Movie Analysis For La La Land

La la land~a study of ambitions and wishes

La La Land is the latest masterpiece ever put on cinemas which will no doubt be the one of the best films of 2016. Brought to life by the young, aspiring and talented Damien Chazelle, La La Land will be regarded as his best work since Whiplash. The film also won many awards and nominations at the 90th Academy Awards, bringing home six oscar trophies as a result. On the surface, La La Land is a feel-good christmas movie that studies the ideologies of ambitions and wishes. Ambitions and wishes are the key aspect for what makes the film so terrific. Chazelle's films have used mostly ambitions as the motif for his films. In Whiplash, how far would someone go to achieve their dreams? What is the cost for practicing and practicing until their hands bleed until they perfect it? Whereas in La La Land, we see our protagonists struggle to bring their dreams to reality. Dreams are what gives our protagonists, Mia and Sebastian meaning in the lives. It drives them to make their visions of their world come true, the question is how will they be able to realise it? What is the cost of realising your own dreams until they become reality?

Dreams vs Reality

La La Land portrays what do people usually dream of through its musical numbers. Take the opening scene in La La Land where everyone seems to be stuck in a traffic jam. It shows the audience how mundane and stressful for these people to be stuck in a jam knowing that they will be late for work, rushing to get to somewhere, and whatever their reasons are etc. You can even hear the monotonous sounds of cars honking that are bleeding your ears dry. Until..

The opening of La La Land perfectly captures the essence of what our dreams should be like. Dreams are colourful, crazy, fun, whimsy and basically where you want to go to escape from reality. In a busy road full of cars, what was supposed to be mundane suddenly becomes magical and fun as everyone comes out from their cars to just have a good time. Everyone wants nothing but the best for themselves, they wanna live a good life, get married, have kids and make their families proud. Nobody wants to struggle and live a mundane life which is what their reality tends to portray, a black and white reality check given to those people who are stuck in their fantasy. 

In a fantasy, everyone is having fun dancing on the freeway instead of getting into their lives. In reality, everyone is struggling with their lives because they can't seem to score a good break. Back on the freeway after the musical number ends, we cut to Mia who is constantly failing in several auditions and trying to practice her lines while stuck in the traffic jam. We later cut to Sebastian who is upset at Mia for not moving her car in the traffic. Besides that scene, we have another musical number which is involving Mia and her friends going to a party together. The shots for this scene are so colourful and fantastic. Director Damien Chazelle clearly is a master at shifting the mood, tone and the colour palette for this film. However, after the musical number ends, we then to shift to having Mia's car being taken away as a result of illegal parking. This scene where Mia is forced to walk home clearly demonstrates the effect of getting a reality check. Reality is often disappointing and sometimes too bleak to live in, parents especially try to keep their children away from reality in fear of disappointing them, sometimes when we have overly high hopes for life, it can destroy us because we never really get what we always wanted in life. That is how life operates, they keep you in a dream-like state when young which by the time you are older, life beats you down and sucks you dry to realise the obstacles you need to go through before your dream comes true.

Ambitions vs Wishes

Mia aspires to become a successful actress whereas Sebastian's ambition is to make his own music and start a club. Their ambitions ultimately are the main reasons why fate brought them together which is to help realise their ambitions together. After several failed auditions, Sebastians encourages Mia to write her own play and Sebastian begins working in a new Jazz club where he regularly plays music. However, their ambitions to become who they truly want to be ultimately strains their relationship. Mia and Sebastian eventually get caught up in their dreams until they didn't have enough time to spend with one another. Sebastian's former classmate invites him to join his Jazz Fusion band but plays a pop style that does not suit him. Despite that, he reluctantly signs the contract to join the band after overhearing Mia trying to convince her mother that Seb is trying his best in his career.

While he finds success, Mia is still struggling with her play as it did not really turn out that well during its release. They argue which Mia believes that Sebastian is giving up on his dream whereas Seb believes that Mia likes him more when he was poor. Their relationship begins to fall apart as a result of putting their time and devotion more into their careers and less focus on their relationship. During the ending of the film, La La Land's emotional weight is at its peak as we witness Sebastian and Mia have fully achieved their dreams but are unable to have each other. Despite their success, they constantly have doubts which is beautifully portrayed through a dreamlike-state where Mia and Seb abandoned their dreams to be with one another. It is sad to see that they have to give something up for the other to thrive but that is how life really works, life never shys away from being cruel to you. If you have a dream and wish to protect it no matter the cost or you want to abandon that dream for something else, it is your choice that will you bring you your happiness. Dreams will not come to life if it stays a dream, wishes never truly satisfy us but will only bring suffering, it is how we choose to live our dream that makes the cost worth our time.

Thank You

Movie Analysis for The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises ~ A Poetic and Explosive End 

"A hero can be anyone"- Batman

The Dark Knight Rises is the epic conclusion of The Dark Knight Trilogy and is the sequel to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Set eight years following the death of Harvey Dent, Gotham City is living in a time of peace and prosperity following the implementation of The Dent Act. Crime has disappeared from the streets of Gotham City and Batman has retired from fighting crime. However, their peace will be disrupted by a new enemy from the past, who is planning to overthrow the city's social order and ignite a revolution that will create economic instability. 

Today I will be reviewing The Dark Knight Rises in order to understand its flaws and its strengths. I believe that it is one of Christopher Nolan's greatest films ever made that features comic book characters in a realistic way. We understand that each installment in the trilogy always brings something fresh to the table without changing the characters for who we have come to know and love.

"Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now, so we'll hunt him. Because he can take it, because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a Dark Knight"

The Villain

"No one cared who I was until I put on the mask."

Batman: Knightfall

In the comics, Bane as a villain is not that interesting. He is somewhat just a hulking brute that has no personality and a one-dimensional recurring villain in the comics. He later received favourable attention in one of the comic storylines, Batman: Knightfall where he systematically cripples the Dark Knight physically and mentally before breaking his back. This is what enticed Christopher Nolan to making Bane as the main villain for The Dark Knight Rises because Batman has never been challenged physically in the previous installments. Bane is the perfect villain to challenge the Dark Knight with the brains of a master tactician and the brawn of a hulk, this is someone most men should be terrified of if they ever faced someone this powerful.

In this film, the character has more substance and a much more frightening stature compared to his comic book counterpart. This which is due to Tom Hardy's impressive performance with Nolan and his creative team. They managed to humanise this monster and I was convinced that Tom Hardy has disappeared into the role of Bane. If you look closely at Bane, he shares an exact similarities between him and Batman. Both were trained under the league of Shadows but in different times. Both are were highly trained and are considered by Ra's al Ghul to be his best students. However, Bane lacks compassion for his enemies and is willing to brutalize and torture them before delivering the killing blow, something which Batman will never do. Batman and Bane are also fighting for the same goal which is injustice. Batman believes he can set an example of how to defeat injustice in Gotham's citizens by giving them hope. Bane, however, believes that injustice must be exterminated by destroying Gotham causing conflict between the two. Bane also has a love interest which is revealed to be Miranda Tate, AKA Talia al Ghul but is unable to spend time with due to his mutilated condition from protecting Talia, hence causing him to rely on an analgesic mask to relieve his pain. 

The pit

Bane at the Gotham Stock Exchange

Bane is seen as Ra's al Ghul's successor whom will carry out his master's plan to destroy Gotham by slowly bringing out the worst in its people. The reason why Bane is an effective villain was his belief in fighting injustice. Just like his master, he believes Gotham is beyond saving and needs to be cleansed starting by toppling its social order, destroying the tunnels and bridges to prevent escapees and blowing up Gotham city to hell with a neutron bomb, completing his plan. Despite having an elaborate plan, he is less threatening than The Joker. While they share the same vision of how Gotham should be, The Joker will forever be the superior villain because The Joker has no principles and is unhinged.  The Joker is exceptionally good at attacking Batman's weakness and he does this by taking away everything he held so dearly. Bane, on the other hand, still has some compassion left within him and is not considered to as twisted as The Joker. Despite being a slight letdown for some fans, Bane is still a solid menace that could kick the shit out of Batman without much effort.

Story and Themes

"A hero can be anybody. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring by putting a coat

on a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hasn't ended"

-Batman to Gordon

"Come with me you don't need these people anymore. You've given them everything", urged Catwoman

"Not everything, not yet", Batman responds

The story for The Dark Knight Rises is very intricate and more complex compared to its predecessor. Instead of facing off a random thug with clown makeup and goons, Batman has to face an entire guerilla army that is trained to destroy whatever that stands in their way of destroying his city. With a superbrute as their leader, they are able to get through and respond with ease before Batman or the authorities could react to do anything to stand against this terrifying army. I have to give praise for Nolan in portraying a man who has made the ultimate sacrifice for the future of Gotham but at the same time, costs him his legacy and the guilt of being Batman. In reality, we cannot save everyone despite being a superhero. We are bound to be surrounded by our enemies who will be quick to learn our strengths and exploit our weaknesses to ensure that their goal is secured. Because of the choice to become Batman and to save his city, he loses the woman he loves Rachel Dawes. This is great storytelling because Nolan manages to make us care about the character more than in the previous films. This is a story about a man who feels as if his purpose has been achieved and feels like an empty shell, waiting for something to happen.

Certain key events escalate as Bruce soon realises that Gotham is no longer the utopia it was. Gotham has fallen into vanity and corruption because they took Batman for granted and has been living in a lie that Harvey Dent is Gotham's true hero. However, Bruce is in no shape to fight and has been living in repressed guilt and sadness. Physically and mentally, he is no match for Bane and is crippled after the brutal fight. In total despair, he watches as Bane picks apart the city he loves so much to pieces while he is stuck in The Pit. Bruce realises that he cannot just rest and watch but must regain that hope that was seemingly lost in him. Bruce is essentially finding himself in this film and has to take the leap of faith. He succeeds, beginning his new journey of becoming Batman again.

"Ah yes, I was wondering what would break first, your spirit or your body"

-Bane gloats as he cripples Batman

breaking the bat

The recurring theme in The Dark Knight Rises is escalation. Gotham's citizens are weak and are susceptible to vanity following the implementation of The Dent Act. In times of crisis, they will listen to anyone who is willing to help which will lead to their destruction. After conquering the city, Bane overthrows all figures of authority and allows the people to do as freely as they wish, he also damages the infrastructure with bombs. This causes social imbalance within the city as the wealthy and powerful have been dragged from their homes because Bane never had any respect for the rich and believes they are the reason why corruption still exists. Bane takes his plan to the extreme by allegedly revealing the truth behind Harvey Dent's legacy, tarnishing The Dent Act and freeing every convict from Arkham to take back their streets. I personally found this theme of escalation realistic because a scenario portrayed in a comic book film which made me tremble as I watch.

Another theme portrayed in the film is terrorism and social order. In times where the social order collapses and there is nothing we can do about it but to live in fear. Bane upsets the established order and forces everyone to eat each other in order to survive. This is a scenario that could happen in the future. That is why we have to be careful who we believe, we cannot simply believe in someone just because they are influential in terms of speaking. Their ACTIONS speak LOUDER than words just by creating anarchy and chaos.

Lastly, anyone can be a hero. Batman is not limited to one person because his legacy will continue to live on as long as the people will continue to believe in him and help each other once in a while. This theme shines when Batman sacrifices himself to prevent the neutron bomb from destroying Gotham. Nobody remembers who their saviour was, only the Batman, no name and no face. This will be a shining moment for everyone who aspires to be a hero to their loved ones.

