The Dark Knight - Perfection In Execution

It is well known and understood that a sequel is one of the hardest films to make - how does one follow the greatness of the first and ensure the same excitement and reception? The Godfather managed it, but then again, The Godfather is one of the few films out there which have managed a successful follow up. I would like to suggest that The Dark Knight be added to that pantheon of greatness and idols. Not only has Christopher Nolan reinvigorated the series and given us the true spirit of Batman but he has also managed to deliver an even finer work in the sequel than anyone expected, but secretly we all hoped for. At first glance, it may seem inequitable to place The Dark Knight on the same plain as The Godfather, nor am I suggesting that they are the same in worth or analysis. One undeniable fact is that The Dark Knight attracted far more audiences than its predecessor , so why did the audiences flood the theatres? The answer to that question perhaps has more to do with its co-star passing away so early in life, rather than the perfect execution of the film. Nevertheless, I don't believe audiences, at least on a sub-conscious level, failed to see and enjoy the execution. Execution of a film refers primarily to its making, i.e. the filming, the acting, the directing, the editing, etc. The area of interest in this article is the structure and the logical, almost mathematical precision to the progression of the story. Structure, like art has many facets which are used in a variety of ways, what is indisputable is that whatever structure is applied, its execution must make logical mathematical sense, hence our ability to dissect and analyse its success or failure. The basic principle of drama is the three-act structure. Aristotle put forth that, "a whole is what has a beginning and middle and end". The three acts are 'protasis' which is the introduction, 'epitasis' which is the main action and finally the 'catastrophe' which is the resolution of the story. In film this three act structure is played out as thus; film begins with an introduction to the environment, characters and the story. A crisis then occurs which unsettles the stability in the previous act and requires its characters to act. And finally a resolution is brought about which directly deals with the crisis in the previous act allowing the characters to resolve the calamity and once again return to the stability of the first act. In order for structure to be 'perfect' it must follow the above basic outline. One act must follow from the previous and finally link back to the original, creating a perfect cycle of development. The execution of the structure should show a logical progression, i.e. each element has a unique predecessor and successor. Every image, spoken word and scene should come forth from the scene before it and lead to the next scene. Even when a film employs a non-linear structure such as Memento for example, the logic remains singular and ever expanding, that is, each shot/scene should provide more information than previously had. What The Dark Knight managed to achieve is far greater and more complex than the simple structure stated above, not that I am suggesting that the basic structure should be humbled or demeaned - it is for most films a very good start. A complex structure serves to show the expertise of its maker and more importantly develop a far more intricate storyline and characters. Batman Begins followed the basic 3-act structure, and the reason The Dark Knight succeeded is due to it expert handling of more character and story details. The characters in general had to grow and deal with far bigger problems; the film also had to introduce two extremely important and new characters: Two-Face and The Joker, and finally the film had to set up the third film in the series. All these elements required a finer and more detailed structure, and it is this structure which I would like to analyse. The basic structure of The Dark Knight is as follows: introduction to the characters; a crisis occurs whereby The Joker demands that Batman is unveiled and finally, resolution in which The Joker is finally captured. If film were a complete human body, then the structure is its skeleton. The finer structure employed by The Dark Knight is then easily compared to the circuit of blood vessels, intricately surrounding the main structure but at the same time paving its own individual paths. In order to better illustrate this, I will reference each of the three acts and show the finer details within which create sub-structures. Act One In the first act, the audience is introduced to all the characters beginning with the newest and more importantly the villain: The Joker. The purpose of introducing the villain first is to immediately present the audience and the hero with the crisis which will require a resolution within the span of the film. What this also serves to do is to create suspense which is the feeling of anxiety about an unforeseen future. From the very first scene, Christopher Nolan has already created the anticipation for resolution, requiring us to watch with bated breath till the end. The second most important character is Harvey Dent a.k.a Two Face. I place Dent before Batman because it is Dent's destiny which determines the journey and ending of Batman; and how better to introduce Dent than through the suggestion of the original characters. We first hear of Harvey Dent when Batman and Gordon are at the scene of the bank robbery as instigated by The Joker. Again, in one scene, Nolan has brought together all the important main characters. The first scene in which Batman is seen provides both an ending to the first film and a clue about the story: Batman finally captures Scarecrow and deals with copycats, which he later references: The final important character is Ramirez as she serves to provide a clue about an important story element/location: General Hospital. And it is because of this clue that she becomes involved in villainy as she helps both The Joker by kidnapping Rachel and later Two Face by kidnapping Gordon's family. It is also in the first act that we meet Rachel, and it is she who first refers to Harvey Dent as the 'white knight'. This is important as it sets the final scene when we finally understand the meaning and relevance of the films' title. The relevance of Rachel is her link to Dent and the scene which exemplifies the intricate relationships between our main characters is the one when Bruce Wayne first meets Dent. Interestingly, prior to this scene, Dent meets with Gordon and requests a meeting with Batman; this is perhaps an inside joke for the audience, as it is only the audience who know that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one and the same. It is through the dialogue in this scene where the audience is again given clues about the development of the story: the suspicion that Dent may be the caped crusader and more importantly, Dent's