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Continuity and Editing problems in "The Dark Knight"


mtheory
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trying to overanalyse blockbuster movies like batman, is a waste of time.

nolan can have batman jump from a cliff in gotham and end up in sahara and the audience wont blink an eyelid.

if it delivers enough blood and guts, is violent and "edgy" enough while supported by a huge marketing campaign then it will be gulped down the throats of "audiences" around the world. 

we know its balony and it serves its purpose, want to take nolan apart? at least use a decent film like memento.

 

batman what?its a commercial franchisehat doesnt give a rats *..... about artistry, continuity, scenario, anything..have you even see the movie? its as terrible as all batman movies, and i will have a pop corn and a huge cola with that.

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trying to overanalyse blockbuster movies like batman, is a waste of time.

nolan can have batman jump from a cliff in gotham and end up in sahara and the audience wont blink an eyelid.

if it delivers enough blood and guts, is violent and "edgy" enough while supported by a huge marketing campaign then it will be gulped down the throats of "audiences" around the world. 

we know its balony and it serves its purpose, want to take nolan apart? at least use a decent film like memento.

 

batman what?its a commercial franchisehat doesnt give a rats *..... about artistry, continuity, scenario, anything..have you even see the movie? its as terrible as all batman movies, and i will have a pop corn and a huge cola with that.

Agreed! It's not a Kubrik movie, it's a guy in bat suit who can even fly in it for goodness sakes! As for crossing the line, lots of editors actually do it on purpose to piss ppl like him off, just go watch Apocalypse Now again!

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My... God...

 

Dark Knight was a better movie than the majority of stuff out there and that is saying a lot considering it is a summer popcorn action movie...  Based on a comic book.  I mean to me the part where the Batmobile of all things rams the underside of a multiton garbage truck was beyond realistic.    You think I am going to accept that but be tweaked because I can't pinpoint exactly where in a truck a couple of guys are sitting in a chaotic action sequence?!  People go to those types of movies to switch their brains off.  I personally like comic book movies.  The problem is so many of them are terrible.  Did anyone get tricked into seeing the first Captain America movie of the modern era?  Wow.  Talk about a real waste of time.  I can't watch garbage like Captain America and then criticise Dark Knight.  Dark Knight wasn't a masterpiece.  But there are far worse specimens out there.

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 I think we can actually learn a lot from it as filmmakers.

 

Right, it's not an all-sum proposition, which is how most inter web discussions seem to go.  Finding legitimate flaws in the production doesn't mean that an actual movie isn't worthwhile on other levels.

 

If you're not a discriminating viewer of movies, fine.  But if you want to be something of a film maker you should at least try to be so.  Knowing why Kurosawa is superior to a contemporary studio guy like Bay matters.  As an aspiring film maker of any legitimate level you gotta try to know why, understand why, and appreciate why.

 

This particular BatMan movie production was a beast of logistics and it does look like some chaos and unwieldiness of the production ended up on screen.

 

Or maybe it's just me...  Establishing the "geography" of a scene and allowing for coherent action is out of favor these days with a-list films.  Bombast trumps cohesion.  I'll take a 3 minute single pan wide shot of 2,000 extras and horses ransacking Aqaba in real time rather than 300 .5 second edits with 2 dozen explosions.   

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Or maybe it's just me...  Establishing the "geography" of a scene and allowing for coherent action is out of favor these days with a-list films.  Bombast trumps cohesion.  I'll take a 3 minute single pan wide shot of 2,000 extras and horses ransacking Aqaba in real time rather than 300 .5 second edits with 2 dozen explosions.   

 

+1. IMHO Michael Bay's -and others like him- merit does not lie in his craft, but in bloated budgets, the hard work of an oversized crew and many hours in the editing room. In the end, fast cuts, extreme closeups, shaky cam and explosions fail to deliver the message because they become the message. That works in commercials, where you sell happines and values no matter what product or brand, but cinema should aim higher.

 

The opposite happens with The Dark Knight. I believe Nolan is out of his element and comfort zone shooting action, but what makes those movies shine is everything but the action.

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Just watched that new BBC thing 'Quirke', the look is gorgeous but the framing is weird, takes rule of thirds to the extreme. Instead of it being seamless i found myself thinking constantly, what's this guy trying to do? He frames up a CU at say extreme left and the actor is eyes are looking 'actors right' then he does the same for the opposing character so that 75% of the screen is dead screen? Bizarre and jolting imo, just for a simple dialogue scene he jolts the viewer out and the magic is lost.

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Just watched that new BBC thing 'Quirke', the look is gorgeous but the framing is weird, takes rule of thirds to the extreme. Instead of it being seamless i found myself thinking constantly, what's this guy trying to do? He frames up a CU at say extreme left and the actor is eyes are looking 'actors right' then he does the same for the opposing character so that 75% of the screen is dead screen? Bizarre and jolting imo, just for a simple dialogue scene he jolts the viewer out and the magic is lost.

 

Didn't see that show. Could be deconstructivistic intention.

 

Generally, if someone is on the extreme left, looking to the right, he sees 'into the future'. Accordingly, if he sits on the right side and looks left (into an empty frame), he thinks about 'the past'.

 

In WW2, german newsreel cameramen had the order from the ministry of propaganda, that tanks and troops had always to move from left to right, when they were meant to conquer Russia. And from right to left for France ...

 

There is something arbitrary about the rule that one needs to be able to follow. We follow where the master leads us?

 

Life is chaotic, important moments are fragments, thoughts jump and mix with impulses from outside. An excuse for Nolan? Does he need excuses? Go, recut the sequence so it becomes comprehensible, will it make any more sense then or become 'better'? 

 

Decades ago someone wrote a rant about Back To The Future. How the episodes didn't fit if you tried and recut them in chronological order. I was more shocked than when I learned there was no Santa Claus.

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