Cast

Obviously, the acting performances are one of the film's strongest assets. Christian Bale is given the opportunity to be more expressive as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He feels much more like a real person undergoing a traumatic experience. He is sombre, sad, stoic and inspiring to watch as we see how he processes his guilt and eventually becomes a better man by the end of the film. Despite not having enough Batman in this film, the film is actually trying to show us what loss is for a man being the hero. Bruce Wayne feels like the Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2 that wants to stop being the hero and help himself once in a while. Micheal Caine was also fantastic as Alfred, he is given so much depth in this film despite having a limited amount of screen time. Tom Hardy was also incredible as Bane, his hulking, gigantic stature and impressive body language is what stole the show for me. Despite being unable to express himself due to being restrained by a mask, I genuinely believe that Tom Hardy has become Bane in this film. However, I disliked what they did for his voice. Sometimes I couldn't catch what he was trying to say which felt like Batman's fake, hammy voice for a prank call.

The remaining cast members was fantastic in their respective roles, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman all did their best to distinguish one another's personalities. Nevertheless, I felt Marion Cotillard was the weak link for me due to her character being useless for the first 2/3 of the movie, twist reveals she is the daughter of Ra's al Ghul. While it is not a bad performance, I feel like Nolan did not properly flesh out her character which made the twist feel hollow and empty. 

Bane's chilling quote

the cast and crew

The Ending

I wanna talk about the ending of The Dark Knight Rises because it is an emotional moment for many fans who love the character so much, the ending is so satisfying because Batman has finally received the catharsis he needed to move on. Batman carries the bomb away from Gotham City and into the Pacific Ocean, making the ultimate promise he dedicated his life to keeping which was to prove to his enemies, The League of Shadows that Gotham can be redeemed that has its people who are ready to believe in good. However, Batman may be long gone but his legend and legacy will be held close to the citizens in their hearts for they know that Batman is a nobody who became a somebody. Anyone can put on a mask and be a hero. Even a man doing something as putting a coat on a little boy's shoulders to let him know that the world has not ended.

The cathartic moment when Alfred sees Bruce and Selina is so touching, but was left to the viewer's interpretation of how the film ended. Nolan's films tend to end with an ambigious case which will keep the film in our heads for how it ended. It is a very ingenious way of making an audience remember their experience with his films and I salute him for that. Thank You Christopher Nolan and the crew behind-the-scenes in making this film despite not living up to the hype after The Dark Knight.

when he gives you that look

Movie Analysis for Knives Out

HOW KNIVES OUT SUBVERTS OUR EXPECTATIONS

"We must look a little closer. And when we do, we see that the doughnut hole has a hole in its center. It is not a doughnut hole, but a smaller doughnut with its own hole, and our doughnut is not holed at all!"

"The complexity and the gray lie not in the truth, but what you do with the truth once you have it."

 -Benoit Blanc 

Knives Out is the recently acclaimed film by Rian Johnson and features an ensemble cast of Daniel Craig, Ana De Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Micheal Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, Lakeith Stanfield and Christopher Plummer. The film is a modern take on the Agatha Christie's whodunnit which details on the mystery of the death of Harlan Thrombey, the patriarch of the rich, spoiled Thrombey family. Originally conceived as suicide, the film delves deeper into the lives of the Thrombey family which causes a series of twisting and turnings of the knife to occur as though the knife used was  either by Harlan or was it by someone else in the family?

After causing massive fan backlash due to the shortcomings of The Last Jedi which he failed to please Star Wars fans with his vision of how Star Wars: The Last jedi would go. I couldn't help but notice under all the criticism of the film. The Last Jedi was actually pretty good on first viewing, however when I started to delve deeper into where were the strengths and weaknesses of The Last Jedi, I realised what was wrong. Rian Johnson subverted our expectations in a way that was shocking but felt unsatisfying as if he was pulling the rug from underneath us and we fall onto our faces breaking our noses. Thankfully, he learned his lesson from The Last Jedi and that is what made Knives Out all the more enjoyable.

