Bogle, Devin - Film Noir, oui ou non?

 

   Tim Burton's, "Batman", uses many techniques known to be from the style of film noir. The use of these techniques creates the mood of the characters, the city of Gotham, and the whole movie itself. Burton does stray away from some of the cliché film noir characteristics in certain aspects, but this is done for specific reasons.

     One of the most prominent techniques that Burton uses from film noir is the use of dark versus light, and the use of shadows. The cinematography through the film is mostly monochromatic. Most film noir films have darkness meaning a foreboding evil, and white signifying pure and good. Burton strays from this. Batman wears all black, while the Joker paints his face white, and wears bright colors. Burton uses this to show that although Batman is doing good, he also has a dark side to him. This dark side to Bruce Wayne comes from the witnessing of his parents' death. Bruce Wayne is never the same after the murder, this is a psychological wound which creates Batman. This character development which Burton purposely makes a point of using, shows Bruce Wayne as a conflicted hero. 

    The conflicted hero is another film noir characteristic. The character of the conflicted hero is generally a single man, who has been psychologically wounded in his past, and has his own sense of morals. The event in which psychologically wounded the hero acts as a motivational tool for him to fight evil. Bruce Wayne is the perfect conflicted hero. The witnessing of the murder of his parents made him "the Batman". The wound of seeing his parent's shot in front of his eyes turns into a motivational tool for him to fight crime and evil in Gotham. Wayne uses moral relativism as opposed to moral absolutism, he does not believe in set morals, but instead, morals depending on situations. Burton shows this throughout the movie. Batman obviously does not believe in murder, but he does believe it is okay to kill someone in self defense or if it is for the good for Gotham. This is shown in the beginning when he is fighting Jack, he believes he has killed him. He does not remorse about this supposed killing at all. Later it is shown that Jack in fact did not die. Instead he became disfigured, and took the character of the Joker. Through the film the Joker reigns as the head of crime and evil throughout Gotham. In the ending scene the Joker kidnaps Vicki Vale and forces her to dance with him at the top of the Church's clock tower.

     This scene shows the short usage of the "femme fatale" character often seen in film noir. Through the film, Miss Vale is shown as a damsel in distress. In this scene Vicki shows some femme fatale characteristics towards the Joker. He is dancing with her, and at first she is obviously disgusted and uncomfortable. Then she realizes that Batman is there, and that she must somehow distract the Joker. She does this by kissing his neck, and sexualizing herself. She seduces the Joker, and gets him off task. This helps Batman so he can come to the rescue. This is another time that Burton uses a film noir characteristic in order to show that there are many characteristics in people. 

     Burton uses the story of "Batman" to show his own beliefs about people. He believes that no person is one character, but a person has many split sides and split personalities. This is why Burton uses film noir characteristics in some ways and doesn't in others.