The document provides a detailed textual analysis of the opening bank robbery scene in The Dark Knight. It analyzes various shots used in the scene and what they convey to the audience. Key points: 1) Various shots are used to introduce the bank robbers and show their dangerous weapons and masks to hide identities, indicating they work for the main villain, the Joker. 2) Shots show the robbers taking risks to zip line into the bank, implying the job has a high value. 3) Medium shots introduce the Joker character and show him with a mask and bag, hinting he will take part in the upcoming heist. 4) The scene builds tension through

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Batman The Dark
Knight Textual Analysis
By Kamal Singh and George Allen

2.  The Intro to this movie is the main villain in the
movie robbing a bank. He has a team of heist
members to complete this bank robbery.
Bank Robbery Scene

3.  Here is a close up shot of one of the
bank robbers. It is effective that a close
up is used in order for the audience to
be able to see that he has quite a
dangerous weapon in his hands. Also
you can see that they are wearing a
mask in order to hide their identity. This
also shows to the audience that they
might me working with the Joker, the
main villain, because of the mask. The
mask ultimately allows the audience to
see that he is mysterious and is trying to
hide his face. They later find he is hiding
his face to save his identity from security
cameras, etc. The camera angle of a close
up allows all of this. The diegetic sound
in this scene is the weapon firing and
breaking the window. This shows the
first sense of danger as stereotypically
windows smashing isn’t a normal thing
and normally shows a sense of escape.
The non diegetic sound in this is the fast
paced music starting and foreshadowing
fast paced action to come.

4.  This is a medium shot/establishing
shot. The medium shot allows the
audience to view the fact that there
actually is two heist members and the
fact they are loading the weapon with
a zip wire. The establishing shot
allows the audience to see the danger
that the heist members are about to
put themselves into because of the
sheer fact there is a massive drop. This
shows to the audience that what
they’re about to do has extreme value
because there are at least two people
risking their lives in the opening three
seconds after the opening intro. The
non diegetic fast paced music
continues into this scene also.

5.  This medium/longshot shows another
different character. Later we find that
this is the Joker, the main villain. From
the camera angle we can see that he
has a similar mask to the other
characters in his hand and also has
quite a big bag which suggests that he
will also be a part of the heist to the
audience. This camera angle shows
also the background city environment
and it also shows that he is not
showing his face yet to the camera but
is showing to the environment. This
gives a ruthless streak to his nature as
it shows to the audience almost as if
he doesn’t even need the mask as he
clearly doesn’t care. The fast paced
music also carries on to this scene.

6.  After the shot prior, the camera
zooms closely into the clown
mask. This foreshadows to the
audience that the mask will be
vastly significant in the coming
scenes. Also it shows that he will
need to hide his identity, and
because of the fact that the
audience at this point in the film
are currently unaware of the bank
robbery that is about to occur, it
slightly hints that there could be
something similar.

7.  This medium shot of the character
meeting with the car is significant.
The shot allows the audience to
see that a potential robbery is up
and coming. This is shown from
the car as it is very big and well
armored. Also the windows are
blacked out. These factors along
with the fact he is wearing a mask
and has a big bag suggests greatly
to the audience that there is about
to be a heist of some sort. Also
because the car is quite big shows
that there is quite a big crew as
well.

8.  This medium shot of the original
characters that the audience sees is
significant. It is significant because
it shows to the audience that it will
be a big robbery because of the
amount of bags they have. The fast
paced music is still on going.

9.  This is a close up shot of the
characters readying the zip line.
This shot along with the original
shot further shows to the audience
the danger the characters will be
in, which implies there is a big
price tag on the job they are about
to try and complete.

10.  This long shot of now three
members of the heist shows to the
audience that the heist is about to
begin as they start zip lining. The
non diegetic sound in the
background is also quite quick at
this point which suggests to the
audience that there will be some
action soon.

11.  This high angled birds eye view
shot shows the sheer danger the
robbers have put themselves in by
zip lining over this. There is a
diegetic “whoosh” sound
expressed in a non diegetic way
for the purpose of the audience
understanding the height at which
they are because of the fact that
winds are stronger higher up. It
also shows the pace they’re
travelling at.

12.  This high angle extreme long shot
of the robbers further shows to the
audience that the robbers are in
lots of danger because of the
height that they are at. The non
diegetic music also gets a lot more
dramatic making the scene more
tense to the audience.

