Allen - Femme Fa-mistake

In the film “Batman” Tim Burton shows the obvious use of the film noir techniques. He has ominous darkness, distorted views and femme fatales.

                All throughout the movie you can see the urban landscape of that time. Along with that modern architecture you see the exaggerated use of light and darkness. The light and dark areas in scenes can be used to get the audience to focus to a certain area in the scene; however it can also be used to identify the good characters versus the bad. A good example of this technique is shown when the family is mugged in the opening scene in the alley. The family is pointed out by the light while the thug is shadowed on the side of the wall. Showing the family’s innocence and the thugs evil intent. Along with his use of light and dark Burton also is able to portray the feeling of claustrophobia in the movie. He does this by over crowding the streets with chaos and mess. The sharp focus and wide angle gives the viewer unsettled feelings and makes them feel uncomfortable. Nothing is as it seems in other words.

                One concept of film noir I feel Burton undermined and could have done much better was the use of femme fatale. It is as though he aimed in the right direction but someone missed the target a bit. In the reading femme fatales are described as dangerous, seductive and sirens who’s every action was aimed at satisfying a desire for wealth and power. He gave us the glamorous control role of Vicki Vale but she was not the slight bit of evil. As she sat at the desk of Alexander Knox it made me anxious to find out if she was some type of evil woman villain, but she was just a regular woman who wanted a bit of fame but fell for the dashing guy. If you had to label her in this movie Vicki Vale was a Damsel in Distress.  At every mini climax she stumbled into Batman was there to save her. On the other hand the reading also describes femme fatales as women who were restored to their inferior roles as domesticated and see their error of competing with a man. This is sort of true to the story. After the death of the joker and the acceptance of Batman as Gotham’s Vigilante Super Hero, Vale gave up her career as a photographer to go live with Batman. She must now wait on Batman to do his duties and come home to her as most homemakers do, without the marriage.