Film noir itself means “black film” or “film of the night”
in French. Usually in film noir movies like Batman,
there are shadows cast upon buildings, alleys, smoke, and misleading scenes
that make you think there will be a happy ending. Batman definitely resembles film noir opening with the dark shadows
in Gotham City. It’s a gritty, dark and foreboding metropolis where corruption
and crime have taken over most of society. The people of Gotham City also seem
to be individually isolated with each other but forced to live in groups that
categorize them as poor people, common folks, thugs, or people of high class
and wealth. With some of the main characters, Bruce Wayne, Vicki Vale, and Jack
Napier, the vigilante, femme fatale, and villain are portrayed throughout them.
Bruce Wayne’s alter ego is dark and full of revenge for what happened to his
parents. Throughout the movie he has a shadow cast upon him, resembling
isolation and that dark side to his thoughts. Vicki Vale comes off as the femme
fatale in the beginning; she is independent, attractive, and daring when asked
to help photograph Batman. Towards the end she looses some of the
characteristics that would describe her a femme fatal because she has a
relationship with Bruce Wayne that wasn’t the outcome of her hypnotizing him
into it or her wanting to have power over him.
Jack Napier also has two sides to his character; he’s the Joker for one,
but masks into a wannabe common person. There’s contrast to his character
because although he creates chaos within Gotham City, he is not necessarily
under dark shadows like Batman but light cast upon him. I think Burton wanted
Napier’s character to stand out because although he’s creating chaos and
whatnot, he is after all THE Joker dressed in bright colors and fixed with a
permanent grin on his face.
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ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Burton uses these shadows to confuse the viewer as too the tone of the scene? as to you said "there are shadows cast upon buildings, alleys, smoke, and misleading scenes that make you think there will be a happy ending" . I agree with how you say that the scenes make the people feel...isolated. I feel as if there so isolated that they cannot get out of that way of life, the life of poverty. It also seems once one is in poverty that they cannot work their way up into high class into a different to the matter that Bruce has two different sides to him. As to some it may seem dark but I believe its dark for all the right reasons. Although it is said he is seeking revenge I believe he does it in the right way. He is helping and protecting those that at is seen as underdogs. His revenge is against those who hurt others an have the intensions to do so . I do disagree as you talk about the female I believe to have hypnotize but I think it just gave him something more to keep going for and not to give up on his mission
ReplyDelete-Olivia Turnage