Intro

The Dark Knight action film directed by Christopher Nolan includes two main characters Batman and the Joker, the scene I will be discussing the Jokers social experiment, this is when he plants bombs on the boats called Spirit and Liberty one containing prisoners and the other full of innocent people. The Main idea of the experiment is the Joker wants to prove that the town of Gotham and the people are corrupt by seeing what boat blows the other up first. Throughout the scene, Christopher Nolan uses various techniques to build suspense that trick the viewer. I will be discussing the Joker, music along with sound and costumes.

First paragraph

The Joker is unique compared to every other crook as most want power, money or just to kill the good hero, Christopher Nolan has made the Joker only want one thing and that is to create chaos in Gotham. In the social experiment scene, the Joker has planted bombs in both boats one with criminals and the other with innocent civilians the Joker wants to prove a point which is to see if the innocent civilians are out for themselves. The big prisoner ruins the Jokers plan by saying “I’ll do what you should have did ten minutes ago”, Then he throws the detonator out the window. This is one of the director’s techniques as he tricks the viewer by using the big bad criminal to decide to blow the civilians up. The director uses misdirection to build suspense to the viewer as the big prisoner confronts the warden and throws it out of the window instead of blowing the innocent civilians up, this is a twist as we assume that he would have switched the detonator as his quote sounds like he wants to live, we also assume this as he looks big and dangerous. In the civilian boat, we hear a civilian say “they had their chance”, this shows us that the civilians are out for themselves and don’t care about the prisoners, but the twist is we see him show that he is not selfish and he believes that they should die instead as they have been in the wrong all their lives. It is important that both boats do not blow each other up as they both have certain things to live for even though they are prisoners they still have a family as the civilians do. The Joker turns Gotham upside down and creates chaos on the streets, for society to run smoothly and peacefully law and order must be kept clean. Christopher Nolan has shown that in the social experiment scene the Joker has control over many people and whether they live or die, Batman balances this as he keeps the Jokers crimes down and minimizes the risk of lives being taken. Law and order has to be strict as their would be more people or crimanals like the Joker out on the Gotham streets.

Second Paragraph

During the Jokers social experiment scene Christopher Nolan has used a variety of music and sound. The director uses many suspenseful sounds, such as pause effects which drags us as viewers into the scene and helps build suspense. The director uses these also to trick us, such as when the big prisoner throws the detonator out the window there are sound effects that get us ready to experience the innocent civilians’ boat to blow up, but the sound eases down slowly as it falls out the window. The director is known throughout the film for tricking the viewer which changes how we view each character individually. This scene also contains common sound effects such as when Batmans GPS assistant locates the Joker, we here a loud beep, beep which continues as it locks in on the Joker. This a common sound effect used in many films as you cannot replace this sound with anything else that is loud and irritating. This shows that the director still uses normal or common effects as he still can put a twist effect in as well to keep the film interesting.

Third Paragraph

The social experiment scene has many characters which are dressed and transformed to look unique. Christopher Nolan has created eg the Joker to look more scary and ruthless by making his face look unclean and messy compared to his previous look which was tidy and not scary. The Joker is dressed very tidily, he wears a nice tidy purple trench coat, this shows that he is not a stupid criminal and he is quite smart and funny as he does everything different and his own way. The director has also made the civilians on one of the boats wear dark colours this is to show that they are normal and no one stands out of the crowd they all look innocent and the same, the director has done this to show the viewer what boat is most likely to blow up this being the criminal one, as they have made illegal actions and had their one chance. The criminals are dressed in bright orange overalls, Christopher Nolan has done this show the viewer that the criminals on one of the boats are supposed to be bad, but as we see in the social experiment scene one of them tosses the detonator out of the boat’s window showing that they want to give the civilians a chance. The director has shown that their innocent people on the boat to compare them to the criminals, and this makes the viewer think who should live and makes them engage more into the film.

Conclusion

The director Christopher Nolan has used these techniques in a unique way to any other director, as his film The Dark Knight has scenes that build suspense. Christopher Nolan’s purpose is to emphasise how crucial law and order is for a community/society such as Gotham to function successfully. The social experiment scene was a well-fought out scene as Christopher Nolan has added a lot of suspense and also included twists or people do things that we asume they wouldnt do.