How does the performance create excitement/tension within the "Joker crashes the party "sequence from The Dark Knight?
The sequence I chose is from my favourite film, The Dark Knight, at the
end of chapter 12 and start of chapter 12. This sequence begins with Harvey and
Rachael talking about their relationship, both of them are acting seriously to
show that it is meaningful. The music, which is non-diegetic sound, during this
builds up, it also repeats a certain amount of notes, and the notes build
tension because once it reaches its climax it makes me wonder what will happen.
Harvey cuts Rachael off when she tries comfort him, he gets agitated and this
builds tension, along with the music combined with it because of the speed of
the music and the tone of Harvey’s voice. The conversation is taken with over
the shoulder mid shots of their heads, the others head is visibly but out of
focus, when it cuts to Harvey after Rachael, sincerely says “Harvey”, we see an
unfocused blurred figure heading towards Harvey, Harvey is within the focus and
Bruce is outside the focus as he walks towards Harvey. Once we see him, Harvey
says “Tell me it’s not Wayne, he’s a complete…” doesn’t finish his sentence
before being knocked unconscious by Bruce, the way Harvey speaks at this point
shows how he doesn’t like Bruce, later on in the film he is shown to dislike
Batman when he comes under the persona of his comic book name Two-Face, a
convention of the genre. After Harvey is knocked unconscious by Bruce, Rachael
is completely shocked, this is shown through the mise-en-scene of her facial expression and tone of her voice, this
creates tension because we already know that the Joker targeted the police
commissioner, Harvey and a federal judge, and we already know that the
commissioner has been poisoned through the whiskey, so we have no idea how he
might get Dent, and the judge is being escorted out with an envelope. It cuts
to the judge, with a close up of the envelope she is opening, as she is opening the
envelope and it is shown to be a piece of paper with the word “UP” on it, this
then makes her look up, the shot being a mid shot, confused, and it cuts to the
people who gave her the envelope in a car, a two shot, with her car exploding
in the back through the window. The people have no reaction to it, they don’t
even change facial expression which gives the impression that was what they
intended to do. It cuts back to the car landing and it raining playing cards,
the shot is an establishing shot to show the whole are around it. The cards
make me think where did they all come from.
The commissioner is next shown choking because of his drink, whilst being
tended to by Detective Gordon, a convention, the music continues throughout
giving a fast paced tension-filled feel. As the commissioner falls Gordon
catches him, through the mise en scene Loeb creates the atmosphere of choking.
We see the car again in an establishing shot, up in flames, and then we
zoom in on the cards, Joker cards, a convention and a reference to the comics,
the cards are clearly not from the same deck as we see multiple backs of the
cards. This sends the thought about Harvey, what will happen to him. The
commissioner is again seen choking in the arms of Gordon and it becomes clear
what kill him with a smoking glass in close up of it. Gordon is stressed as
shown in the mise en scene of the tone his of voice and the way he attempts to
save Loeb. A side on mid tracking shot of Alfred, another convention of the
genre, depth of field is only Alfred
shown when everyone else is not within the focus but are shown to be having a
good time as it is a party, he walks towards the elevator, it then cuts to the
elevator opening with a mid shot of what we immediately assume is a police because
we only have about a second to analyse the scene, the mise en scene shows
someone in the background wearing eye make-up and carrying a gun. The police
badge gives us a false sense of security but the sweat on the officers head
shows something has made him worried and the badge isn’t even in focus. The
non-diegetic music is getting faster and faster meaning that the tension will
be released soon, it cuts to Bruce once again who is very agitated, shown
through the mise en scene of his voice and the way he is moving, the speed of
the cutting has increased as the music has increased, we see a glimpse of
Rachael before seeing the police officer thrown down to the floor by the Joker
as the focus changes to him, the shot remains a mid shot. We then see Bruce
once again slamming the door behind him in anger, and warning Rachael to stay
hidden. We then see a mid shot of both Alfred and The Joker, Alfred was meant
to have a line but he had genuine fear and shock because of the way Health
portrayed The Joker, had never seen him in the make-up. Once The Joker fires
his shotgun, the whole room goes from happy to scared in an instant, the
non-diegetic music changes to more. The Jokers voice shows how crazy the
character is, the way he speaks shows signs of abnormality, when he eats the,
what looks to be a strawberry, of the kebab type thing, he ignores the shrimp,
and the way he eats, the way he moves his mouth, side to side also shows the
abnormality of the character, the shot is a back tracking shot. When he asks about
Harvey his voice shows that something isn’t right with him. When no one
responds to him, he rolls his eyes in disappointment, he then begins to ask the hostages if they know, but he does it in a joking manner, true to his comic book character. The way heath uses the mise en scene of his performance when he asking the hostages, he seems as if he tries to be friendly while also about to blow their brains out, personally, i couldn't handle a situation like that. We then see Bruce attacked a henchmen, completely disarming him and knocking him out, Bruce acts as if he didn't even break a sweat in doing it and could do it in his sleep.As he walks away it reminds me of scene from another Christian bale film, American Psycho,...
The Joker is shown again, continuing his search for Harvey but hows no sympathy towards the hostages, by that i mean he doesn't treat them as you would a normal person, as normal as a hostage taker an be. then we see Bruce again, turned a corner, through a back tracking shot, and we see a couple who were what looks to be getting intimate and are now finished or not in a two shot, Wayne just walks past like nothing was happening and goes into a hole in the wall. The woman thinks that the room wayne is going into is a panic room, until wayne shuts it adding comedy to scene. Wayne's face didn't change from the moment he walked in there to the moment he went into the "panic room". We go back to the couple in a two shot, adding more comedy by their facial expressions and words "you've got to be kidding me". We then see Joker again in a mid over the shoulder shot of one of the guest at the party. When the guest tells Joker that he isn't intimidated, Joker looks confused and pulls out a knife on him, the guests face shows pure terror adding tension due to the unknowing on whether he'll kill him. You can see through the mise en scene the pure terror in his face because of the knife being so close to his face. Rachael intervenes, causing an anti-climax, when Joke looks over, he looks slowly.
