Essay Plan For The Dark Knight Rises and Four Lions

Thesis: How are modern day themes in The Dark Knight Rises and Four Lions used to affect modern audiences?

Essay Plan

Point 1- Terrorism
Example- The Dark Knight Rises- Bane takes over Gotham city
                Four Lions- Drone Attack

Analysis (Micro)- Bane Takes over Gotham City- Editing- The clip shows cuts of Bane destroying numerous parts of Gotham, blowing up bridges, and trapping the police underground. The fast editing here shows how organised and ruthless Bane's terrorism is. This would shock an audience.
                           
Drone Attack - Mis En Scene- The clips shows a terrorist trying to blow up a U.S Drone. He holds the rocket launcher (prop) the wrong way and it fires backwards, destroying their terrorist base. The mis-en-scene in this scene is typical of what an modern day audience would expect terrorists to look and sound like.

Synthesis (Comparison)- These two clips are comparable because they both show examples of terrorism. However the dark knight rises uses terrorism to shock and draw the audience in but four lions uses it to parody conventional film terrorists by making them look stupid.

Point 2- Justice

Example- The Dark Knight Rises- Batman and Bane second fight
                 Four Lions- Wookie or a bear?

Analysis- Batman and Bane second fight- Mis-en-scene- Batman and Bane fight it out when the citizen of Gotham start to fight back. Batman defeats Bane with the classic hollywood narrative of good prevailing over evil. This theme of justice prevailing is what people would expect from an action film hollywood film

 Wookie or a bear?- Sound/Mis-en-scene- The police shoot an innocent man instead of Omar. They argue about whether they were told to shoot a wookie or a bear. (costumes) This scene shows that  the theme of justice is satirized by having the police shown just as bumbling and foolish as the terrorists. This would relates and satires the topical issue of police fighting terrorism.

Synthesis- These two clips are comparable because they show opposite view on justice in the films. batman has justice prevailing whilst four lions has no sense of justice or consequences for its characters.

Point 3 - Redemption
Example - The dark knight rises - Batman escapes from prison
                  Four Lions- Waj blows himself up in kebab shop

Analysis- batman escapes from prison- Cinematography- The camera is used here to show bruce waynes perspective of being stuck in a prison with a hole in the ground. It shows low angles and makes the hole and handholds look intimidating and look difficult. This is to show what Batman must overcome in order to redeem himself. Redemption is a theme in the film that is used to fufill the superhero movie convention of death and rebirth for the hero. The theme affects an audience because it appeals to the audience rooting for Batman and for him to succeed.

Waj blows himself up in kebab shop- Editing- Editing is used to show Waj and Omar talking on the phone. It uses the audience being able to see whats going on at both ends important for the dark humour of the scene. The editing is also fast and cuts quickly to introduce pace in the clip. The theme of redemption in this clip is prominent because it shows Omar trying to get Waj to turn himself in rather than kill themselves and others. He is trying to redeem himself and his best friend.  However, Omar is too late and misses out on his chance of redemption. This affects an audience because it is portraying suicide bombers as human beings who aren't just crazed killing maniacs like the media portrays them as.

Synthesis: We can compare the clips because they both feature contrasting themes of redemption. Batman is able to redeem himself because he is a stereotypical good character that the audience like and associate with. Waj in Four Lions cant redeem himself because even though the film focuses on the terrorists and their stupidity and a lot of time is spent character developing, he is still a suicide bomber and should be punished for attempting to kill people. This is an attitude that would make an audience reflect and think about the human beings behind terrorist attacks.

Point 4- Morality
Example- The Dark Knight Rises- Bane's necessary evil
                 Four lions - lion king allegory

Analysis- banes necessary evil- cinematography- the cinematography in this scene is used to show Bane's power over the scene. The use of low angle from the businessman's perspective and high angle from Bane's over the shoulder perspective show that Bane is dominant in the shot. The theme of morality is here because Bane, by his own morals, believes that by taking over Gotham City and terrorising its inhabitants, he thinks he is getting rid of its corrupt police force and government. These type of twisted morality affects an audience because its comparable to the sort of twisted morals that terrorists have (e,g suicide bombers) and the belief that what they are doing is right. This is an topical issue that the audience can relate to.

Lion King allegory- Sound- The use of dialogue in the clip in this clip is important because it spoken in a hushed tone, which implies a father-son bonding relationship happening. Omar is telling his son a version of the Lion king where Simba kills his dad and lies to his friends in order for them to defeat Scar so that Simba can become the lion king. This is an allegory to how Omar is going to kill himself and others(Simba's dad, Musafa)  so he can express his belief that he is fighting against western culture (Scar). Simba becoming the lion king is Omar's belief that he will go to heaven. The theme of morality in the clip shows Omar's morals and what he believes he is doing is absolutely right, and that he should teach his son to be a terrorist also. This type of morality is very twisted and would shock an audience but in a way that they can laugh at it because of the ridiculous allegory.

Synthesis: Both characters in both films have twisted morals and this is a point of comparison. They believe what they are doing is 100 percent correct and that they are helping everyone by doing it. The audiences reactions are the same also. Both would be shocked by how twisted these characters morals are.


Conclusion: In The Dark Knight Rises, the modern day themes are used as components to build an action film and make the narrative relevant for modern day audiences. However, in Four Lions, these modern day themes are used to build satire and amuse the audience despite this contrasting with 'The Dark Knight Rises' which uses these themes in a serious context.