Motifs in films - Batman: The Dark Knight.

Batman: The Dark Knight – motifs.

In The Dark Knight, the Joker (Heath Ledger) features very infrequently so when he does make an appearance, he makes a very big impact which suggests how much importance he has in the film. When the Joker does make an appearance, it is hard for the audience not to be drawn to his face which is covered with paint. When looking at his face, the thing that grabs the audience’s attention is the red lipstick that goes up halfway across his face. Because the audience are now attached, they later realise that it isn’t because he has freakishly large lips but that he has quite large scars next to his mouth. This immediately tells the audience that there might be a reason for why he is carrying out all of these awful actions like bank robberies and killings. It also suggests that it may not be lipstick that is smothered around his face and that maybe it could be blood.

These scars that appear on the Jokers face have a big impact on what actions the Joker carries out. Whenever the Joker appears in the film he nearly always mentions the reason for his scars and who gave them to him. This is to scare the character he is talking to which freaks out the audience. These scars that he keeps referring back to are a symbol that represents his mental state and sanity.

I think when shooting Batman, they really wanted a motif that would play with the audience’s mind and make them think why? When watching the film, it can make the audience think that the scars are playing a big role in the plot and that the story is focused around them. When The Joker arrives in different locations to cause mayhem, he normally grabs a civilian and puts a knife to their mouth. Because of the scars on his face it makes the audience think that the scars on his face are the reason that he is puling all of this off. When he terrorises people, he wants to tell people how he got them which suggests that they are the reason why his actions are so traumatic.

I think this motif is very well used as it doesn’t occur much in the story so when the audience do see the joker, it has a much greater impact. As you can see from the pictures below, it is definitely something out of the ordinary.