Dissecting The Dark Knight

Jim Emerson has been dissecting The Dark Knight on his blog scanners for the past few weeks. He’s not what you might call a fan of the film, and he’s been building, post by post, his argument against Nolan’s choices as a filmmaker. His earlier posts are here, here, here, here, and here – all of them focusing on the framing of the schoolbus getaway scene. The comments are excellent, too, arguing both for and against the film very eloquently.

To my mind, he’s a little nitpicky on that scene, but I’m in complete agreement with his latest post, which highlights several different falling sequences in different films to show how poorly-thought-out a major falling scene in The Dark Knight is. After the examples, he then re-edits The Dark Knight sequence into a sequence that is, to me, more coherent and impactful than Nolan’s original. By a long shot.

This is both an excellent example of hands-on film criticism – not just sitting back and saying “I liked” or “I didn’t like” but being incredibly specific, down to the level of individual shots and angles, and suggesting alternatives rather than simply complaining – and also a perfect illustration of what can be done with video in film criticism and why we need to protect fair use. I don’t always agree with Emerson, but I’d be pleased to be half as observant a critic as he is.