speech is used by Batman at the end of the film. Act Two As per the first act, the second also begins with The Joker. In the first act, The Joker was robbing the mob of their money ensuring that he is the cause of their gathering and conversation, so that he may enter and provide them a solution to the problem he created, thus ensuring his status and importance. The Joker does not want to rob banks, but he will do whatever is necessary in order to get what he does want: Batman. Act two is where the action takes place and it tends to be the largest of the three acts. This is the act where Batman, Dent and Gordon bag Mr. Lau who directly leads to the arrest of the mob. It is also where The Joker raises the stakes by threatening Gotham City if Batman's identity is not revealed. The second act also offers the audience confirmation of The Joker's madness, particularly when he describes how he came to have scars on his face. The first time the audience hears his story, we are almost touched and feel pity for him. The second time he tells a completely different story, which results in the realisation that the Joker is quite simply mad. There is no particular rhyme or reason to why he is the way he is. This is further backed up when Alfred later tells Wayne that "some men just want to watch the world burn." From madness to tenderness - it is in this act that the audience understands how far Batman is willing to go in order to be with the woman he loves, and it is precisely this love which The Joker uses to break both Dent and Batman making evil men of them. The climax of the second act occurs when Gordon is killed. Gordon represents goodness and stability, without him, there can only be evil and instability, and this forces the characters to push their efforts in order to bring about the resolution. The final scene of the second act is where Dent uses his coin to threaten someone; however the audience knows that the coin has the same face on both sides so we are assured of the barrenness of Dent's threat. The beauty of this scene is that it is later repeated but with genuine threat. It's as if Nolan was preparing us for the outcome. There is one further important scene to note which appears in act two for seemingly mere comedy; however this scene becomes the catalyst which changes the threat posed by The Joker. The scene in question is where Reese, an employee of Wayne's, demands to be paid off for his silence about the real identity of Batman. Fox's reply noted below is sheer genius. What is important is that Reese's decision to reveal Batman's identity causes The Joker to focus his attention on him by turning the city against him. And it is this action which causes The Joker to blow up the General Hospital, which as referenced earlier is linked to Ramirez. Therefore what Nolan has done is set up seemingly random events in the first and second acts which come together and are all resolved in one swift move by the protagonists. Before I go on to act three, I would like to include one final scene. I mentioned earlier that Nolan makes references to the third film in the series, and though the next films' scri pt is not yet complete, he has nevertheless inserted a line of dialogue, in fact, a mere word (italicised) which hints of things to come.

Act Three Act three begins with Bruce Wayne announcing to Rachel that he will walk away from being Batman and as he later burns all documentation, Alfred tells him that he must endure. This is important because it is precisely what Batman does in the end - act three begins and to directly references the resolution. Half way through this act, the audience are given a false resolution when The Joker is jailed; however The Joker remains ahead of the other protagonists and even the audience, for who would have guessed the plan which he has contrived: kidnap Dent & Rachel to force Gordon and Batman to make a choice of life and death and stitch a mobile phone inside an innocent man, demand his phone call and ultimately escape prison. The mortal decision forced upon Batman and Gordon paves the way for the ending. The Joker knows what's truly valuable to both Batman and Dent. For Batman, it is first Dent and second Rachel. Batman needs for Dent to succeed so that he may lay down the mask, and be with Rachel, one must follow the other. For Dent, it is Rachel, and her death causes him to act on rage and vengeance, which in turn forces Batman to remain. This play on good and evil continues to feature in the film as The Joker then forces another mortal decision onto the people of Gotham City, by choosing their lives over the lives of criminals. The element which forces The Joker to question himself is the maintenance of 'goodness'. When neither boat blows up, The Joker weakens and it is at this moment that Batman overpowers him and he is left hanging. But The Joker always has one last card and it is one even Batman did not anticipate: the fall of Harvey Dent, Gotham's white knight and Batman's replacement. Like The Joker, Nolan has one last card too, one that even we did not see: the fall of Batman, leaving us full of anticipation for the next instalment. GORDON The Joker took the best of us and tore him down. People will lose hope. BATMAN They won`t. They must never know what he did. GORDON Five dead. Two of them cops. You can`t sweep that... BATMAN No. But the Joker cannot win. Gotham needs its true hero. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I can do those things, because I`m not a hero, not like Dent. I killed those people. That`s what I can be. GORDON No, no, you can`t. You`re not. BATMAN I`m whatever Gotham needs me to be. Call it in. GORDON They`ll hunt you. BATMAN You`ll hunt me. You`ll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that`s what needs to happen. Because sometimes, the truth isn`t good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded. JAMES Batman. Batman! Why`s he running, Dad? GORDON Because we have to chase him. JAMES He didn`t do anything wrong. GORDON 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 our Hero. He`s a silent Guardian... a watchful Protector. In summation, Christopher Nolan delivered a convincing sequel which not only built on the previous instalment, but also set up the next instalment. His execution of the film was done with precision and care, ensuring that the development of each character was seen through and the logical progression of each story line was tied up at the end. His mastery of such complex structure is profound and shows the true genius at work. I would not say this of any filmmaker, however in the case of Christopher Nolan, he is truly an auteur as he both wrote and directed the film ensuring a singular clarity of dictation. Such work is worthy of universal appreciation. It is perhaps appropriate that the Oscars chose to honour it in the nominations. The film is deserving of many awards, but its true award must remain with the people and their consistent and regular enjoyment of it.