Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'The dark knight rises'

I detta arbete kommer jag att undersöka hur maskulinitet gestaltas i Frank Millers Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Det jag vill fokusera på är de olika maskulina drag som går att urskilja i serien. Warner Bros. Animation gav 2012 ut den första delen av en animerad filmatisering av Millers Batman-serie, som senare följdes av den andra och avslutande delen 2013. I min undersökning kommer jag även att ta hjälp av de båda animeringarna för att se på vilka sätt maskuliniteten gestaltas hos de olika manliga huvudpersonerna i såväl filmerna som den berättelse de bygger på. Med undersökningen hoppas jag kunna lyfta fram de maskulina ideal, som tycks vara styrande för gestaltningen i serien respektive filmerna. De frågeställningar som mitt arbete kommer att utgå ifrån är: Hur gestaltas maskuliniteten hos Batman/Bruce Wayne och de andra huvudkaraktärerna i serien? Finns det några likheter eller skillnader mellan "de goda" och "de onda" personernas maskulinitet? Skiljer sig gestaltningen av maskulina ideal åt mellan serien och filmatiseringen och i sådana fall varför?

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera hur filmmusiken har använts i Batman: The Movie (1966), Batman (1989) och The Dark Knight (2008). Att se en narrativ användning och beskrivning av Batman samt hur upplevelsen av filmen ändras när man ser den utan musik. Kompositörerna till filmerna är, för Batman: The Movie (1966) Nelson Riddle, till Batman (1989) är det Danny Elfman och till The Dark Knight (2008) är kompositörerna Hans Zimmer och James Newton Howard. Filmerna analyserats från ett multimodalt perspektiv och delar in filmmusiken i filmmusikens berättarfunktioner framtagna av Johnny Wingstedt Scenerna har setts på flera gånger både med och utan musik för att få fram musikens roll och betydelse. En scen per film analyseras. Scenerna är valda på så sätt att de beskriver Batman som karaktär på ett bra sätt. Scenerna beskrivs tydligt och en analys görs innan det avslutas med en konklusion. Scenerna jämförs sedan med varandra för att se likheter och skillnader.

Thesis advisor: John Michalczyk<br>Despite a long affiliation with film dating back to the French New Wave, existentialism has remained a fascination reserved for art film producers and intellectual viewers for decades. In the early twenty-first century, director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy marked the first time existentialism bubbled over from niche art films into the most blatant form of popular culture: the summer blockbuster. This analysis explores Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as up-to-date pictures of modern existentialism, embodied by Bruce Wayne’s journey through fear, chaos and rebirth, mirroring the existentialist advancement through uncertainty to freedom and self-creation<br>Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012<br>Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences<br>Discipline: College Honors Program<br>Discipline: College Honors Program

Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is one of the first graphic novels to redraw the map for this kind of literature but perhaps first and foremost for the characteristics of superheroes and villains. It is a story which we have read before in the sense that Batman, the eternal crime fighter, chases his arch enemies Two Face and the Joker, but it is also a new story in which we meet an ambiguous and complex superhero. Batman has become an old man tormented by his past, in which his side kick Robin died, and the present, where he is forbidden to operate under his alias. It is also a story of a corrupt and inept government and its errand boy, Superman.  In my analysis I have focused on how Miller has changed the superhero and made him more complex than we are used to see. For instance does a super hero have to have superpowers or is it enough to be super-potential?  Furthermore I will show how socio- realism and socio-political issues, such as a corrupt government, have crossed over to comics. My conclusion is that this old Batman has gone from a young crime fighter to an old anarchist and altruist. The fact is that there are no clear borders or lines between good or bad, crime fighter and villain, the characters, and comics, are no longer in black and white but more brought forth in different shades of grey.

