Dark Knight
The Dark Knight Opening Scene Analysis
The Dark Knight is a fantasy movie that again, is grounded in reality. It's a story about and evil set around the comic book hero Batman. The Dark Knight begins with a bank heist, The Joker takes centre stage in this scene along with 5 other men who wear clown masks and slowly get killed off one by one throughout the clip.
It opens with title screens for Warner Brothers, Legendary Pictures and DC Comics, then we see a huge blue coloured fireball which then produces the Bat signal, along the Warner credit is a loud booming tune which acts as a motif. The sound is of Batman's theme from the first film so by using this it allows the audience to know what film they will be watching as they can associate it with this films predecessor. After this we see the Legendary pictures logo and following this is silence which, when following the loud booming motif on the logo before, gives the film a sense of eeriness. We then start to hear sound in the form of a ticking noise during the DC comics logo which seems to give the impression of a bomb timer which gives the film its theme of danger. All of the logos and Bat symbol are presented in a black or dark blue light, this combined with the bomb ticking, silence, loud booming and the Bat symbol rising from the fireball gives the audience the feeling that the film they will be watching will be very dark in tone.
It cuts to a long shot, which as acts an establishing shot, of a large building and the camera begins to quickly track in towards the windows of the building. As it cuts to this shot we again hear the sound of a boom noise followed by a tone that continues over the sound of the ticking. These combined give the impression that whatever will happen in this scene could be associated with danger as the slowly rising tone creates tension among the spectator. As we get closer to the windows suddenly one explodes creating a slight "jump" moment that confirms our thoughts about this scene beings associated with danger. It cuts to shot to the interior of this building and judging by the desk it is an office building. We then get to see our first character of the film however, he is wearing a clown mask and holding some sort of gun. Clowns are one of the biggest fears in the world so this combined with the fact he is holding a gun tells us that he is both an antagonist and that he has been placed in the film specifically the create fear upon the audience. As the window smashes the ticking noise continues however, it is a modified version of it. One of the clowns shoot a grapple hook over to an opposite rooftop. As we know that the clowns are likely to be the bad guys we think that they are planning to pull off some kind of dangerous act like a bank robbery.
The scene cuts to reveal a man standing with his back to the audience whilst the camera slowly tracks in to his back. He is holding a blue bag and a clown mask to tell the audience that this character is also one of the bad guys. Because we never see his face we automatically assume this person is a bad guy as we have nothing to identify him by, also as it cuts to this character the tense tune begins to start again possibly telling us that this person may be the leader. As it continues tracking in a car suddenly pulls up and allows him to get in. The tense tone stops completely and it cuts back to the people in the office building, allowing us to figure out that they are travelling in 2 groups.
The group in the office building attach a bag to their zip line and then go down themselves. As they go down the camera fallows them out the window and then quickly tilts down to show the way down to the street to create a feeling of uneasy upon the spectator, as it does the soundtrack suddenly makes a large boom noise and as it cuts again it carries on as we see long shot showing the clowns zip lining with the street beneath them. It cuts again to show them landing safely on the other side.
We see the other group of clowns in the car and hear our first line of dialogue. There are a total of 3 people wearing clown masks in the car. At no point during this part do we see any ones face. Although, the light outside is very bright the inside of the car is very dark to again tell the audience that the people in this car are the bad guys of the film. It cuts to a close up of one of the clowns although we do see the other two in the background. They are talking about the heist that they are doing and talk about a specific character known only as "The Joker". The two clowns that were originally inside the car are the only characters talking in this clip, however the character that entered the car is at the back although still slightly in shot so tyhe audience remembers that he is there as it is made obvious this particular chracter is important to this part of the film.
Then there is a parrallell action as the other group of robbers on the roof continue there conversation about "The Joker" and helps us know a little bit more about this character. After this it cuts back to the group in the car, they leave the car and approach a bank. The camera follows the third mysterious member of the group who is the only character we have seen who is yet to talk. There is a match on action as the robbers enter the bank and begins the shoot the air to worry the people inside the bank. The soundtrack still plays although is much quieter than before. It shows the bank manager as well to signal that he is going to be important to this character during this scene. The camera tracks around the bank and rarely stays still to keep up the speed of what is happening.
The music begins to pick back up as it again cross-cuts back to the group on the roof. Who are checking the alarm system. We then go back to the clowns who are now in control of the bank and see that the mysterious charcter is going around securing grenades to the hostages hands, he has still not spoken. We go back to the roof and it after one clown deals with the alarm the other clown shoots him. This is to tell us that these clowns are not to be trusted and are slowly killing each other to get a bigger share of the money. As he kills him the and runs downstairs the music plays what will later be known as The Joker's motif as it plays whenever he is on screen. He runs in to a room and the camera pans round to reveal a large vault, he hear the sound quiets down and begins to tick again suggesting this vault door is important to this scene. It cuts back to the main hall to show the audience that these robbers are now in charge with the unknown clown securing grenades to the hostages.
