Dark Knight Analysis

The opening sequence of the Dark Knight is a very fast paced one. Before the actual movie starts the titles show up and these are blue with a black background, and this relates to the dark tone that the movie has. The movie itself starts with an establishing shot and zoom for about 15 to 20 seconds and then the action starts and doesn’t stop until about five minutes into the movie. This is very common for thriller films as the action all starts off at the beginning and then slowly gets into the main storyline. A movie that did this was Inception, which is another thriller directed by Christopher Nolan as well.
The camera angles are mainly neutral (medium shots and two shots) apart from the beginning, where bird’s eye view was used to show the criminals going from one building to the other. I think the reason the director chose to closely follow the crime is to make it seem as if the audience were actually there. It also is more interesting than it would be if it was one long shot, and thrillers do need to be interesting and exciting. It also has to be a little mysterious, and this was achieved by the way the audience was shown the Joker (villain) in the opening but it wasn’t revealed to be him until a little later on. This keeps the audience engaged and makes them wonder whom the person in the mask was.

The editing in the opening is very quick, but only after a long establishing shot. There is a lot of action happening in the opening, so it only makes sense to try and show it all together by editing it in that way as well. The music is also gradually getting more and more intense to make the audience get more involved and it also helps create the atmosphere. Both the editing and non-diegetic sound effectively creates suspense and tension, which is a common convention known to be linked with thrillers as from this the audience are able to establish the genre of the media text. This is the directors attempt to influence the audiences ideas and expectations for the rest of the film.

Sound also plays a major part in movies, and especially thrillers as it need to get the audience’s heart pumping. This is done by the music slowly getting louder and more intense, as if to make the audience know something bad is about to happen. An example of this is when the banker pulls out his shotgun and shoots one of the criminals, meaning that the whole operation is at risk. This is actually a good thing but also very dramatic, and the music ties in perfectly with it. Also, the diegetic sounds of gun shots and police sirens at the end help the audience understand that the movie they are watching is indeed a thriller and not any other genre.

The colours in this are quite dark at the start, but only for the characters as the actual scenes are quite bright due to it taking place in broad daylight. This could have been done to add to the experience as it could make the audience more gripped into the action as such a robbery would usually take place at night, but then that would be quite generic. Also, the fact that the Joker had a clown face that was white could be seen as an ironic thing, as clowns are usually jolly and fun. Also, it concealed the robbers’ identities, so it makes it more dramatic. And another thing that makes it more dramatic are the weapons that are used. The robbers all have guns and that is the first thing that is seen in the movie (a robber shooting the glass window). This is all used to make the villains more threatening and the average people more vulnerable.

There is a lot of use of special effects in this particular opening sequence compared to most other movies. It jumps straight into the action and this required a lot of gun shots as it is a bank being robbed. This sets the tone for pretty much the whole movie and I think that it is almost a subtle portrayal of what will eventually happen in the movie. Most, if not all thriller films start off with a lot of action and then slowly develop into the actual storyline, and the Dark Knight follows this convention.

Here is the opening of the Dark Knight: