Analysis of the dark knight film

What is the relationship between a villain and their respective hero? Are the qualities of heroism and villainy completely oppositional? How does the movie's intended goal/message/perspective for the audience affect the portrayal of the villain?

Contents

Relationship between the villain and the hero. 1

Background of Bruce Wayne in the story: 1

Constructing the Joker and the relationship with Batman. 2

Are the qualities of heroism and villainy completely oppositional?. 3

Contrast and complement 3

How does the movie's intended goal/message/perspective for the audience affect the portrayal of the villain?  4

Side characters: 5

Christopher Nolan’s “The dark knight” (2008) is the sequel to the movie Batman Begins (2005) where a moral instructed vigilante protects the city from criminals, the take on the film intends to play a darker and realistic version of the superhero Batman where the focus is centralized around the construction of characters with human-like decisions and ambitions. Starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, the movie plays out as an atypical superhero movie where both the villain played by Heath Ledger and the hero portray a complementing role that develops the audience’s perception on the true values of each of the characters; the picture creates an atmosphere of tragedy, terror, and suspense using tension, mystery, and action scenes, while remaining true to the clear purposes of the characters involved in the story. “Batman the dark knight” represents a magnifying glass on reasons and emotions, morality and freedom, individual responsibility under the collective social systems.

Relationship between the villain and the hero

Background of Bruce Wayne in the story:

The protagonist and hero of the movie is named Bruce Wayne, a wealthy businessman that witnessed the demise of his parents by the hands of the criminals of Gotham city; followed by the tragedy of the event he witnessed as a child, he is determined to follow a journey to purge the city from the criminals that generate chaos and crime. The Batman is characterized by his pure ambition to act as a vigilante with a strict moral code, batman acts with fixed principles guided by his lust for revenge and the desire to prevent the same harm he experienced on other people, he is a character designed to generate empathy with the audience as he holds honest ethically based interactions with the characters of the film. The counterpart of the movie is played “the joker” a funny, psycho, egocentric, crazy, brilliant character with a mysterious background that holds the plot of the movie by unleashing mayhem through the streets of Gotham; the portrayal of the villain in this movie intends to play an anarchist role with an aura of fear, comedy and tragedy, the joker intentions are chaotic and intend to demonstrate the harsh and sad conditions that some people are exposed to which guide them to insanity. Both main characters develop the story and create tension because of the contrast in their ambitions, they both generate an impact over the city and create a constant cycle which feedback is given by each other’s actions.

Wayne understands that what the citizens of Gotham need is hope, that is what Batman represents, a change; and beyond enforcing the law or fighting criminals, what he wants to do is inspire hope. His anonymity through the mask represents that anyone can fight and assert their rights, any citizen can be a Batman, but only if their fight remains within the law.

Batman, the "alter ego" of Bruce Wayne, finds his independence as a character in a series of values, which beyond acting based on them, the real importance lies in the struggle to never break any of these moral precepts. In this sense, it could be said that Batman is the "dehumanized" part of Bruce, he is the incarnation of utopia as a citizen.

There are 2 scenes that completely describe this ideology behind Bruce Wayne.

• When the Joker crosses himself for Batman to run him over with his motorcycle but Batman prefers to fall to evade him.
• When Batman does not let the Joker fall into the void after their last confrontation.

Constructing the Joker and the relationship with Batman

The relationship between the villain and the respective hero comes to the ambition, determination, and persuasion to achieve a goal based on the traits of the character, the actions of their counterpart, and their respective background stories; the villain is mainly composed by a non sympathetic figure that intends to create harm upon someone or achieve something that is being desired with the use of dishonest resources, on the counterpart the hero seeks to bring equilibrium by stopping the villain because of the encountered contrast on the ideals of the hero, this creates tension and a dynamic fight between the two of them to achieve the goals and ideals that each character holds. Although each of them has a constructed background for their actions, the contrast on their ideals generates a relationship that influences the decisions that both the hero and the villain are going to take during the plot. Batman and the joker are closely related by being ambitious people who are trying to seek objectives based on their moral code, the acting force is endorsed by the actions being taken between one and other because of the repulsion of the ideas between them, batman is constantly seeking to prevent people from the same suffering he had when he was a kid while the joker is trying to make people have this harm because of how he wants to make everyone realize that evil is a construction based on how society works, this tension generates ambition between the two characters and generates the call for action for them to achieve the goals that they are seeking. During several scenes this gets better exemplified and generates a better visualization of the intentions of the characters constructing a background behind them; the opening of the film pictures a bank robbery where every single robber intends, because of a series of instructions given from the joker, to kill one of their own to obtain a bigger reward for completing the robbery, the surprise comes when the last unmasked person ends up being the joker who ends up driving a school bus to escape from the crime scene, this scene highlights from the start how the joker is committed to risk his life to execute his plans and how he utilizes people and resources despite the possible consequences with the pure intention to obtain his expected vision. This scene conceptualizes de joker as a strategic planner with high ambitions to generate what he seeks using bad solutions to complex problems; the audience is still not exposed to his true intentions but is given a taste of the personality and general visualization of the Joker. Sometime later, Bruce Wayne interrupted a reunion of criminals which were being assaulted by “fake-batman”, after stopping the fight and capturing the criminals he ends up wounded causing him to design a new suit that allows him to have higher agility; the film gives the character of batman the property of being a planner and a considerate person, he seeks his vision by planning (just like the joker) and looks after his society by guiding them towards a greater good. In these first scenes the personalities of the characters and the reasons for their actions are already developed giving the audience the capacity to judge and affiliate to the characters.

Throughout the film the joker gives different background stories that keep people from knowing the absolute true about the character, assigning a level of mystery behind the character and giving him fearsome qualities on its personality.