Knives Out Switches Genres

Benoit Blanc flips a coin, symbolically showing a flip in 

genres

At first glance, the audience believed that they were about to watch a traditional styled murder mystery unfold. It has a confined setting, a large cast of colourful characters as the suspects and the ingenious super sleuth that is to uncover the missing pieces of the puzzle and put them together where everything makes sense. The audience believes that they are aware of where the film will go from here until director Rian Johnson throws a curve ball in which was unexpected. Instead of following the story structure of a detective film, the film breaks down that structure and is revealed to be a crime film underneath. That is when I realised that Rian Johnson is taking the audience for a roller coaster ride that kept me on the edge of my seat for almost the entirety of the film.

It is revealed that the nurse was responsible for Harlan Thrombey's death. She accidentally gave Harlan Thrombey an overdose of morphine into his bloodstream and he will be dead within 10 minutes. Although the identity of the killer has been revealed, the film immediately paints the nurse, Marta Cabrera as someone who you root for to not get caught by the detective. The film sides with Marta Cabrera to help her escape murder. Hence, tensions arise when Detective Benoit Blanc decides to cooperate with Marta Cabrera in this investigation. 

Instead of being an ordinary whodunnit film, the film becomes a cat-and-mouse-esque thriller where we see Marta's efforts of eluding the Benoit Blanc who was at first established to be one of the finest, ingenious detectives working there. However, the film subverts our expectations as we see in reality, Benoit Blanc isn't as what he was described to be. The film comedically sees Marta Cabrera covering up any evidence of her murder. Hence, showing the audience how incapable the detective is in collecting any evidence.  Another way of how Knives Out subverts the audience's expectations is by having a new subplot to who hired Benoit Blanc in the first place to solve the mystery behind Harlan's death. At first, we were lead to believe that he was hired by one of the family members only to realise he was hired by Ransom Thrombey the entire time. It subverts our expectations only to realise that this was the true villain's scheme the entire time.

Marta carefully avoids suspicion from Benoit Blanc by 

misdirecting him to fake evidence

Ransom is revealed to be the true killer

Meaningful Twists and Turns

Rian Johnson's take on Knives Out has a lot of twists and turns in the story where he starts twisting the knife more as he begins to show the audience that they were missing something all along. In truth, it was Ransom who was responsible of Harlan Thrombey's death. On paper, it may seem predictable but through Rian Johnson's direction, it was unpredictable. Why? Because the director makes use of the twist to shock the audience after they have seemingly guessed who killed Harlan Thrombey. Therefore, it comes as a rewarding experience to the audience because there was a hidden mystery layered in the story which helps to elevate the drama and the tension of the story.

The twists are not there for the sake of being there. For example, in The Last Jedi, the death of Snoke was shocking because we were not expecting it to happen so soon. However, after the audience has absorbed the shock, they will feel dissatisfied because they felt Snoke was the true villain and his death made the audience feel as if The Last Jedi has ended its story arc too soon. The problem with The Last Jedi was that Rian Johnson was writing it into a corner. Thankfully, Rian Johnson learns from this mistake in Knives Out. Another example is when the Harlan's lawyer is reading the will, we were lead to believe that every family member will have their share of Harlan's assets.

However, at the same time, Ransom, the spoiled kid of the family makes his appearance there. While it is confusing of why Ransom was there during the reading of the will since he will not be getting his fair share of the will. It is later revealed that all of the assets will left to Marta Cabrera. Again, this is another shocking twist which helps to elevate the tension between Marta and the Thrombey family because the Thrombeys wanted Harlan's assets so badly that they revealed their true colours. This results in the Thrombeys blackmailing Marta into returning what was rightfully theirs, eventhough they don't deserve to inherit his fortune. Ransom, on the other hand, was only there to see the entire family tear itself apart which he enjoys watching.

The family during the will 

"Eat Shit, Eat Shit, Eat Shit, definitely Eat Shit"

Detective film vs Crime Film

I would love to say that Knives Out is a combination of the Detective film genre that is also a crime genre. The film cleverly intertwines the two genres together by having the killer to be revealed early on in the film. But, it not only reveals the identity of the killer, the film smartly humanises the killer which is revealed to be Marta Cabrera. 