In 2008, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight became the most commercially successful comic book adaptation to date. His film, which highlights the humanity and fallibility of Batman, builds on a long character history while also functioning as an individual work. Nolan's depiction of Batman, which follows a long progression towards postmodernism in graphic novel versions of the character, is just one of multiple filmic superhero representations in recent years to depict a darker side of the "superhero" mythos. These films highlight the humanity and fallibility of these heroic figures and place their actions under scrutiny. In Nolan's two Batman films, this approach allows the central character to reflect the moral complexity of postmodern society. As a result of his humanity, Batman must sometimes choose between two negative outcomes; as he does so, he places various moral systems under pressure and tests them. When Batman makes decisions, he must discard some values in favor of others, and in the process, he reveals his personal priorities. Through the decisions he makes in critical moments in the films, Nolan's Batman acts against "traditional" Batman archetypes which suggest that the hero's actions consistently adhere to one of the following principles: a lust for revenge, a desire to prevent future harm, or a vow not to kill. What eventually emerges as Batman's guiding principle in these latest films is not an ethical system per se, but rather a simple desire to thwart the goals of his enemies. Through this oppositional morality, Batman has the moral flexibility to avoid the dangerous ethical extremes of his enemies. This approach to crime also places the superhero's morality in the hands of his enemies, leading Batman to make troubling decisions as he attempts to stop the villains. Because Batman follows no single moral code consistently, the only way he ultimately differentiates himself from the villains of Gotham is through his belief in the city's potential for good, a belief which all of his enemies have abandoned.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka om och isfall hur parallellklippning bidrar till att skapa spänning i filmen The Dark Knight (2008). Tre scener som visar på tre olika stadier av spänning har analyserats för att se vilken påverkan parallellklippningen har för att skapa spänning samt hur dessa parallella handlingar binds ihop och om det finns någon primär handling. Med hjälp av Moritz Lehne och Stefan Koelsch undersökning om spänningens komponenter samt valda klipptekniker undersöks vilken påverkan parallellklippningen har för att skapa spänning. David Bordwell och Kristin Thompson teori om fyra dimensioner av klippning används för att undersöka hur de parallella handlingarna binds ihop. För att svara på om det finns någon primär handling används ett tidslinjediagram över parallellklippningen i scenerna. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att parallellklippningen har bidragit till att skapa spänning i The Dark Knight men är endast en faktor av flera som bygger spänning. Genom att kombinera parallellklippning med dramatisk betoning och rytm skapas spänning. De parallella handlingarna binds ihop genom att fokusområdet bibehålls över klippet vilket skapar ett flyt i bildflödet. De primära handlingarna i scenerna visas genom den frekventa återkopplingen till just denna handling.

Esta investigación se centra en el análisis discursivo de dos trilogías cinematográficas, The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2005, 2008, 2012) y Iron Man (Favreau 2008, 2010; Black, 2013), producidas entre el 2005 y el 2013, en el marco de la llamada War on Terror, que encabezara el entonces presidente de Estados Unidos, George W. Bush, después del ataque a las torres gemelas de Nueva York. Batman es el superhéroe que más ganancias ha redituado a la industria del entretenimiento en todos los tiempos, su trilogía The Dark Knight se construye a partir del cómic en miniserie Batman Year One, en 1988, de Frank Miller, obra de culto que presenta la versión más oscura del superhéroe. En cuanto a Iron Man, el personaje ha tenido una gran aceptación en la audiencia, la película Iron Man 3 es una de las cinco películas más taquilleras de todos los tiempos en el mercado mundial, es sin duda, la representación del superhéroe en la modernidad líquida. Ambas trilogías se insertan en el paisaje mediático de los últimos años como prácticas culturales donde la figura del superhéroe destaca como sistema de representación dominante que posibilita la defensa de una política intervencionista disfrazada de protección. La guerra se lleva a la gran pantalla, y es en el juego de la representación donde toma sentido esta tesis. Los superhéroes como íconos de la cultura popular americana han sido ampliamente estudiados, sin embargo esta investigación se inspira en el trabajo de Stuart Hall, por lo que conceptos como contextualismo radical, articulación y coyuntura, resultan fundamental en el planteamiento del problema. Se subraya además que el análisis se realiza desde una perspectiva semiótica-discursiva transdisciplinaria a partir del trabajo realizado por Julieta Haidar.<br>This study is a discursive analysis of two cinematographic trilogies produced between the years 2005-2013: The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2005, 2008, 2012) and Iron Man (Favreau 2008, 2010; Black, 2013). Both were produced at the height of 'The War on Terror', which encompasses the post 9-11 administration of President George W. Bush. In all of the movie industry's history, the highest profit yielding superhero has been none other than Batman, whose trilogy The Dark Knight is based on the comic miniseries Batman Year One (1988) by Frank Miller—the darkest rendition of the cult superhero-. As for Iron Man, this persona has been well received by the public. The movie Iron Man 3 is one of the top five highest grossing films of all time on the world market. It is without a doubt, the representation par excellence of the superhero in liquid times. Both trilogies permeate the mediascape of the past few years as cultural practices in which the image of the superhero stands out as a hegemonic system of representation justifying or legitimating an interventionist foreign policy under the guise of security. The war unfolds on the big screen and it is in the art of representation that this thesis takes place. Superheroes as icons of American popular culture have been studied at length. However, this study, inspired by the works of Stuart Hall on "radical contextualism" and on "conjuncturalism", an essential component to the problem statement, emphasizes analysis from a semiotic- discursive and interdisciplinary perspective and builds on the work done by Julieta Haidar.

