Seals- Batman Noir- World of Illusion

There are many aspects to film Noir that Tim Burton uses perfectly while also putting on his own twists for Batman.  Noir films include an isolated dark feel to modern cities, conflicted anti-heroes, a claustrophobic feel to the world, and glamorous yet dangerous women.   Burton’s Gotham can be the epitome of a noir city but he plays around with certain techniques such as the lighting to undermine the usual noir light and dark oppositions.   The use of sets creates a very isolated feel for the setting, almost too isolated due to the slick camera angles, but Burton doesn’t oppose the lights and darks much.  Gotham is a grey city covered in  grey clouds and fog.  The city floors are covered in trash, everyone is walking around sluggishly, and the mood just comes off as depressing.  However, once again, Burton did perfectly on the isolation aspect.  Gotham looks like a planet of its own from a birds eye view, just like in The Dark Knight.  The use of sets definitely falls into place because each scene felt like its own little world- even the Parade scene.  There were buildings everywhere but didn’t even seem like people on the streets had the freedom to go into the buildings or leave the street they were on.   The mood was dark in the daytime, and a nightmare at night.    

            Femme fatales are huge part of film noir as well.   Vicki Vale’s relationship with Bruce is and isn’t the typical femme fatale though.  She has independence, passion for her work, longing for power, and a lot of beauty.  However, she isn’t full of lies and schemes to tangle up Bruce with.  She is attracted to his power and wealth, has her little secrets like when she follows him around the city to examine him, and expresses her sexual freedom with him, but Bruce is definitely not completely weak and incapable of heroism around her.  Vicki Vale was certainly not a female menace too.   Tim Burton’s Batman was certainly film noir, but techniques were definitely tweaked to make a more corrupted and dark world.