Even though you might have guessed from the heading what I shall be exploring in this article, I just wanted to give a little backstory as to what made me think about this topic. For weeks I have been procrastinating on another article topic to write on and I really wasn’t able to figure anything out. And just like how in the movies when the protagonist looks carefully through a magnifying glass and cracks the clue, similarly, I was randomly scrolling through mindless youtube videos when I saw the clip of Batman and Joker’s interrogation scene from The Dark Knight and it immediately struck me, “Voila! There’s your idea! Why not write a detailed analysis on one of the best Comic Book Movies ever made ??”
I know I swayed a little but let’s get back to the topic. With this article, I shall be using Freytag’s Pyramid to analyze God Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
What exactly is Freytag’s Pyramid?
Good question! It would definitely not look good on my part to jump right away into the film without giving a suitable background of the pyramid itself. Ah my bad, it’s just that I got really overwhelmed as soon as I wrote The Dark Knight. You know how it is with Nolan’s films…..you just can’t wait to get started.
Here’s a general overview of Freytag’s Pyramid:
Essentially, it is composed of 5 stages:
Stage 1: Exposition
The exposition is the introduction stage. Here, the writer’s sole purpose is to introduce the audience to the world where the story takes place. The audience gets introduced to the setting, characters, style, etc. of the film. The length of the exposition stage may vary. While some writers choose to begin the exposition phase by recalling past incidents, others might narrate the present experiences first and then switch gears to past experiences that might have led up to the present.
Stage 2: Rising Action
The second stage, as the name suggests, involves unfolding the story and leading the audience toward the climax. Elevating the stakes, the audience gets access to key pieces of the story, diving deeper into the world and the theme. It may also include the introduction of new characters that further complicate the story.
Stage 3: Climax
Climax is described as the most important scene in a film. It is a point of no return where the story peaks and conflicts happen. Think of it as a “turning point” for the story, where the film goes to a completely new level, or maybe the protagonist realizes that the actions cannot be undone and the only way to proceed from here is by moving forward.
Stage 4: Falling Action
This phase is the aftermath of the climax. Are there any conflicts that arise? How do the characters react to the irreversible change? The writer builds up the tension here, inevitably heading the story toward a conclusive end.
Stage 5: Catastrophe / Conclusion
The final stage. This is the stage that the entire movie was leading up to and in my opinion, is also one of the most important aspects of a film. Arguably for me, the conclusion is the stage that decides whether a film would be forgotten in a few weeks or would live for years to come by. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a closed ending, as some filmmakers plan on a sequel and devise an ending accordingly. It can also be an open-ended conclusion that’s left for the audience to decipher (yes, this was a nod to Inception, another one of Nolan’s mind-f*ck films).
Spoilers ahead! With the introduction of Freytag’s Pyramid, we are now ready to take a closer look at how this applies to The Dark Knight. Again, if you haven’t watched this movie, I highly recommend watching it before continuing further.
Analyzing The Dark Knight
Finally, we jump into using the pyramid for Nolan’s The Dark Knight, probably the best comic-book movie ever made (yeah, that isn’t even a question!). A little synopsis for the movie follows the journey of Batman as he attempts to crack down on his arch-nemesis, The Joker, a heinous lunatic, wreaking havoc through the streets of Gotham.
Stage 1: Exposition
They say that a director leaves a trademark in their films that helps us instantly recognize them. In The Dark Knight’s case, it is right in the beginning, the slow zooming in on the villain, as shown below.
As the events unfold, we see a group of thugs trying to rob a bank and immediately right after we see Heath Ledger’s Joker, unmasking its vicious face to the audience by saying, “I Believe What Doesn't Kill You Simply Makes You….. Stranger”. To further escalate this scene, Hans Zimmer changes the chord from D to C in the background music to symbolize the introduction of Batman’s villain.
Ahhh just chills down the spine! Scenes like this assure you that you are in for a wild ride! I think this was the perfect way to introduce the Joker and now you know that the bank robbery was just the beginning of the devastation that is yet to petrify Gotham City.
Stage 2: Rising Action
With the introduction of Joker, we now move forward in the story with characters such as Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon appearing on the scene. Not only that but we are also made aware of the plans that the Joker has for organized crime to flourish through the streets of Gotham, the only solution to that being killing Batman.
Further down the line, we see the Joker crashing Bruce Wayne’s party because he needs Harvey for his mission. This is the first time we see Batman and the Joker in one single frame, indulging in hand-to-hand combat. I think this is the exact moment when Batman realizes that the Joker is indeed a major threat to Gotham and must be stopped at all costs.
