“Things were always going to get worse before they got better.”
Film noir has always been a response to national upheaval --
the original film noir movement came out of WWII
and neo-noir was informed by the Vietnam War and the Watergate era.
So when 9/11 became the defining national tragedy
of the post-2000 era,
why didn’t it lead to a third wave of noir?
There have been 21st century movies that fit into neo-noir,
and there are other films that have dealt directly with 9/11 --
but there’s really only one film that dealt with the aftermath
of this event through noir:
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
10 years after its release, this movie is singular in the way
it both incorporates classic noir tropes and reflects the paranoia, darkness,
and disillusionment of the post-9/11 moment.
“You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time.
Well, you were wrong.”
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So if we’re saying The Dark Knight is noir,
first we have to answer the question -- what is film noir?
The context of film noir was that a mood of moral ambiguity
set in after WWII.
The general population and the soldiers returning home
felt deeply disillusioned --
"My hands are down there on the bed.
I can't put them on again without calling to somebody for help.
I can't smoke a cigarette or read a book."
and this mood of moral confusion extended to the movies.
Paul Schrader’s essay “Notes on Film Noir” argues
that during the Great Depression, movies were trying to make people
feel optimistic --
but in the 40s and 50s, noir departed from this mission
of inspiring hope;
instead it was authentically reflecting the pessimism people were feeling.
Schrader argues that this specific cynical tone is
what defines film noir --
and that’s why it’s still considered a style rather than a genre.
So fundamentally, The Dark Knight is noir in that it captures this tone
and updates it for post-9/11 audiences.
It directly confronts the hopelessness of its time
and refuses to offer any false comfort to ease our fears.
“Things are worse than ever!”
[CROWD MURMUR]
“Yes they are.”
The main way that we recognize the film noir tone is
through distinctive visual techniques.
In French, film noir literally translates to “black film.”
So darkness was its first defining visual trademark.
Shadows and low key lighting establish a sense of drama,
fear and mystery.
The Dark Knight’s sinister mood comes through in the noir-inspired visuals --
we see lots of night scenes and high contrast light and dark,
reflecting moral conflict.
Film noir visuals create the feeling of entering a bleak underworld.
Noir also tends to feature unusual angles or imbalanced compositions
that suggest the world is unstable or uncertain.
In The Third Man, the slanted Dutch angles communicate the protagonist’s alienation.
Meanwhile in The Dark Knight, the Dutch angle shot visualizes
the instability the Joker brings to Gotham.
"See, madness, as you know, is like gravity.
All it takes is a little push.
[LAUGHS]"
Batman isn’t a clear-cut, universally respected hero.
“Official policy is to arrest the vigilante known as Batman on sight.”
Instead, like a classic noir protagonist, he’s an alienated outsider
who stands apart from society.
“The Batman is an outlaw.”
Batman may not get beaten up and abused like many noir protagonists,
but he is derided by the people he’s serving.
“Even if everyone hates him for it.
That's a sacrifice he's making.
He's not being a hero.
He is being something more.”
Batman is also like a noir protagonist in that he’s flawed,
not a straight-up good guy.
Think of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.
“When you’re slapped you’ll take it and like it.”
Batman is a vigilante -- and this reflects how after 9/11
some people felt laws had to be broken for the greater good.
When Batman sets up spyware in order to catch the Joker,
“You've turned every cell phone in Gotham into a microphone.”
the movie seems to be referencing the Patriot Act of 2001,
which allowed the FBI to wiretap people without probable cause.
So Batman’s vigilante status and questionable methods speak to
the cynical, by-any-means-necessary American outlook of the post-9/11 time.
"I've got to find this man, Lucius."
"At what cost?"
At one point the Joker suggests that he and Batman are alike --
“To them you're just a freak.
Like me.”
because even though Batman is a good guy and the Joker is a villain,
ultimately they’re both operating outside the law.
“One day, the Batman will have to answer for the laws he's broken.”
Batman (and the need for him) is a product of his messed-up time.
Gotham is a society that’s out of control, but the ultimate goal is to get to a place
where the established government is capable of doing its job --
and Batman would have no place in that kind of stable, functional society.
“They need you right now.
When they don't, they'll cast you out.”
The Dark Knight juxtaposes Batman with Harvey Dent,
the D.A. and political hero of Gotham.
“We all know you're Gotham's white knight.”
If Harvey is the idealistic, moral “white knight,”
Batman is his dark mirror.
“He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector,
a Dark Knight.”
At first it seems like Harvey is the man who will save Gotham --
"I believe that on his watch, Gotham can feel a little safer,
and a little more optimistic."
but he’s so broken by personal loss that he turns into a supervillain himself.
“He wanted to prove that even someone as good as you could fall.”
“And he was right.”
Meanwhile we know from Batman Begins that Batman’s heroism originally came out
of
his own personal trauma -- the death of his parents.
So Batman’s darker brand of heroism is less fragile.
“You truly are incorruptible, aren't you?”
The Dark Knight tells us that desperate times call for
an unconventional, more ambiguous, noir-ish savior.
“Gotham needs its true hero.
