The Dark Knight Film Conventions

REAR WINDOW
Sample Essay
Successful crime writer's know how to realise their intentions of keeping the responder's mind constantly busy trying to work out ‘who dunnit', often feeling as though they are working side by side with the detective to solve the crime and find the murderer. As well as effective characterisation, character motivation, and settings, crime writers must know the conventions of their chosen sub genre and more importantly how to use and subvert these conventions to achieve their intended purpose. To emphasis the timeless nature of crime fiction we can take a look at two film texts that exemplify how older texts can still entertain modern audiences as much as today's fast-paced modern texts do. Alfred Hitchcock's film
The thermometer functions as an emotional barometer, representing Jeff's circumstances, although Thorwald has been caught, Jeff has survived and his relationship with Lisa is okay, it does not mean things will remain in the good condition that they are at the end of the film. If we move forward fifty-four years through the world of crime writer's to the year 2008 we discover the film "The Dark Knight" directed by Christopher Nolan. This most recent instalment of "Batman" fits appropriately into the hard-boiled sub-genre of crime-fiction. It meets many of the conventions but, like in "Rear Window", subverts several conventions to better serve the composer's purpose. As with most hard-boiled crime texts, "The Dark Knight" has a metropolitan setting. The citizens of Gotham city have grown to depend on ‘Batman' who represents safety, security and order, but when things get out of control they turn on him and demand his prosecution. Nolan uses this to communicate to his audience the human need for answers and a scapegoat to blame for the problems in their world. The detective in hard-boiled detective fiction is usually considered to be a ‘loner', this is true in "The Dark Knight", the real identity of ‘Batman', Bruce Wayne, is only known by his love interest, Rachel Dawes, a close colleague, Lucius Fox and his
Nolan uses foreshadowing in his quest to create a suspenseful crime fiction text. An example of this is when the Joker drops Rachel out the window of a high-rise penthouse apartment, ‘Batman' is able to save her this time but the event foreshadows Rachel's death later in the film. While it is obvious that "The Dark Knight" conforms to most conventions of the hard-boiled sub-genre of crime fiction, there are areas where Nolan has chosen to deviate from the standard criteria in order to better suit his text and audience. For example, the idea of the femme fatale has been subverted when ‘Batman's' or Bruce Wayne's love interest, Rachel, does not place him in danger but is, instead, killed herself. Also, most hard-boiled detectives are very confident in themselves but in "The Dark Knight" Bruce Wayne starts to doubt whether he can go on even though he can hide behind the vigilante of ‘Batman', he blames himself for the murder of innocent civilians by the Joker, unlike the conventional hard-boiled detective, ‘Batman' has a conscience, as does Jeff in "Rear Window" when he questions the moral and ethical issues of peering into strangers homes for his own amusement, and as he watches Lisa put herself in danger to prove his case against Thorwald because is incapable to do so. Through the examination and analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and Christopher