A detective genre follows a tiresome formula that many audiences are aware of and has become a trope. During the beginning of the detective films, we see the world around the characters through the detective's point of view. We see how the murder has taken place, later on we get every characters' backstory and points of view. At first he will not understand, nevertheless, at the climax we will get a Sherlock-esque reveal and the killer is caught. Sounds boring right. I KNOW

Crime genre is slightly different than the detective genre because the story revolves around the points of view of the criminal going against the lawman. It is a battle of brains and brawn which is much more engaging and endearing because you want to see who will come out as the winner between the criminal and the lawman. While it is not a mystery to the audience, but in some cases, can be for the lawman.

How is this related to Knives Out?

In Knives Out, the killer is Marta Cabrera and the film humanises her because she is unlike the family members - She has a kind heart and she tries to tell the truth because of her physiological condition which prevents her from lying. If she lies, she will puke. This immediately puts the audience in a position to side with Marta because we don't want her to get caught, get punished or receive any sort of bad treatment because she is genuinely guilty of her actions. The film becomes a crime film as we see the Detective Benoit Blanc attempting to discover clues to distinguish the killer while Marta tries to cover up that evidence. It is a brilliantly comedic scene as we see that the worst murderer at covering up crimes slowly outsmarting the not-so-ingenious detective.

CAST PERFORMANCES

Lastly, I would like to congratulate the ensemble cast for giving their 110% in making their characters feel more fleshed out and understandable. Daniel Craig,  Ana De Armas, Toni Collete all gave standout performances. I was entertained by Craig's new southern Kentucky accent he makes use of for the film. While it was distracting at first, I got used to it and I thoroughly enjoyed his comedic, and not-so-serious Benoit Blanc. Ana De Armas stole the show as Marta Cabrera, she does an incredible job of making us feel for her character during the film's cathartic moments. After all, she is the main protagonist of this story. Toni Collete manages to make the most of what material she has been given as Joni Thrombey. Coming after Hereditary, the film which brought her international recognition. She is given the opportunity to play a more comedic role than her previous one. Overall, I still believe that every character had just enough contribution to the story and is at the same time very engaging.

I do have to point out that I admire Chris Evans for being in a nice, comfortable sweater. He plays Ransom in which he swears a lot coming after Avengers: Endgame, where he plays Captain America.

(If you caught my joke. NEVERMIND)

I appreciate your feedback for my analysis thank you.

Movie Analysis for The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight~ The Tragedy of Superheroes 

"I Believe Whatever Doesn't Kill You Simply Makes You.. Stranger"

"And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad" 

            " WHY SO SERIOUS..?!"

- The Joker

Why So Serious?

The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero crime film that was directed by Christopher Nolan and features an ensemble cast with Christian Bale as the eponymous superhero and features Heath Ledger, Micheal Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman in the second instalment of The Dark Knight Trilogy. In this film, Batman teams up with James Gordon and Harvey Dent to bring down the mob for good, cleansing Gotham of its criminals that has plagued the once great city for so long. However, a new enemy emerges who calls himself only as 'The Joker' who seeks nothing but chaos and destruction of Gotham city.

Christopher Nolan has once again outdone himself in The Dark Knight. Many critics have labeled it as the best superhero films in the twenty-first century. It also became the first superhero film to break its own "superhero" genre and becomes as Roger Ebert has stated "an engrossing tragedy". In this analysis, I will be looking into what makes The Dark Knight the engrossing tragedy as it is.

The Villain

If you want to make your film interesting, you have to create a villain that is exceptionally good at attacking the hero's weakness. The greater the villain, the greater the challenge the hero must  overcome. In The Dark Knight, The Joker is the ultimate villain that Batman has to overcome but why? Was it because of the Joker's maniacal laugh and unpredictability? Or was it because of Heath Ledger's performance? It has always been how the film utilizes the Joker to its maximum advantage. The Joker is constantly one step ahead of Batman and the cops which is what makes the film thrilling. We see how Batman has to face the moral dilemmas created by The Joker in order to psychologically "break" him. This is how the film reveals their characters true colors through these challenges created by The Joker. The Joker acts as the physical manifestation of a test for Batman and the cops. In testing Batman's patience and beliefs, we realized that Batman is truly incorruptible no matter how much pressure or torture he faces whereas Harvey Dent who was established to be the symbol of justice was unable to do so and descends into madness. 

