Thriller Notes - Batman, The Dark Knight

CHARACTERS
Batman (Christian Bale) raises the stakes in his bourgeois war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker (Heath Ledger). Batman and the joker battle it out throughout the film with batman’s weakness being the entire city of Gotham being vulnerable with the joker having no real weakness as he is not afraid of death or imprisonment

NARRATIVE
The film is a single strand narrative which keeps the audience asking questions throughout as they are shown a number of lot of intense action packed scene , where the audience are wondering what is going to happen next. The audiences are left asking a number of questions whilst watching a lot of the time they are wondering what the psychotic joker is going to do next or where he is which helps to engage the audience they are also left asking the same questions with batman for the majority of the film this helps to create suspense and tension for the viewer which is vital for the any thriller movie. As the narrative continues towards the climax of the film as Harvey Dent get horrific burns to one side which in turn makes him become a new villain two face which leaves the audience wanting to know how this escalates, it is unclear whether or not Harvey is dead at the end of the film. The film ends with a lot of un answered questions for the audience to keep guessing and waiting for the next film.

CINEMATICS
The film uses some great cinematography to draw the attention of the audience with great special effects, camera angles and shots adding the overall look to the film with its amazing high tempo music, which won an achievement in sound editing, The film uses a number of close ups and mid shots in order to build tension for the audience, establishing shots are also important to the film as it shows off the dark city skylines and building structures where the audience are wondering where batman is going to turn up or fly through and save the day. The use of props, costumes and lighting is also vital to this movie giving great visuals in some shot along with the frightening make up of the joker continually builds the drama throughout the film. The non diegetic music builds suspense and tension for the viewer where there always asking what’s going to happen next? The use of diegetic dialogue is also helpful in the build of to the climatic points in scenes especially with the joker’s quick-witted dialogue creating both humour and suspense for the audience.

THEMES
The main themes that the film focuses itself on are crime and corrupt authority where hero is seen as being quite corrupted a lot of the time. There is also a theme of the villain exploiting a flaw that the villain has for the majority of the film in this case it’s the fact that batman is unable to kill the joker, batman is also always left having to solve a mystery that the joker lays in his path this creates an enigma for the audience.
Jack Burton