The intention of this thesis is to identify and analyze the cat woman archetype as a contemporary extension of the transgressive witch archetype, which rampantly appears over the course of cinema history, working as a signifier of a patriarchal society's fear of autonomous and subversive women. The character of Catwoman is the ultimate representation for this archetype on grounds of her visibility, longevity, and ability to return again and again. More importantly, Catwoman and her sisterhood of cat women work against male creators as a means of female empowerment through trickery. Within this thesis, key films of varying genres are drawn from throughout cinema history and analyzed in order to demonstrate the intertextual network of characters that make up the cat woman archetype, and the importance of the Catwoman character in her many forms.

In my essay, I illuminate evil from the perspective of whether we can explain evil deeds through the perpetrator's narrative. As an object for my study, I have chosen a popular culture perspective - the character The Joker - which has been portrayed several times. The purpose of the essay is to study if we understand and can come to terms with evil deeds if we also know the perpetrator's narrative. The starting point for this reasoning is the question of whether evil deeds can always be defined as evil? I have limited my thesis to be based on theories based on traditional and historical research in the field of evil. The material I have used for my analysis is limited to the shape of The Joker in the script of the films The Dark Knight and The Joker. Methodologically, the essay is based on textual idea analysis - around evil and myths.  Out of the scripts of The Joker and The Dark Knight I have developed a hypothesis which I finally discuss the reasonableness and test logically. Theoretically, I have based my study on Lars Svendsen's analysis of evil, John Martin Fischer's analysis of the meaning of the narrative and Claudia Card's discussion of grey areas. Based on these, I have analysed, discussed and argued to test my hypothesis and answer the question of the essay: Is The Joker's narrative an explanation for his evil deeds? The study's method and analysis have generated a result that shows that this is not the case. The Joker has made his own free choices that have made him who he is and what he does. His narrative is not an explanation for his demonic evil deeds.

I denna uppsats undersöks den visuella gestaltningen av Gotham City i regissören Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Trilogy med hjälp av en komparativ analysmetod. De berättelser som utspelat sig i Gotham och Batmans relation till staden har genom åren givit den en viss karaktär. Gotham har framförallt varit platsen där brott begås och Batman bekämpar dem. Dessa karaktärsdrag har i ett antal filmer gestaltats av en mängd olika personer inom i stort sätt alla visuella medier som existerar, alla med sin egen vision av hur staden ser ut. I tidiga filmtolkningar så var gestaltningen av staden återhållsam medan den i senare gestaltats som en dystopisk mardröm. När Nolan tog sig an Batmans värld valde han istället att förankra sin vision i realismen. Men när trilogin ses i sin helhet blir det tydligt att gestaltningen av staden skiljer sig åt mellan filmerna och att varje film visar upp en ny sida av den. Med en syn på Nolans konstnärskap som grundar sig i auteurteorin men med urban studies som huvudsakliga teoretiska perspektiv undersöks i denna uppsats hur gestaltningarna av staden skiljer sig åt mellan filmerna, hur dessa skillnader påverkar vår uppfattning av staden och filmernas narrativ samt i vilket utsträckning gestaltningarna är ett resultat av Nolans vision.

