Chit Chatting Cinema

An on going conversation about films, ideas, and strategies in story telling. 

[chitchattingcinema]

[bliggediblowm]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ)

[chitchattingcinema]

One of the things you do as a writer and as a filmmaker is grasp for resonant symbols and imagery without necessarily fully understanding it yourself.

Chris Nolan

[chitchattingcinema]

“ For me, Batman is the one that can most clearly be taken seriously. He's not from another planet, or filled with radioactive gunk. I mean, Superman is essentially a god, but Batman is more like Hercules: he's a human being, very flawed, and bridges the divide.” -Chris Nolan

[chitchattingcinema]

Parallel to the naturally enthralling boat scene, we have Batman fighting and negotiating a maze of hostages dressed as venomous clowns. This scene we especially find a blurred line between right and wrong because Batman is essentially forced to fight against the people he's working with in order to save the innocent hostages.  This is why Batman is such a great hero, because he is adaptable. Right and wrong are transient, and he at point he found it necessary to protect the threatened. Similar how in the end, letting Harvey Dent die as a hero, whilst lying to the people, was the ultimate right a good thing for the city of Gotham.

[chitchattingcinema]

Contemporary political comments are indubitably made by the grand machine that Wayne cooks up in order to find the Joker by spying on the entirety of  Gotham. This issue is compatible with the United State's NSA having access to millions of people's private lives.  

When Bruce asks Alfred Pennyworth how they caught the bandit in the Burma forest, Pennyworth tells him, “We burned the forest down.” Implying that you have to punish everything else in order to punish those who deserve punishment. This conversation with Pennyworth somehow justifies Batman's making of the machine, who is other wise a wholesome-for the people type hero.

Lucius Fox is reluctant to use the machine, and threatens to hand in his resignation after helping Wayne. This both build Morgan Freeman's character and also makes the comment that this type of technology should only be used with immediate purpose.

[chitchattingcinema]

The high tension ferry scene is also a moral testament of the people of Gotham. On one boat, we have a group of well minded civilians looking to escape the Joker's happenings. On the other boat, we have a group of questionable prisoners who city officials are looking to keep out of the Joker's happenings. Both contain enough gasoline to fuel a small country, and both hold the other boat's detonator. The Joker gives the a half hour to decide and threatens to blow both boats up if each boat does not decide.

[chitchattingcinema]

The Joker in The Dark Knight proposes many ethical dilemmas for the other characters to deal with. With this, we find a blurred line between right and wrong. For example, in the scene where he protects Batman's identity from being revealed,  The Joker gives the city the options of either killing the man who is about to reveal his identity, or the joker will bomb one of Gotham's hospitals.

Not giving into the whims of a terrorist, the city moves the patients of the hospitals and protects the man that threaten to reveal Batman's identity, (who Bruce Wayne directly saves by crashing into an incoming car with his Lamborghini and they make eye contact post-accident). Now this path of action is what philosophy professors would call deontological.  Deontological ethics determine right and wrong from the guidelines of duty. To kill the man to save others would be unethical, as would letting a hospital filled with patients get blown to smithereens. Consequentialism would think it morally acceptable to kill the one man to save hundreds of other lives; that's what makes the story of Batman so exceptional and exciting is that both preferred outcomes are proven to be feasible.

[chitchattingcinema]

Newly elected District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) , has the most dramatic character arc. A rise to power and a fall from grace. It is clear that he doesn't leave things up to chance with his insistent flipping of a two headed coin. But when Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is killed in vain and his face half burned, he becomes less reasonable (especially after the conversation with The Joker in the hospital room).

The two-faced Harvey Dent is sculpted to make comments on modern American politicians. Christopher Nolan stated that he cast Aaron Eckhart as the role because he was both charming, but the murderous rage would be believable.

[chitchattingcinema]

The sadness of Bruce Wayne is that in the public eye, he is a douche bag. He is constantly accused of being ignorant and selfish. He makes an entrance to his own party by helicopter with multiple women on his shoulders. Maybe in this way, he is being what Gotham expects the child of wealthy parents to be, uncaring. This is why the scenes with Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Kane) are essential so Bruce Wayne isn't considered a completely awful person. The opening scene when he is stitching the dog bites on his arms, he says the scars help to remind him of his mistakes so he can learn from them. This is a very vulnerable moment that Bruce Wayne is humanized.

[chitchattingcinema]

Heath Ledger always put his own make up on with his own hands, because  he thought that's what the character would do. The residue from the make-up would also be on his own hands. Chris Nolan said that the influences for the Joker were built off of the character Alex in A Clockwork Orange and some Francis Bacon Paintings.

[chitchattingcinema]

Heath Ledger approached the role of the crazy clown meticulously:

“It’s a combination of reading all the comic books I could that were relevant to the script and then just closing my eyes and meditating on it. I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices — it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath — someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts. He’s just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown.”

[chitchattingcinema]

Heath Ledger died in January 2008 in his Manhattan apartment before The Dark Knight was released later that year in July. The tragic death was caused by combining the consumption of prescribed medication (anxiety, insomnia, pain, and the common cold) with alcohol. 

Some debated that the film should not be shown to the public out of respect, but as Christian Bale put it, “This was not his private work, he did this and it was meant to be seen. It would be insulting not to release the film.”

[chitchattingcinema]

The Joker is Batman's perfect enemy. Batman is reasonable, ethical, fair minded, and consistent. The Joker is his complete antithesis. The Joker is intelligent and adaptable, but wicked and sociopathic. He is a psychological mass murder with no motive. They mirror each other in a fascinating way and it's invigorating to watch them interact.

[chitchattingcinema]

Most of The Dark Knight was shot on location in Chicago.

[chitchattingcinema]

The Dark Knight was shot on film, and Chris Nolan avidly abstains from shooting digitally and in 3-D. Nolan says,  “In any which way you can get a little bit more of a handmade quality into what you're doing, a little more personality into it, I think that helps you really create an atmosphere for the audience. So, one of the reason why I love film is that, as an analog medium, it has a lot of life to it. Even in it's imperfections, it's got a lot of personality to it. And when you get into the realm of  digital imaging, it's inherently a little sterile. Inherently, there's a little bit more of a barrier between what you're trying to do, enriching the audience.”

[chitchattingcinema]

The Dark Knight (2008) is the second segment of Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy. With an estimated $185,000,000 budget, and explosive tale with car chases, heartbreaks, and moral dilemmas, tells the story of characters who are fighting with themselves and fighting with the alternative universe, Gotham. The new district attorney struggles fighting against Gotham's greatest criminals, Batman struggles with the struggles of Gotham and with the necessity of his own ability to help the city. The film is an emotional, philosophical, and cinematic roller coaster that will stand the test of time.