The Dark Knoir: a Paper on Modern Film Noir

The Dark KNOIR

Film Noir is a certain style or genre of film that is characterized by a pessimistic mood, dark lighting, and shadows. A perfect example of modern film noir is the movie The Dark Knight, which was released in 2008. There are constant cloudy skies, filthy streets, and shadow filled alleys in the crime-ridden city of Gotham, which help to create the noir environment. The overall mood is pessimistic, harboring a brooding, dark story. The first protagonist of this movie is Bruce Wayne, who we know of course is Batman. When Bruce enters the scene, the lighting around him varies depending on the city’s current opinion of him. While the city still views batman as a hero, the lighting around him is light and optimistic. After the city believes that Batman is responsible for the deaths of many people, the lighting around him is dim and shadowy, portraying their opinion of him as a villain. The second protagonist of The Dark Knight is detective James Gordon. He represents a small beacon of hope in a city filled with darkness; therefore the lighting around him is generally bright and optimistic. The first antagonist of this film is Harvey Dent, the new District Attorney of Gotham City. In the beginning, the audience sees Harvey as a hero, so the lighting around him is light. By the end of the movie, we discover that he is a horrendous villain, which in turn causes the lighting to be very dark and foreboding in scenes that he enters. The second antagonist of The Dark Knight is of course the obvious villain, The Joker. Nearly every scene in which The Joker is present has dim lighting and large amount of shadows. Overall, the use of lighting in The Dark Knight is very important in creating the noir atmosphere. The drab city, dirty streets, and dim lighting all help to create an obvious noir environment in this film.