13.  This low angle shot shows that the
characters are superior. This could
be because of the hard task that
they had to complete in order to
get where they are in the scene. It
also shows that they are focused
on the job because straight from
landing from the zip line the first
robber is already rushing off to
where they need to be. This shot
included with the last shot has a
match on action where it gives us a
better view of them landing.

14.  This over the shoulder shot of the
robbers is back in the car. This scene is
more significant about the audio and
the diegetic sound which is the
speech. They try working out how
many guys there are on the job and
are trying to work out the cut for each
person. The next shot is a close up of
the passenger with the driver and
back seat passenger in the
background. Here they discuss how
they think that the Joker shouldn’t get
any money because he’s not doing
anything, little do they know that he is
sitting behind them. This conforms the
stereotype of a typical
villain/henchman as they are being
quite dumb by not knowing what is
happening. It also conflicts the
stereotype as normally henchmen are
quite loyal to their leading villain.

15.  This scene along with the last
scene of the robbers in the car links
in because in the car, one says “I
know why they call him the Joker”
and then this scene starts with one
saying “so why do they call him
the Joker?” This shows to the
audience that some people would
be close to the heist leader, the
Joker, and some would have just
been hired for the job as they have
no idea about him.

16.  This medium shot of the two thugs
shows that the heist team have been
done a lot of planning. This is because
they have landed from the zip line and
have came prepared with a hammer to
bust off the lock and also a device in
order to hack into the system. The
audio in this scene is diegetic speech.
One says “I heard he wears make up”
almost making fun of the Joker. The
other replies “make-up?” questioning
whether he’s being serious and also
joking about it. The first then says
“Yeah to scare people, you know, war
paint.” This is to show the audience
that he is quite scary. He is
stereotypical because it is thought that
normally when people are not good
looking they wear make up a lot in
order to make themselves look better,
which conforms the stereotype of an
ugly looking villain.

17.  This low angled shot of the
members exiting the car shows
they have superiority. This is
because they possess weapons and
have a clear intent to use them as
they are covering their identities.
These are all characteristics of
villainous characters.

18.  This medium shot of the bank
manager shows to the audience
the reaction of him when the
henchmen enter the bank and start
shooting to start the heist and
scare the people in the bank. In
real time the bank manager is
looking around and is a bit
shocked that it’s happening and
there is also a security guard in the
left third of the screen to show that
the bank is moderately protected.

19.  This lower angled shot of the heisters
shows that the henchmen are easily
able to deal with the security guard
and disarm him with ease. As the
camera follows the three members of
the team, it shows that each one plays
a different role, one disarms the
guard, one runs forward to control the
civilians and one is carrying a bag,
more than likely used to hold the
money they expect to steal. This
shows they are professional at what
they do, not just an amateur team of
bank robbers, making them seem like
more of a threat to the audience. The
reverse shot shows the members
holding their weapons and pointing
them towards civilians. This is meant
to build up the action in the film and
is supposed to make the audience feel
that Batman is going to stereotypically
‘come to the rescue’.

20.  This medium-long shot shows to
the audience the amount of fear in
the civilians as even though that
the three heisters are occupied,
they are very scared to try and
apprehend the robbers even
though the civilians massively
outnumber the robbers. The shot
also shows the bank teller getting
dragged over the desk in order to
invoke fear into the civilians. The
non diegetic music allegros and
crescendos. This makes the scene a
bit more tense and builds up
action to come.

21.  In the first close-up shot it shows
that the henchmen have planned a
fair bit because they have brought
a device in order to cancel the
“silent alarm”. The next shot
shows the guy behind him
reaching for his pocket almost like
he’s going to kill the first man
because the job he needed to do is
done. This shows to the audience
that the henchmen aren’t very well
acquainted because they can kill
each other with ease.

22.  This close up of the bag shows that
one of the henchmen has a bag full
of grenades. This shows to the
audience that the villains are
planning for a heist that could
have more bloodshed than needed
(preparing for the worst case
scenario).

23.  Both of these shots show to the
audience that the villains are
creating havoc and apprehending
the civilians in a quite a violent
way. This is done by some of them
getting beaten by the henchmen
and some of them being forced to
hold a smoke grenade that will go
off if they let go.

24.  This medium shot of both of the
villains, is significant as this shot
shows one of them shooting the
other in order to kill off dead
weight, earning more of a cut. The
person that dies says that someone
is “trying to call 911” and the other
replies “will it be a problem” and
the first then responds “no” and
then gets shot. This shows to the
audience that the shooter is quite
ruthless and was using the other
man.