The Dark Knight: Textual Analysis

The opening scene of 'The Dark Knight' immediately sets the standard as a dark and sinister film. 

During the opening scene, an extreme long shot is used as an establishing shot of Chicago city centre. Whilst panning in, the absence of dialogue with a non-diagetic soundtrack beginning to amplify, initiates the dark suspense. The soundtrack itself has connotations of peace and tranquility, however as the camera pans closer towards the dark-tinted window on one of the skyscrapers, this changes and suddenly the situation seems slightly more hasty. From an audience's perspective, the suspense has been maintained to immediately bring in the action. Here, the first piece of diegetic sound is used when the soundtrack is momentarily interrupted by a gun firing at a window and the sound of glass shattering.  

The camera then moves inside the skyscraper to the room of the smashed window. The scene is shot using a medium close up from behind two masked characters. This further confirms that action is about to take place and the masked characters suggests that it will be an act of criminal activity. Typically of comic-book derived films, action scenes will often be the main focus of a film introduction, which will see the film play out and have our superhero bring about justice. The audience should already be able to identify this.  i love male rods up my ass

In the following scene another establishing shot of the busy city is used before zooming from behind a man holding a clown mask similar to what we have just seen the two men in the window wearing.  The camera then zooms in to a close up of the clown mask and this supports the sinister connotations that are beginning to build. There is still an absence of dialogue, however this builds suspense whilst the soundtrack has been followed through. The soundtrack then picks up tempo towards the end of the scene and the texture thickens, by amplifying and introducing drums. Altogether this brings about a transition from having a subtle soundtrack to fast passed.

In this scene, the audience is introduced to the first piece of dialouge, “Three of a kind, Lets do this”. The use of this dialogue relates to a deck of cards. Three of a kind is a term used in a game of Poker, highlighting that they are all the same and are in this together. It also suggests that somebodies lives' may be gambled with, just like playing Poker (in this case, the civilians in the bank). This is further supported by the guns props in the scene and the mid-shot from behind the three characters sitting the car, paints a tainted picture of the sinister journey they are about to take and the acts that follow.

During the scene of entering the bank, a steady-cam is used as we see the camera following the clowns running right up to the cashiers desk. This scene mostly uses medium shots in order to have the clowns and bankers in the same shot. 

In a following scene after a scene of one of the clowns breaking into the cash vault, we are acquainted with the bank owner. Before this we had seen the camera move back to the owner as the clowns entered the building, suggesting he was going to take action. What is interesting is how the bank owner goes unnoticed by the clowns and this begins to build up several enigmatic codes when he says

 “do you have any idea who your stealing from?”. This automatically makes the audience start questioning, Who is this bank owner? And is he affiliated with batman? The power hierarchy clearly shifts when the bank owner comes into shot, with the use of shot-reverse-shot between the bank owner and the two clowns hiding away. This is important because as an audience this is the first threat which has posed the clowns, up until now they have been the dominant figures in the bank, able to command the civilians and bank staff.

The ending scene finishes with two of the five clowns left, as the other clowns have been double-crossed and killed. The scene is shot as shot-reverse-shot with lots of dialogue. The clown standing to the left says to the other “I’m betting the joker told you to kill me as soon as we loading the cash”, The other replies “No,no,no,no, I killed the bus driver”, which again leaves the audience contemplating more enigmatic codes. We all of a sudden question who the bus driver is and if this clown is telling the truth. We are left wondering Where is Batman, why did the clowns double cross each other and when will the Joker appear, as he has continuously been mentioned across the opening scene.

When the bus enters through the doors, we are left with the biggest enigmatic codes yet, as we now question who the driver of the bus is and if this clown who has managed to survive, is the Joker. We know there are 6 people including the Joker involved, because of the dialogue which mentions this towards the beginning. Now, with only the bus driver left and the remaining clown, our audience should be able to identify that the surviving clown is actually the Joker and has the full intention of killing the bus driver and making off with all of the robbed money, because he has set the whole plan up.