碩士<br>淡江大學<br>英文學系碩士班<br>102<br>For a long time violence has been considered sinful and something that should be rejected. However, violence can also be a powerful and positive trigger under certain situation. Taking Debordian pessimism on media image as a point of departure, this thesis aims to justify the critical power of violent image, arguing that the paradox of violence may be the key to rethink ethics and politics of cruel image. The thesis is divided into three chapters, in which I cope with violent image itself, and tried to look into the institution behind it. In chapter one, we discuss capitalistic structure, in chapter two with viewing ethics, and relations between director and the audience in chapter three. The first chapter focuses on the paradoxes and ambivalence of content, form and Hollywood industry in The Dark Knight Rises in order to see the power and dangers of commercial violent movies. By blurring the boundary between good and evil, hero and villain, the movie prompts the audience to review the complex implications of justice and law. Nevertheless, there are ambivalence and dangers which are embodied in character setting and Hollywood structure. The second chapter deals with the paradoxes of gazing violence, which explores ethical dilemma of both the director and the audience in Benny’s Video, and considers that the film resists mainstream violent movies by means of traumatic looking and “displeasurable pleasure.” The audience in this film is alienated. In view of Haneke, alienation does not detach the viewers from being affected, but in fact it strengthens the viewers’ awareness. While seeing the crime from a distance and recognizing their scopophilia, the audience is traumatized by ethical dilemma. The third chapter reconsiders the hierarchical relations among director, spectator and image through the gameness in Funny Games, arguing that Hanekian games destabilize the power relation between image and spectators, in which the interaction brings possibilities of politically radical engagement. Being a parody of Hollywood thrillers, the film mocks on its conventions. By way of emphasizing the absurdity and de-emphasizing the ambiguity, violence is no longer pleasurable in the games between Paul and the family or Haneke and the audience. Instead, violence becomes a provocation through the agency of Paul’s winks, gazes and questions. In this sense, the audience seems to be the victimized masochist under Haneke’s sadistic authority. However, as Paul imposes his power over spectators, audiences are also staring at him. As a result, the power relations change by the audience’s potential resistance. As viewers dare to look at the violence, they start to reconsider their relations with it and then reconfigure their position according to their own understanding. In this case, at the moment we indicate a director to be a sadist, the counterforce of the audience is simultaneously implied. To sum up, violent image is more than an entertaining presentation. With the paradoxical nature, violence-as-image manifests itself as the beginning of reflections and actions. It is the traumatic encounters that reveal social problems for the audience to develop their own interpretations and take actions. In this sense, violent image may work as a resistance to capitalistic oppressions in both dimensions of cinema and reality.

碩士<br>中國文化大學<br>英國語文學系<br>100<br>Abstract Batman Begins and the Dark knight break through the stale American film scene and create a new genre of psychological super hero film. Director and author of the screenplay, Christopher Nolan reinterprets the classic American comic book hero, the Batman, with a whole new dimension. Instead the conventional distant and yet gothic under-toned Batman series in the past decades, Nolan’s new Batman series use a great deal of psychoanalytic essences as well as the thriller factor to bring in audiences to experience Bruce Wayne’s Gotham City and his personal battles. This thesis is to dissect Nolans’ new Batman and Batman’s inner world with the psychoanalysis point of view. This thesis is divided into five parts. Chapter One explains the Freudian approaches being used in analyzing these two films. There are four major directions: fear and Oedipus complex, symbol and alter ego, trauma effect and then the framework of id, ego and superego. Chapter Two discusses Bruce Wayne’s alter ego, the Batman and the formation of such a character. I investigate Bruce’s deep fears: the swarming bats and the witnessing of his parents’murder. His fear links to his Oedipus complex with his own father, Thomas Wayne and his new father figure, Ducard. Then I compare and contrasted these two father figures. Chapter Three explores how the Joker and Batman connect together through their traumatic experiences and how they reveal their likeness inside and out. Chapter Four examines the interlocking relationship between the Joker, Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Two-Face (Harvey Dent) with the framework of id, ego and superego. I analyze Batman’s path of nearly being taken over by the id to hold his own ground as the ego; then from losing the Gothamites’ hope, Dent, to becoming the scapegoat and thus accomplish the superego. The conclusion points out these characters in the films are beyond Freudian archetypes and inclusive in their good and evil. Nolan’s films provide a distinctive ambiguity and confusion of identities which have brought the audience a further look of the selves.

碩士<br>淡江大學<br>大眾傳播學系碩士班<br>103<br>911 attack has destroyed the faith of America, being under this threat and fear, people turn to look for hope and salvation from superheroes, which makes the superhero movies becoming popular and celebrated. From 1989 Tim Burton’s “Batman” to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, the image and meaning of Batman has become highly difference between theses movie works. This study would compare two directors’s movie works to analyze what image and meaning have been changed or stayed the same, the study would also detect what society spirit has been reflected by the Batman analyzing result.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2007.<br>Title from screen (viewed on May 23, 2007) Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-110)