Hence, In order to make your story engaging, the writer must have the forces of antagonism pressure the hero to make choices that will reveal their true character. The greater the pressure, the conflict between the hero and the villain becomes more compelling. However, the conflict between the hero and the villain must be fleshed out in order for us as the audience to care about the consequences of the conflict. The Dark Knight fleshes out the conflict really well between Batman and The Joker. Batman represents peace and order for Gotham whereas The Joker represents the chaos and anarchy. Both are fighting for the soul of Gotham which is entertaining as we see The Joker constantly trying to prove that Gotham's heroes can be corrupted. He is the living embodiment of a terrorist working today. This is a man trying to destroy everything that the dark knight stands for to make Gotham lose hope, to corrupt the symbol of the dark knight. 

Madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push..

For example, The Joker understands Batman's weakness after he witnesses the way Batman risked his life to save Rachel during the crashing of the fundraiser party. This is a weakness which he uses to gain leverage over the dark knight. The Joker orchastrates the kidnapping of  Rachel and Harvey Dent and are strapped to a bomb. He then has Batman choose who to save during the intense interrogation scene in which he causes Batman to nearly break his no-kill code by making Batman feel the hopelessness of the situation and taunts him to kill him, laughing maniacally as he does. The Joker feels untouchable as a result because he has established that he has power over the dark knight, in a situation like this we continuously side with Batman to save them both eventhough we cannot help but watch as Batman's sanity is being devoured by The Joker. 

There is also a saying that a hero is only as good as the villain which has been proven to be true in most films such as this one. The Joker is the active character who is actively pushing the plot forward while the characters around the Joker are simply responding to what the Joker is doing. It is what drives the pacing and the consequences of the Joker's presence in the film that makes the audience compelled throughout the film. We see that because of The Joker's presence, he complements the main heroes' character arcs in the film. By the end of the film, Batman's character arc is completed as he becomes the dark knight and takes the blame for Dent's crimes to restore hope. Gordon then has to hunt down Batman as a result of killing Harvey Dent. Dent falls from grace and becomes corrupted by the Joker. Lastly, the Joker wins the battle for Gotham's soul by corrupting Harvey Dent into becoming a criminal. All these characters completed their arcs which is very satisfying for an audience because it evokes a variety of emotions from the audience. This is what distinguishes The Dark Knight from its superhero peers is that not many filmmakers can build a sequel that improves upon the original and leaving the audience asking for more.

"You Have Nothing, Nothing to Threaten Me With. Nothing to do With All Your Strength" 

Symbolism and Themes

Christopher Nolan also has also kept the subtleness of the symbolism present in Batman Begins and he uses them extremely well here. As previously stated in my analysis for Batman Begins, Nolan uses fire which is the central focus of the story. In Batman Begins, fire was foreshadowed to be the greatest weapon of mankind but can ultimately lead to their destruction. In this film, fire is used as the Joker's motives of burning down Gotham city. The Joker has always been fascinated by fire as it is the most destructive element in nature. So what does fire represent? It represents chaos and destruction. The Joker uses fire to convey his twisted visions into reality by setting a fire truck on fire. Fire trucks are supposed to represent hope and security but to the Joker, his twisted sense of humor can always be funny at times. I used to laugh after realising that the Joker is trying to correct society that a fire truck must be LITERALLY on fire. 

Fire is also shown to have consumed the lives of Rachel and half of Harvey Dent. Batman chooses to save Rachel but is lead to Dent's location instead which he has no other choice but to rescue. It also signifies Harvey Dent's downfall after losing the woman he loves and his own reputation. Harvey refuses to move on as a result of the Joker taking what he loves so dearly to him. 

