The Dark Knight Opening Scene Analysis

The Dark Knight  Establishing Narrative in the Opening 5 Minutes.

The Dark Knight has a different to most openings to films. In the opening to this film we see a bank robbery going on from the beginning and that already shows that they are the bad guys we also see where they shoot each other showing that they are willing to kill each other. You would expect batman to come onto the scene and save the day but the Joker (Heath Ledger) gets away with the money.

The Film starts off with the opening credits showing who has made it Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. These are big production films and showing these company's making this will make you think that this is going to be a big and good film.

The opening shot to this film is a long shot showing the scene and where they are. This shot shows that it is a city and that it is day time. As it zooms in we see how it is beginning to focus on a specific building and how it stands out to the rest of the buildings around. We next see a window blow out causing great mystery to what is going on. 

With the opening shot to the film we can see that is is modern day due to the buildings are very modern and when we cross cut to inside the bank we see how the clothes they are wearing and also the way the bank is inside. 

It soon becomes very clear that it is a bank robbery as they talk about the shares in the car and also when one of the men is breaking into a vault. The opening is very clear and is pretty simple to understand which is good as batman is a film which family's would go to see.

The music in this opening helps to set the scene as it gradually builds up as the opening goes on creating more suspense,suspicion and mystery. It also is quite gloomy sort of music showing that they are the bad guys and fits with what they are doing. 

All of the bad guys are wearing clown masks so you don't know who is who. When 3 of them are in the car they are all speaking about the joker. with my general knowledge i can say that i know the joker has face paint like a clown so i knew at the beginning that these people are working with him. 

We see a man who is working for the bank shoot 1 of the men working with him this makes you think that maybe he is the hero,but he gets shot this means that they are not taking any risks and will kill anyone who gets in there way.  

we have some cross cutting between different bad guys doing there work we see how each one then shoots the next one so by the end there is only 1 left. The last one left we see is the joker and how he then turns against him and kills him first.