Dark Knight Bank robbery (opening- sequence)

 

 

 Dark Knight Bank robbery (opening- sequence)

As the opening credits start the colours are shown to be representative of the Batman franchise (blue and black), however the tone is noticeably darker, foreshadowing a more sinister nature in the narrative. The scene begins with an aerial shot establishing the cityscape and through the reflection of a glass panelled skyscraper, the audience is subtly shown the whole of Gotham; the pollution, the mass overcrowding and the overpowering mega-structures could further suggest the narrative is going to be darker. This is because in such a claustrophobic place criminals could  potentially prosper.

As the camera zooms in closer to the skyscraper the audience is shook by the unexpected breaking of a window, acting as a sound sting, it immediately grasps the audience’s attention .The glass is broken by a zip wire being propelled through it, this piece of iconography immediately suggest to the audience that these men aren’t opportunist thugs. Firstly they have mapped out the logistics of this heist by setting up the operation on the building directly adjacent and secondly having equipment only available to wealthy organised gangs. Although the breaking of the glass could also represent on metaphorical level the fragmented shards of Gotham city.

It then jump cuts to the back of the main antagonistic figure in the film ‘the Joker’; the non-diegetic soundtrack intensifies in pace and pitch as the camera approaches him from behind, this proposes  his focal point is his green hair which conveys he’s disjointed from society’s norms and values, his mental health is in a state of disrepute. Moreover costume designer Lindy Hemming described the Joker's look as reflecting his personality in that "he doesn't care about himself at all". Another key focal point in this shot is the clown mask in the Jokers left hand, all the criminals in this heist are wearing clown masks. This is because it makes them easily recognisable as assailants of the joker; it hides their identity so they can evade capture, it hides their feelings so the hostages won’t detect fear and at the same time gives the hostages fear because they are effectively de-humanised playing on a popular fear of the 21^st century audience, ‘Coulrophobia’ the fear of clowns.

Even though we know that the Joker is the clown in the first shot because we have seen the film and it is shown at the end of the clip, his identity remains concealed until the last part of the clip. This concealing of the joker's identity at the start of the film creates the sense of mystery which also surrounds the character of the joker. It shows that the people who work for him don't even know who he is or what he looks like. It makes the antagonist look like an enigma. He doesn't exist to people or even the people who are helping him. They jokingly talk about him without knowing he is in the back seat of the car. The Joker doesn't even care about them insulting him which backs up the point I made earlier about his personality which is that "he doesn't care about himself at all". It also shows that he doesn't want to become known to the public as what he really is. The criminals keep saying things such as "I've heard", "probably" etc. showing that no-one is sure. The fact that it is a topic of conversation also shows that it is on everyone's mind.

Then It cuts to an over the shoulder shot on the roof top where one of the robbers is disabling the security alarms, the other is waiting behind him, he then asks ‘if he has finished’ and once the job is done he slowly raises his arm (non-verbal communication) signalling to the viewer’s he’s going to shoot him in the back. This depicts to the audience these criminals have no remorse, once his usefulness to the operation is finished then they are no longer required and their main goal is a bigger cut of the heist’s money. The lighting is naturalistic because the robbery is happening in ‘broad day light’ showing the criminals aren’t afraid of the police or Batman, perhaps because they feel they’re above the law and the shift in power has made the authoritarians weak and vulnerable. The Joker also has a close call with one of his own men, if you could call them that, when the man almost shoots him. The robber doesn't know that he's the joker as he says "I bet the joker told you to kill me" showing his cluelessness. He then stereotypes by starting to the monologue instead of shooting him. You then hear the voice of the antagonist for the first time which is a strange sounding voice. " no, I kill the bus driver". Everyone watching immediatley then says " what bus driver", along with everyone else the bank robber says "what" and is killed by a bus. This gives the sense that the Joker has a plan about what he's doing as he has set up the robbery. It also gives the sense that the antagonist is making it up as he goes along. According to David .S Goyer he has no motive, no orders and no desires but to cause havoc and “watch the world burn”.