Peeney- Batman

Tim Burton created the movie Batman in a “Film Noir” style. Before even knowing what Film Noir is you see what translates to be “Black Film”. Which would imply that the movie is going to be dark, which is not surprising for a Tim Burton movie.

The first element of Film Noir that Burton uses is dark shadowy lighting. Most of the scenes are darkly lit and the only pop of color you see through the film is The Joker. Another Film Noir element shown is the use of a large modern city. Gotham City was shown as a scary place to live with not much going for it. Gotham City had poverty, crime, it was unclean, and the government figures were only focusing on themselves and their money.

The Joker was the conflicted anti-hero. He already had a rough past and suffered from some mental ailments so at a young age he started building up a criminal record. The government officials betrayed him. That ultimately leads to his death. His first death was not Batman’s fault. Batman didn’t throw him in the vat of waste he could hold on so he fell off.  After a horrific incident he is after revenge and starts loosing his mind too. So he spends the rest of the film being a “Homicide Artist”.

Vicky is the stereotypical femme fatale. She is a beautiful woman who is after money and power. So of course she starts dating super rich Bruce Wayne. She is also fascinated by the Batman and is very driven and persistent in her work of covering the story of Batman. She is also very intelligent and is very brave when The Joker is trying to win her affection in his weird, twisted way.  But this femme fatale is not the complete stereotype because in the end Vicki does not save the day but her boyfriend Bruce Wayne better known as Batman does.

The last element of Film Noir I’m going to discuss is the use of violence in the movie.  In the movie Batman there is a lot of death and killing and it usually is violent. But at only one point is it especially gory and that is when the joker kills the man in the board room. But the biggest murder in the movie is by gas which isn’t violent so that is off the line of Film Noir.