Butler - Film Noir

Film noir is a very interesting and compelling genre one can use to create a movie. Film noir creates a mood in which one feels off-balance and claustrophobic. Other major characteristics of film noir include a femme fatale, a modern and dark urban landscape, and a conflicted anti-hero. In order to create features, a director must use depth of field, sharp focus, and chiaroscuro with the lighting to create this off kilter view of the world for the audience. Tim Burton is highly successful in creating this view with his version of Gotham.

Gotham is shown to be a very dark place filled with crime and corruption. The troubled city is greatly in need of a hero; however the hero Gotham receives is not the typical knight in shining armor one thinks of when they hear the word “hero.” Gotham’s hero comes in the form of the anti-hero of Batman, a mentally troubled man with a dark past. Bruce Wayne’s mental problems stem from watching Jack Napier murder his parents as a child. This traumatic moment haunts Bruce’s life, leading him to become Batman in his adult life. By becoming Batman, Bruce is able to keep Gotham safe, despite the citizens of the city not realizing that Batman’s vigilante techniques are actually for the good of the city.

Burton also does a great job of visually displaying Gotham as a dark and gritty city. Burton uses chiaroscuro in a very stylized and symbolic manner in order to properly display the darks and lights of a shot. Burton is very smart with his shots, making the darkness found in the shadows of a shot represent evil, and by contrast, Burton places the good and moral in the light portions of the shot. By doing this, Burton creates a clear distinction of what is good and what is evil in Gotham. The only exceptions to this clear distinction are Batman and the Joker. Batman is displayed as being very dark with his black suit of armor due to Bruce’s mental and neurotic state of mind of wanting to avenge his parents’ murder. This impure thought creates dark side for Batman, leading him to also be visually dark. As for the Joker, the citizens of Gotham see the Joker as good when he puts on the human makeup to look like Jack Napier. As Jack Napier, he offers free money to the citizens of Gotham, causing the Joker and Jack Napier to visually have a light and bright costume.

 

Despite pulling off these other aspects of film noir, Burton did not choose to include the archetype of femme fatale in the movie. Instead, Burton uses the archetype of damsel in distress, and this archetype is shown through the character of Vicki Vale. Vicki is neither mysterious nor scheming, two major aspects of a femme fatale. In addition to that, Vicki does not lead Bruce into any compromising or deadly situations on purpose. Rather, Vicki is placed in danger by the Joker and is in desperate need of saving from Batman. The archetype of femme fatale is a major aspect of film noir, and without this archetype, Burton is truly undermining the film noir genre in Batman.