The Dark Knight

The Dark Night

            Jonathon and Christopher Nolan wrote a film that pulled from the many fibers of our childhood. Reading Batman comic’s as a youth failed in comparison to this movie, it brought forth a wealth of cinematography. The film opens with a blast of flames rushing upward; Nolan uses that as what appears to be a symbol of things to come inside the flames emerges a Batman symbol.

Suspense was built within the first three minutes as the joker’s men enter the bank, as the bank manager (played by William Fichtner) slowly reaches for his glasses could it be Batman. The first look at the Joker revealed “red” over exaggerated lips, Bob Kane who was in charge of characters used this to draw the view into the film. It characterizes the villain, drawing attention to the face of the Joker even though he had a “white” complexion.  These red lips were used during several significant scenes usually just prior to carnage.

I noticed during any scene involving Bruce Wayne vs. Batman a distinct voice change, Bruce Wayne a very smooth sophisticated man to the forceful voice of Batman. Sound today in films is very much a large part, remembering back to when the Joker entered the meeting of the tugs you heard him laugh in surround sound. A echo effect building as he entered the room. The sound in or around sound effects or used in various scenes drives the view to fit into the scene. Take the scene where the Joker is pulling on the “pins” of the hand grenades, you could actually hear the tension or mechanical sound of the string pulling against the pin.

Heath Ledger played the part of Joker with what appears to be a “character” characteristic, he consistently is licking his lips. He died shortly after the filming of The Dark Knight; I think this characteristic showed his addiction to drugs wasn’t a mistaken overdose yet a scene waiting to happen. Sad to have lost such a good actor, Kane surely saw his brilliance. While Ledger had been considered somewhat of a “pretty” boy by many this role would have surely been Ledgers breakout role. He had predominately been type casted into roles of which his looks seemed more important that lines and/or character.

One of the great scenes in the movie, Ledger had escaped from jail his head outside the car traveling at high speed. I took the scene as it was a time where the Joker felt free if only for a moment. Two thumbs up, Director Nolan. s