And I let that murdering psychopath blow him half to hell.”
“Which is why for now they're going to have to make do with you.”
Noir stories often take place in gloomy urban settings
full of crime and corruption.
As a work of post-9/11 noir, The Dark Knight’s Gotham is
a dark vision of an American metropolis lacking law and order.
The bank robbery that starts the film would bring a normal city screeching to a
halt.
But this kind of over-the-top crime is run-of-the mill here.
So the film is capturing a post-9/11 fear that the government and institutions
couldn’t protect us.
If anyone is in control of Gotham, it’s the Joker.
“Tell your men they work for me now.
This is my city.”
Little White Lies has argued that Heath Ledger’s performance was
partly inspired by the villain Tommy Udo from the film noir Kiss of Death.
"You know what I do to squealers?"
"You wanna know how I got these scars?"
And funnily enough, for his role as Udo,
Richard Widmark actually channeled the Joker from the Batman comics.
Many noir villains reflect the cultural context of their time.
"We've been watching you not only because of your communist activities,
but because of your loud-mouthed disloyalty to the United States government."
In the definitive neo-noir Chinatown, the villain is a respected pillar of the community.
"Mainly that you're rich, too respectable to want your name
in the newspapers."
"Of course I'm respectable.
I'm old!"
So he represents the establishment, institutions and authorities
that people felt they could no longer trust after Watergate and Vietnam.
So it makes sense that The Dark Knight characterizes the Joker as a terrorist
to play on post-9/11 fears.
"Should we give in to this terrorist's demands?"
Nolan has said, quote,
“Taking on an action film set in a great American city post 9/11,
if we were going to be honest in our fears,
then we would come up against the idea of terrorism.”
“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
The Joker targets both civilians and high-profile politicians.
“These cops have to be wondering if the Joker will make good
on his threat in the obituary column of the Gotham Times to kill the mayor.”
His mission to destroy all order and structure reflects what makes terrorism so scary --
it respects nothing as out-of-bounds for attack,
and its mission is to tear down the very foundations of our society.
“You didn't think I'd risk losing the battle for Gotham's soul in a fist fight with you?”
Through the Joker, The Dark Knight is asking the question:
what does it take to break a person’s spirit,
to make them become evil in response to evil?
“This city just showed you that it's full of people
ready to believe in good.”
“Until their spirit breaks completely!”
And post-9/11 America had to confront this very question,
in figuring out how to fight its enemies without losing sight of its values.
“See their morals, their code...it's a bad joke.
Dropped at the first sign of trouble.”
The Dark Knight doesn’t tick all the film noir boxes --
it’s missing some pretty common noir tropes like a femme fatale.
"We're both rotten."
"Only you're a little more rotten."
But The Dark Knight isn’t purely film noir --
it’s also, obviously, a superhero movie.
And instead of a third wave of noir, the cinematic form that’s emerged
to reflect the larger issues facing post-9/11 society
is the superhero genre.
In fact, some people believe that the superhero renaissance of today is
all
a cultural response to 9/11.
These movies are the new way of dealing with themes of justice,
moral ambiguity, and good intentions backfiring.
"We tried to save as many people as we can.
Sometimes it doesn't mean everybody."
The Dark Knight stands out from the other superhero movies
that have thrived since its release,
because it does all this with the noir tone.
Noir historically developed as a more stylized version of the gangster film
--
in the same way, The Dark Knight is a more stylized version
of the average superhero film.
It’s so dark that you might forget you’re watching a superhero movie --
it doesn’t make you feel rescued;
there’s a sense that things are out of control and aren’t going to be okay.
Batman’s attempt to save Rachel ends with her dead and Harvey disfigured.
And in many noir and neo-noir movies, the protagonist can’t save the day
or even makes things worse, despite his good intentions.
“I was trying to keep someone from being hurt.
I ended up making sure that she WAS hurt.”
These movies sometimes leave us feeling things would have been better
if the hero had just stayed out of it.
The Dark Knight echoes this fatalistic perspective.
In classic noir fashion the film’s ending is extremely bleak --
Harvey dies and Batman makes himself a scapegoat
by telling Commissioner Gordon to blame him for Harvey’s crimes.
“I killed those people.
That's what I can be.”
“No, No!
You can't, you're not!”
“I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be.”
The Marvel arc is that flawed people can be redeemed and become heroes
under the right circumstances --
but The Dark Knight’s message is the opposite.
It’s that anyone could turn bad under the right circumstances,
and we have to fight against that.
“The Joker took the best of us and tore it down.
People will lose hope.”
“They won’t.”
One reason film noir is so enduring is that it found an artistic language
to express the mood of a particular moment --
and The Dark Knight put its own spin on this tradition.
It spoke to post-9/11 fears by updating noir tropes
and helping to establish a new superhero movie language
for dealing with questions of the times.
“You either die a hero or you live long enough
to see yourself become the villain.”
As the highest grossing movie of 2008,
The Dark Knight clearly struck a chord with audiences,
and it shaped the decade to follow.
Today the film remains a prime example of cinema’s power to capture its times
through style, mood and story.
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