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Sajjad Razvi

Dr. Rogers

ENGL 102

28th March 2019

Essay 2 Final Draft

The Dark Knight: Masterpiece by Nolan

“We stopped checking for monsters under our bed when we realized they were

inside of us” said Joker as he sought out to terrorize the city of Gotham in the movie

“The Dark Knight”. This movie is an incredible crime thriller as well as a superhero

movie which makes it an instant classic. Director Christophers Nolans' sequel to

“Batman Begins”, starts off with action and suspense. This action-packed movie is not

just about the feud between Batman and Joker but also the White Knight who is

Batman’s adversary and gives us access to the thoughts of each character in the film.

Christopher Nolan utilizes terrific representative story swings to research the

requirement for heroes in our way of life, yet more vitally, legends who can't be

undermined. Simon Cade, a successful filmmaker, says that the elements needed to

make a great film includes the “Character, Sound, Visuals, and storytelling” (Cade). The

Dark Knight definitely delivers on all Cade’s requirements and more (fig 1). The movie

brings amazing thriller and suspenseful scenes that makes us wanting more.
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Fig. 1 (Double click to play video link) what makes a film successful

Nolan did an excellent job of assigning each character with fitting actors. For

example, Heath Ledger who played the role of the Joker initially auditioned to play the

role of Batman. But he was rejected and instead was assigned the role as Joker

because he liked how fearless of an actor he was and that's what the Joker needed.

“Running to play Batman for Batman Begins.” (Gallagher). The Joker played a very big

role along with Batman and that is because he was one of the hardest villains Batman

had to take down. The Joker trusted that he was the leader at causing chaos, and

expected to demonstrate that anybody, particularly Batman, was as prepared to

surrender law and Morality as he had reasonably done. For example, he had robbers

progressively executing each other in the opening scene. He forced Batman to choose

between Harvey Dent and his girlfriend, Rachel. He also paid Harvey an unpleasant

visit, while he was in the hospital room and turned his frustration from what the Joker

had done to him, to the arbitrariness of life, transforming Harvey into Two-Face. The

Joker needed to approve himself by hauling or demonstrating everybody could be

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brought down to his dimension and was quite

effective at it. Indeed, even toward the end, the

Joker urged Batman to let out his anger and

drop him from the rooftop. The rigorous process

for Heath Ledger becoming the Joker took lots

of hard work and time. He locked himself in a

Fig. 2. The Jokers makeup looks natural detailed
hotel room for six weeks, reading any comic

that featured Joker, and that is where he was able to achieve such a psychotic smile

and attitude of Joker (Anwar). He also did his own makeup which not many actors do

themselves (fig 2).

Not only do characters make a film great, but visuals also make the film come

together. Visuals are anything that cannot be created in real life and is shot outside of

the camera. Nolan stated that “When you're dealing with an anarchist, somebody who is

dedicated to chaos, the most visceral way of representing that is an explosion.” (Miller).

Without some visuals, this movie would not be as successful as it is. The greatest

example of this in the movies was of Harvey Dent. Dent was the White Knight and no

one would've ever guessed that a hero like him would turn to the dark side with the

Joker. After Harvey was kidnapped by the Joker’s men, Batman could only save one

person and he chooses Harvey but in the midst of this he was injured from oil and half

of his face was burned off (fig 3). The only way to achieve these details were through

precise and expensive equipment of CGI. Many of us tend to listen through our ears

and without these effects we would not be able to interpret the movie in the way Nolan

wanted us to. Another scene that needed these effects was when the Joker had all the
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mobs in Gotham city’s money piled up and burnt to show that money doesn't matter to

him and his purpose is to show how corrupt everyone is in their own ways and it’s not

hard to bring them down. As shown he is burning all the money and has no use of it

while the mob is feeling uncomfortable about that and want him killed (fig 4).

Fig 3. Half of Dents face was burned Fig 4. Joker burns the mob’s money

Lastly, the sound/music is the most important part of films created by Nolan.

Without authoritative and suspenseful sound effects scattered throughout the movie, it

would fail because it would lose its glory. The music used throughout the Batman

movies keeps all of your attention to a film because of how many sound effects are

shown. Music and the sound effects are able to establish the mood and evoke feelings

in whoever is watching it, like sadness, and/or anger. “The goal of sound design is to

use sound to create feeling, to give inanimate objects an emotional component.” (King).

Some occur during suspenseful scenes as well as ones that give us hope even though

circumstances might not be so well. The music and sounds make the action even more

alive (fig 5). A great example in the movie that stood out the most was near the end,

where Batman was able to make Harvey Dent look like he was martyred. He blames the

death of Harvey on himself so no one can say that the Joker had won, and how Joker
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was able to turn the White Knight into something so dark and evil. The city is hunting

him down and it seems like this is the end of Batman but we all knew he would be back

when Gotham truly needed him again. This scene creates a sense of fear for Batman

and his safety, but also a sense of hope that he will come back to save Gotham again.

Fig. 5 The Dark Knight’s music throughout the movie

I have abided by CCBC’s academic honor code on this assignment, and I attest that I

have neither cheated in any way nor have I failed to give proper credit to all other

sources of ideas and materials.

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Works Cited

“Inside 'The Dark Knight'.” Edited by Gerri Miller, HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 16

July 2008,

https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/dark-knight2.htm.

Cade, Simon. “The Elements of a Great Film.” DSLRguide, 7 Dec. 2015,

https://dslrguide.tv/the-elements-of-a-great-film/.

Anwar, Shaheera. “5 Unknown Facts about Heath Ledger's Joker.” The Express

Tribune, 23 Jan. 2018,

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1616036/4-5-unknown-facts-heath-ledgers-joker/.

Gallagher, Simon. “The Dark Truth Behind Heath Ledger's Joker.” WhatCulture.com,

WhatCulture.com, 6 Apr. 2019,

https://whatculture.com/film/the-dark-truth-behind-heath-ledgers-

joker?rf=homepage.

King, Richard. “Bat-Sounds.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 4 Feb. 2009,

www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-feb-04-en-lightsknight4-story.html.

Xman77c, director. The Dark Knight. YouTube, YouTube, 23 Mar. 2012,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=94TAFSMdkvk.