There’s an interesting fact about this scene. Michael Caine, who plays the role of Alfred, admitted that this was the first time he saw Heath Ledger’s Joker in character and that he was so scared that he instantly forgot his lines. This is what he had to say,
“He’ll frighten the life out of you,” Caine said of Ledger, “He did me the first time I saw him, because we did a rehearsal on the first day and we hadn’t met or anything. He had to come up in an elevator to our home, Batman’s home. I’m thinking I’m letting friends in, instead of which he’s killed them all and he’s coming up in the lift. So on the first rehearsal…when the bloody door opened on that lift, he came tearing out. I forgot every line. Terrifying.”
Another thing to add, if you look closely at this scene, you would see Rachel Dawes, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, keeps looking back constantly as soon as the Joker grabs her.
This scene was semi-improvised! In an interview, she revealed that she was so terrified that she constantly kept looking back at Nolan, waiting for him to yell “Cut!”. However, he chose to keep filming and now we have this masterpiece of a scene.
I’d be terrified too! With a villain like him, I would have probably fled the scene, rushed back home, bolted all the doors and windows, and crawled into my bed. No way in hell I am letting that lunatic near me!
Stage 3: Climax
Aha! Finally time for the most important scene of the film. All the events were leading up to this very scene. In The Dark Knight, the climax occurs right at the scene where during the interrogation, the Joker admits that both Rachel and Harvey were kidnapped, strapped to explosives, and taken to two different locations. You can see that Batman is in a state of dilemma as he knows that he would only be able to save one of them. Without much thinking, Batman chooses to save Rachel while Gordon agrees to take care of Dent.
It is only when Batman reaches the location that he realizes the Joker won again as he had swapped the two addresses, resulting in Batman reaching Harvey’s location. If you take a closer look at this scene in the movie, you’ll notice the pause Batman takes before jumping in to save him, because he knows there is no way Rachel is making it out alive.
This is where the events in the movie take a sharp turn.
Stage 4: Falling Action
With Rachel’s death, we see Batman being conflicted and blaming himself for her death. But this time it isn’t just him, it’s Bruce Wayne too. He never got the chance to read her letter or the truth that Rachel had wanted to tell her. He still feels that there was a way he could’ve saved both, but he just doesn’t know how.
Meanwhile, at the Gotham General Hospital, we see the Joker pushing Harvey Dent into the abyss, forcing the emergence of the Two-Faced, the side of Harvey Dent that was propelled to rise from the dark as he seeks to take revenge by killing the only person who couldn’t save Rachel, Jim Gordon. This scene circles back to Dent’s dialogue, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”. Here, we see the death of Harvey Dent and the introduction of another villain in the film, the Two-Faced.
Once again, the Joker had won in his mission by driving Gotham’s White Knight to insanity and making him a killer. Even with the gun pointed at his head, he wasn’t afraid of having his brains blown out because he knew that he had succeeded and can have his last laugh.
Stage 5: Conclusion
All good things come to an end, and so does this masterwork of a film. The conclusion happens when Dent finally confronts Batman, with Gordon’s family as his hostage, waiting for Gordon to beg and plead for their life, before pulling the trigger. However, that’s not what Batman had in mind. Even after sustaining the gunshot wound on his lower left abdomen, Batman, without any hesitation, leaped in to save Gordon’s son by pushing the Two-Faced from the top, ultimately leading to his death. Even though Gordon knew that he was innocent, he still would not be able to tell the main cause of Harvey’s death without mentioning him as the villain, something he knows the people of Gotham City won’t believe.
Batman decides to bear the brunt of Harvey’s death as he knows that there is no other way out, but only for the caped crusader to be on the loose, with the police sending out search parties to arrest him, and thus forcing him to go underground.
We see Batman driving off in his Batmobile, with the police sending their teams in to chase and arrest Batman, and Gordon’s famous lines,
“Because...he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So, we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not our hero…….he's a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.”
And then the screen cuts to black!
Impactful isn’t it? I cried happy tears and was cheering all the time. As a big pre-Avengers: Endgame Marvel movie nerd myself, even I have to admit that The Dark Knight Trilogy might be the only movie series that is far beyond Marvel’s limits. As Scorcese would have said, “Absolute Cinema”.
Conclusion
Sure enough, Christian Bale and the rest of the cast nailed their roles but for me, this was the Joker’s movie. Stepping into Jack Nicholson’s shoes, Heath Ledger not only gave the performance of a lifetime but also managed to exceed all expectations. More importantly, what makes this movie stand out from the crowd is Nolan’s direction and his insistence on using practical effects. The majority of the humongous stunt sequences were filmed practically, including the Batmobile, with special miniature models made to get the required close-ups. It’s hard to come across a movie where the hero is side-stepped in his own film and the villain steals the show. And as Alfred Hitchcock said, “The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture”, which surely does apply to this film.
Interesting read indeed.
Great breakdown of the plot.