Thriller Film Analysis – The Dark Knight Rises

Directed by Christopher Nolan

By Elliot Metaireau

Mise – en – Scene In the first picture from the Dark knight rises, it shows a clear scene of the main character “Bruce” standing over with a very distinct moody facial expression his Batman suit which happens to be blurred out within the background, which clearly shows the focusing is more based on Bruce but keeping in mind that the Batman is still in the atmosphere or the scene.

With the lighting it also shows that Bruce is more easily shown so all eyes are on him and no representation of danger in lines, however the batman suit shows a contrast in lighting whereby its dark and light in parts of the costume. This could suggest that right now its not as important as Bruce talking but it still lurks in the atmosphere, or it could foreshadow a threat later on in the film.

Another scene from the movie reveals the Batman standing right in the middle of a busy main road which already could show something, and then a hand full of police cars perhaps chasing him in the background. With the police cars in the background, it’s clear to see that they are fairly blurred out and once again all the focus is pointed at Bruce, the fact he isn’t looking at them shows that he has more important things to do but baring in mind that danger is approaching him.

As well as this, the fact that he stands in the middle of a main road isn’t exactly normal and therefore shows he has authority possibly over everything else right now.

Sounds and Music . Through some parts of the movie, the sound is normally “cut off” or muted, reason being is so that us as the audience can engage more with the characters from the scene and are able to focus more

in what's happening in front of our eyes.

. The most important piece of sound from the movie as a whole, would be the original Batman soundtrack, this normally occurs whenever Bruce is about to make an entrance towards a fighting

scene/battle, obviously indicating that the soundtrack is played whenever it’s a tension – rising scene or if something good is happening/about to happen.

. As well as the original Batman soundtrack, Christopher Nolan has also used several others within the film to determine how gripping or suspense – like the scene is. For example with the great battle

towards the end of the film , an unknown soundtrack gets played which defines an action packed thriller, already its hard enough to put 2 genres within the same film but Nolan has done this very

well with the use of a specific soundtrack.

. Sometimes the sound of certain characters can decide whether or not they are evil, good or innocent. For example the main bad character: “Bane” has a type of metallic operating system on his face to control his voice and breathing, if the audience were to have their eyes closed and carefully listened to Bane, It would be simple to say that he is evil due to the way he speaks. Whereas if you closed your eyes and carefully listened to “Cat woman”, she sounds more innocent and good – like.

All in all, the director has used the original Batman soundtrack and licensed music from other artists, which shows originality and an interest in what other people have to offer.

Setting The Wayne Manor house was a certain setting of which appeared many times in the movie, what was special about this setting is the fact that it was past down from generation to generation and when it was burnt down in one point of the movie, Wayne or the Batman changed in character and changed the storyline greatly.

One other point to mention is that when ever an event occurred in in the Manor house, it always had to lead to something important which clearly shows that the house has many properties and depicts other events from the story line. It’s clear to say that the director has specifically chosen this setting as the “Base” or “Heart” for the Dark knight, without it, he will struggle as shown in the movie.

The “underground prison” appeared a few times in the movie whether it was a flashback or when a certain someone was stuck and attempted to escape. The fact that it’s underground shows that it’s isolated far away from society with no way of getting out apart from the big, huge hole leading into the light. Judging by this camera shot of batman attempting to escape, reveals that the “hole” gets darker and darker with lighting as you get further inside, perhaps this indicates how dangerous or claustrophobic it is and only strong people are able to escape.