In The Dark Knight, the central theme was escalation. The Joker's influence over Gotham's citizens becomes much more powerful until it undermines Batman's influence. Hence, Gotham soon believes that by giving in to the psychopath's wishes which was to humiliate and destroy the symbol of the dark knight, The Joker will free them. The citizens begin to believe that because of Batman's choices, the citizens blame Batman for the corruption and violence started. Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced by the Joker to make impossible ethical choices that will determine the future of Gotham. In a nutshell, the moral foundation of the film's protagonists are being threatened. 

Another theme that was also featured in the film was order vs chaos. Batman, represents order as he tries to round up the city's remaining criminals and making Gotham a better place. The Joker, on the other hand, believes that everyone is as ugly as he is. Simply put, in one of his quotes :

"When the chips are down, these civilized people. They will eat each other. See I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve" 

This quote basically summarises that whatever hell he launches or orchastrates at the citizens of Gotham which includes terrorism and anarchy, they will panic. This further vindicates that by threatening to kill the mayor of Gotham, the city loses its mind and without a doubt will descend into chaos, complementing his plan. Ironically, nobody panics if a truckload of soldiers die in battle because it is always part of the plan for they are trained to prepare for any danger they come across. Batman and Joker are the complete opposites but yet they need one another to complete themselves. Whether they are two sides of the same coin, their relationship is somewhat mutual. As the Joker has stated, "You complete me".

"Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order and everything goes into chaos"

Cast

Perhaps one of the stronger assets of The Dark Knight take in the form of the film's acting performances. Take Heath Ledger as an example. Several critics have noted that Heath Ledger is the key performance that keeps the audience on the edge of the seats. He is cold, calculative and cunning for a villain, he is willing to strap you to your seat and commands your respect for him whenever he appears on-screen. I believe that Heath Ledger will forever be remembered as the actor who changed the way the audience will see The Joker from now on. It is also stated by Micheal Caine, that when shooting the scene where The Joker crashes the party, he was supposed to have a line. After seeing Heath Ledger's terrifying makeup. He completely forgot his line and Heath had to improvise during that scene. That shows how terrifying Heath was as The Joker. If he were alive, I be happy to see him claim the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Joker crashes the party.

Let's not forget about the remaining cast here, Christian Bale was electrifying as the Caped Crusader. He does a great job in toeing the line between the rich, famous, billionaire Bruce Wayne and as the stoic, endearing Batman. I genuinely believe he still has the best portrayal of the Dark Knight and how it should be, not like the cartoonish Adam West or the one-liner George Clooney as in Batman and Robin. Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Micheal Caine and Maggie Gyllenhaal were all fantastic in their respective roles, although I have to admit that this might be Aaron Eckhart's best work yet as Harvey Dent. He goes from being the suave, calm and pretty boy persona only to lose it all when The Joker breaks his mind and spirit. I still find him to be underrated here because the entirety of the movie was centred around his character, in which he also plays a key role in the concluding chapter in The Dark Knight Rises. Overall, there was no weak link in the film and it was an enjoyable experience to watch.

"You Either Die a Hero or You Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become a Villain"

-Batman and Harvey Dent 

"The Night is Darkest Just Before The Dawn. And I Promise You, The Dawn is Coming" 

-Harvey Dent 

Ending

Lastly the ending of The Dark Knight is just endearing because it is one of those bleak endings where the villain has won and the hero has lost. It is a risky move done by the Christopher Nolan but I think he did an impeccable job in the direction and the writing for the film. It all perfectly summarises what the film was planning on taking the character of Batman. By the end of the film, The Joker has seemingly won the war for Gotham's soul by gloating that they will lose hope once Harvey Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge. Batman, however refuses to allow Joker to win by having Gordon to place the blame of him. This shows Batman slowly taking responsibility of his actions as a hero. Batman becomes The Dark Knight because of The Joker. That is why the ending is so memorable because in many Christopher Nolan films, the endings are always in an ambigious case. This is no exception as though the credits roll, the film is still playing in our heads. How will Batman defeat the Joker? What will happen next?

"I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be"

"He is a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark 

knight"

THANK YOU