, it cuts back to the two henchmen on the roof disabling the alarm. The one disabling the alarm says :"That's funny, it didn't dial 911 it dialed a private number. The henchman behind him responds by saying "Is that a problem?" and the other henchman says "No I'm done here" before the one behind him shoots him in the back.
The music then becomes deeper with sudden thudding noises suggesting that the tension is building up during the course of the robbery and that it is going lead to a dramatic climax. This keeps the audience engaged and informs them that something is going to happen.
The next significant diegetic noise is when the bank manager shoots one of the henchmen on crowd control in the back with a shot gun. This becomes relevant because it scares the Joker and the other main henchman into hiding from the bank manager so that they don't get shot as well.
The next significant dialogue is when the main henchman comes over to the guy opening the safe. The henchman opening the safe says "The Joker said when the guy was done I can take him out". The main henchman then replies by saying "Funny, he told me something similar" before shooting the other henchman dead.
The penultimate peice of dialogue is between the Joker and the main henchman. The main henchman says "I bet the Joker told you to kill me once I finished loading the cash. The Joker says "No no I killed the bus driver". The henchman then says "Bus Driver?" before getting run over by a bus crashing through the bank.
Mise-en-scene
The use of mise-en-scene is extremely effective in this opening scene. The fact that the setting is a bank and probably a real bank shows that the directors tried to make the film opening as realistic as it could possibly be. It is also filmed in a metropolitan setting giving the impression that a similar bank robbery could happen in a real life setting.
The use of clown masks for the Joker and the henchmen to conceal their identity shows the juxtaposition of a comical clown with a tough group of thugs robbing a bank. However, the clown masks are also used to be intimidating to the crowd as some people do have a pshycological fear of clowns and the fact that they are performing a bank robbery makes it even worse for those people.
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