Are the qualities of heroism and villainy completely oppositional?

The qualities that surround the villain and the hero are mainly oppositional when it comes to a moral code, Batman and the Joker clearly differ on the main purpose of their intentions on people, but there are certain traits that construct both the villain and the hero in the same manner, Batman and the Joker are constructed upon a critical factor that influenced their decisions on taking that moral role, the background is constructed upon critical events that generated the personality of the character and influenced its decisions to make the actions they seek, the event on Bruce being the demise of his parents and the event of Joker being the existence of batman and his mysterious and varying background story.

Contrast and complement

Heroism and villainy act as a complementing force which morals are oppositional; as the movie plays out, the villain of the story seeks chaos through a one-dimensional sight of the moral code that surrounds the decisions of people, the joker’s sight on the virtues of people consists of the restrictions that the world impose on a person to be good, he intends to prove his point by generating a conflict on the ideals that the protagonist has and by cultivating this idea on people with high influence such as Harvey Dent, by creating scenarios that drive insanity into Harvey, he is able to convince him into believing that people and  how society works cause an environment of chaos, Batman is a character whose intentions and actions appeal the average person moral construct; his actions are restricted with his values and his intentions remain pure to his will. Even though the Joker is trying to prove a point on a harsh perspective of society, the proposed solutions are highly contrasted on what the audience is expecting generating a tension ambience in the plot.

Batman’s decisions are heavily influenced by the actions of the joker and vice versa, the antagonist of the movie gives direction to the measures that batman must take to complete his main objective of protecting the city, ironically this same objective is what motivates the decisions from joker as he is seeking to create chaos. This tension is constant through the plot of the movie creating scenarios were the villain and the hero are trying to take control by manipulating people into the actions they consider are best for their objective.

The joker wants to corrupt people into having the same perspective of the world as him, Harvey Dent is exposed to this influence, Gordon is exposed to this influence and Batman is also exposed to this influence. Batman on several occasions is facing a dilemma on killing the joker but is stopped by his moral code that denies him from performing the same harm that someone did to his parents, this moral decision creates conflict as the story goes on because satisfies the need of the audience of having a coherent character that affiliates to his beliefs and constantly fights for them, even if the fight demands sacrifices, the audience is pleased by experiencing the generated tension because of the hard decisions that the protagonist has to take, because he didn’t kill the Joker, Harvey and Rachel got captured causing the generation of a new villain “two faces”

Another common factor between the Joker and Batman is the common visualization of their own superiority; This sense of superiority is found in Batman, who, feeling that he is the only absolutely incorruptible person, can keep acting outside the law, since he believes that he is more effectively fulfilling what the law itself should be fulfilling and found in the joker as he is the person who has been enlightened  and can prove everyone that all people on the world can be corrupted.

How does the movie's intended goal/message/perspective for the audience affect the portrayal of the villain?

Batman is a character whose intentions and actions appeal the average person moral construct: his actions are restricted with his values and his intentions remain pure to his will, this generation of sympathy by giving the audience admirable traits allows them to affiliate to the ideas of the protagonist. The Joker argues that people act on principle only depending on the circumstances, as emotions such as fear or temptation for greater gain are usually the reasons why citizens break their own morality. This creates a motion on the audience on giving a though on the actual problems that surround society. The construction of the joker is intended to generate a feeling of confusion, anger, and disgust from the audience by showing a problem that society faces and portraying with a chaotic solution that the villain intends to achieve, the combination of the disgust on the solution offered by the antagonist to a big problem and the opposition of values given to a respected figure (Bruce Wayne) generate a feeling of repulsion towards the antagonist. The audience expects a climax and a buildup of it, the generation of opposite traits on the Joker involving mayhem, destruction, and dehumanization please the desire of a constantly generated tension.  Different scenes of the film portray this effect on people such as the 2 boats scene, the hospital scene, and the Harvey Dent gets captured with Rachel Dawes scene. On these scenes, the antagonist intends to demonstrate his point and intends to generate an impact on the audience by showing how people can become genuinely bad when exposed to harsh situations, but because of how extreme his solutions and his points are the audience creates a sentiment of disgust towards the situation and desire batman to solve the situation by capturing the joker.

The perception of the audience on the main antagonist is also affected by the indirect actions that the antagonist does; the political figure Harvey Dent was corrupted by the mayhem generated by the joker as he intended, an objective of the antagonist was satisfied generating a feeling of anguish on the audience, even though the joker was not directly responsible on the capture of the family of Gordon, the impact was directed on him because of the influence he had over the decisions made by Harvey, this construction of hate by generating unpleasant situations to the audience helps to create interest and a bigger affiliation towards the protagonist Bruce Wayne

There are different phrases that complement the idea that the joker has its purposes and are being used to generate an impact over the audience perception of the antagonist:

• "All you care about is money, this city deserves a better criminal of a higher order."
• "Money is the least of it, what matters is sending a message." That message being the truth he professes and intends to prove.
• "When the chips are down, these civilized individuals will kill each other." Stating that when circumstances are very hard, they will act against even the most primordial and essential moral precept, respect for life.

The joker is constructed in the film as a person who intends to create mayhem because he tries to prove his ideals. He is constructed in this way because Cristopher Nolan wanted to portray the true essence of the character joker with his pure intentions of showing his point to people and generating an impact over the audience for them to appreciate more the existence of the main character Bruce Wayne.

Side characters:

Other side characters support Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth works as a reinforcing acting force of the will of Bruce Wayne, he constantly endorses and supports the actions he considers best for his master working as a guide to the main goals that the protagonist holds, Gordon and Lucius Fox act as similar figures endorsing his behavior by providing him with either equipment or information to complete his tasks towards his goals.