It cuts back to the vault to reveal one of the robbers breaking in to the vault with a large mechanical device. As it cuts back to the main hall we have a shot of on one of the more psycho clowns beating a hostage, we then get a close up of the bank manager with a rising tone in the background. The shots and music combined tell us that these 2 clips will be somehow connected, the rising tone creates tension among this scene. The bank manager shoots the clown and the music then kicks in to a kind of action tone as he walks out with the shotgun and the other clown's run in panic. The focus again is put on the mysterious clown as the back manager shoots at him the music slowly begins to tone back down as he shoots more bullets. We get a shot of the 2 clowns who are hiding behind a desk. The leader asks "He's out right?" to which the mysterious clown nods. The leader rises then gets shot by the bank manager. Through all the murders of the various clowns it tells the audience that a theme of the film will be betrayal. The mysterious clown rises up and shoots the bank manager. The camera then slowly tracks in to the mysterious clown to then possibly suggest that he is in fact the leader of the group. The music becomes gradually silent and then kicks in with the tone used previously to suggest that there is no more danger for the robbers.
The clown that was shot rises up to reveal that he was only wounded by the manager, he runs down to meet with the clown in the vault. One of the clowns opens the vault and after he is done gets shot by the other to again show the theme of betrayal. We then cut back to the main hall to reveal the mysterious clown who looks like he is now in charge of the whole operation as it seems he is now in control of the bank and hostages as it cuts the tense tone begins to rise up again. It cuts back to the other clown in the vault who begins taking money, then there is an ellipses that cuts from the clown taking the money to the main hall where the money is now collected. The clown who went to the vault then threatens the mysterious clown with a gun, again suggesting another theme of betrayal. The music here begins to repeat the same 2 notes over and over to build tension. In this part we hear the first line from the mysterious clown "No, no, no. I kill the bus driver" which confuses the audience as this is not what we would expect him to say due to what we have been shown so far. The scene concludes with a huge bus loudly crashing through the wall and killing the the other main clown, leaving the mysterious clown which has now confirmed suspicions that he is leader with him being the only one left and that he has planned this.
After the bus crashes through the wall we cut to reveal the back of the bus with yet another clown in the back who is now loading up the money. The music now resumes normal tone that it had before of The Joker's theme. After they load up the money the currently unknown clown gets shot by this clown we have been following. As he is about to leave we cut to the bank manager who is still alive and begins talking to the clown who then starts walking towards the bank manager. Here the tense shrieking tone again begins to pick up the close the clown gets to the manager. The clown remains silent on his approach and removes some sort of grenade from his pocket. We have a POV shot from the clowns persepctive looking at the bank manager. After the manager shouts "What do you believe in?" the clown shoves the grenade in to the bank managers mouth. The clown begins talking and the music begins to get louder and grows to a higher pitch as he replies "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you, stranger." When he says "stranger" we get a POV shot from the bank managers perspective to show the clown remove his mask and reveal a male covered in clown make-up. He has dark eyes and white face make-ep with a large red smile on top of some deep cuts on his cheeks, he also has long greasy green hair". To the audience this is easily recognised as The Joker who has all along been this clown and been in charge of this whole operation including slowly making his team kill each other. As he reveals his face the rising tone quickly drops to a much lower and darker town suggesting that this character is dangerous. It is a close up of his face and it is slightly disorientating to the viewer as it is quite unexpected he smiles at the bank manager and turns and leaves which is assisted by a weird sound that is also associated as being a dark sound. As The Joker leaves the tense rising sound slowly picks up as he leaves with the bank managers shotgun, there is a thread attatched to his waist which is connected to the grenade in the mouth of the bank manger. We start at his legs and slowly tilt up as he gets closer to the back of the bus. He climbs on to it slams the door shut and releases the thread from his waist. He climbs towards the front of the bus and we cut to the bank manager as the sound becomes diegetic and we hear the sound of the engine starting, the pin from the grenade detatches and he quiclky zoom in reveal green smoke to show the audience that the grenades used in the hiest were in fact duds and to reveal yet another theme of things not being what they seem.
This scene is relevant to our film as again it is a fantasy film that is grounded in to reality. The characters of Batman and The Joker do not exist in real life but the setting and the way it is film makes us believe that the events of this film could happen even though it is a fantasy, this is what we aim to do with our film.
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