The movie I have chosen to analyze is the Dark Knight. I was looking through the list of AFI’s top 100 movies and I was going to use an older movie like Casablanca or something along those lines but I thought it would be more suitable to analyze a more contemporary film. Being familiar with a movie’s context is key to understanding how to analyze a movie. In terms of genre for the Dark Knight it can be characterized as: action/adventure/drama. However, the specific element I will be looking at is the psychological drama that underlies much of the film.

Scene 1

In this scene the Joker and the Batman are in a fist fight with the Joker having the upper hand in the beginning. Nevertheless, something else is going on that is much more important. For those who have not seen the film, the Joker has placed bombs on two nearby ships that are carrying people out of Gotham city. The first ship has ordinary citizens of Gotham whereas the other has prisoners who have committed crimes. Each ship has the controller to detonate the other ship. If neither the ships passengers decide to detonate the other both will die. What should they do? At first it seems like the passengers from the ordinary citizen’s ship will decide to blow up the other ship. Interesting enough at this part of the scene the Joker has the upper hand on the Batman. As time goes on the person who decided to blow up the other ship decides he cannot do it. At this point the batman shoots the Joker and pushes him off a ledge which will certainly kill the Joker. At the last second the Batman saves the joker by pulling him back up with one of his nifty bat tools.

After reading Ebert’s article I have tried using some of his rules of thumb on movies and it does seem to hold true. For example, in his article he says to note the positioning and angle which the characters of the scene are shot. Usually the one on the right has the position of authority and it is implied him/her has more power than the character on the left. I have already noted that the fight between the joker has a relationship to ship’s fate. It almost seems that the fight is dictated by the ship’s passengers to preserve their own lives or selflessly risk their own lives. The rational versus the irrational. When it seems like the passengers will kill the other ship the Joker has the upper hand and is on the right above batman. However, once the passengers decide to do something that accords with the Batman’s moral philosophy the Batman essentially wins the fight. When he has won the batman is on the right standing up while the Joker is hanging upside down. Something else to note is initially when the Joker is upside down the camera angle is focused and centered saying to the audience that the Joker was wrong and does not understand human nature. Yet, as the Joker begins a sort of monologue explaining his relationship with Batman the camera starts shaking and shifting. I will elaborate more on this using the next scene.

Scene 2

This scene is a lot simpler than the previous scene. In this one the Joker is making a statement of War against the Batman and all those who support him. He captures one of Batman’s more passionate supporters who impersonates him to help those in need. The Joker then kills him off camera but with the audio still easily heard.

Two important film elements in this scene. The first is the Batman not in his superhero outfit watching the news report, furthermore he is positioned on the left looking down on the camera. The left positioning of batman implies some sort of negative effect the video has on him. The most telling fact of this is that the Batman at the time is in the outfit of an ordinary working man. This seems to indicate that the Jokers actions has reduced the invincible symbol of Batman to a mere man. He is just like everyone else in the movie, under the control and manipulation of the Joker. The second is the constant shaking of the film and the positioning of the Joker when he speaking to the audience. Everything about the Joker’s film is distorted in a way. This is representative of the Joker’s worldview, he is crazy. Superficially the Joker is crazy, but sometimes during the film his ideas aren’t so foreign when you consider the context. The Joker’s role is to cause chaos but he doesn’t do it on his own. All he has to do is set the chain of chaos, but in the end it is ordinary citizens who orchestrate the most violence. If the Joker was completely wrong about human nature all of his actions would have null effect. So yes the film angles and shaky video does show us    how crazy the Joker is. But, on a deeper level the shaky video can be interpreted as the audience’s reaction the Jokers philosophy. The Joker’s philosophy shakes the foundation of our worldview and sometimes we have to admit the Joker is not completely crazy.