The Dark Knight

Narrative Features

The Dark Knight

Intro of Characters

The main character who plays Batman/Bruce Wayne is shown has the famous recognised Batman, superhero, mysterious and iconic. In the first scene where we see Batman we have several different looking Batman's, but when we see the recognisable Bat mobile we know that this is the real Batman. When we see him in action we can tell the fakes from the real batman as the so called "helping" Batman's, trying to help batman since there has been loss of activity from him trying to save Gotham, they are easily defeated by the villains within the scene. The real Batman has all the cool gadgets which make up for the high technology profile, with the body armour, attachment rope and sharp knife equipment on the arms. As well has this his fighting technique is more clean and careful, he isn't clumsy and defeats the villains with little effort. Later on in the film we see him as his actual character, no deep voice and mysterious aura but a lighter voice, less serious, a witty charm and a handsome face and figure. But he still is arrogant and shows no fear. The Joker on the other hand is revealed as a clever, sneaky and dangerous guy. In the opening scene there are a group of men wearing clown masks all are raiding a bank, but some of them turn on each other and shoot each other. In  the end the joker is one of them and walks away with all the money. Alfred is Batman's/Wayne's Butler he has been Wayne's family's butler all Wayne's Life. So with his aged face, deep wrinkles and fatherly voice, shows how long he has been with Bruce and how well he knows him. He has helped him become Batman and has developed his equipment and made what Bruce does now as a hero and who he is today. As in the scene where he is talking to Bruce, he seems caring and looks upon him as a son. He helps Bruce with the stitches in his arm from the scene before, where a dog attacks him and this shows how he cares about him and still helps him with little things such as that.

Locations

China - Hong Kong
U.S.A - Illinois/Chicago, L.A/California
U.K - England/London, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Liverpool, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex

Iconography

Christian Bale - Famous British Actor (Well known for - Batman Begins, American Psycho, Terminator Salvation and Equilibrium

Heathe Ledger - Famous American Actor (Well known for - Brokeback Mountain, 10 things I hate about you and The Patriot)

Michael Caine - Famous British Actor (Well known for - Batman Begins, Children of Men and The Prestige)

Gary Oldman - Famous British Actor (Well known for - Leon, The Fifth Element, Batman Begins, Harry potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire and Harry potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

Morgan Freeman - Famous American Actor (Well known for - The Electric Company, The Shawshank Redemption Se7en and Bruce Almighty)

Record placement and Feature of Credits

At the beginning of the film, there is a similarity with the opening with that in the film "Inception" where they make the Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures introduction black and white, here in The Dark Knight, they gave it a colour filter of dark blue, this includes the DC Comics introduction too, giving it a chilly and dark mood to the film. This gives the audience a chilly or dark frame of mind of the film throughout from the opening.  This blue filter is also continued through the opening where there is a gathering of heavy clouds and the Batman symbol (a bat) appears, formed by the heavy clouds, this zooms in and the bat fills the screen and the whole screen is filled with black and then cuts straight to the opening first scene.


How Effective was this

I found the effect of the introduction to Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures and DC Comics really unique and effective, just like that in "Inception" the blue filter gave it a chilly and dark mood which set me into a frame that the rest of the movie will be like this. I loved this effect and think that other movies should carry this on, it's really creative and attracts the audience. The way it was carried on with the Batman introduction, they tend to be the same, clouds and a large group of bats forming the bat logo which then zooms in. But this time no bats where used but the clouds where and the blue filter being carried on was very effective too, carrying on that chilly and dark atmosphere for the film.