DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THRILLERS; ‘HANNA’ AND ‘THE DARK KNIGHT’

THEMESHanna The dark knight

The opening scene of the film involves the joker committing a crime. This immediately shows themes of crime as he is robbing a bank and using a school bus as a getaway vehicle. This is similar in the manner of violence to Hannah however the opening scene of Hannah was much more tranquil and accepting of her violent act.

‘Hanna’ begins by a peaceful introduction to the main character. Here Hanna is seen in stealth mode in the forest. This tranquility is quickly shattered by her attack on an innocent animal as she fires an arrow into it. This could have symbolised the start of the violence.

CHARACTERS

Both Characters are displayed as quite ruthless and not afraid to hurt people in order to complete a task. The screenshot on the left shows Hanna shooting a dear after already killing it with an arrow. She whispers “I just missed your heart” before firing a bullet into it. This was an unnecessary act but added effect to our opinion of her character. The Joker is seen on the right to be sticking a bomb into a bank workers’ mouth. This shows that he wants to show off about his crimes and does not go about doing them discreetly. Hence why in the opening scene he robs a bank with a school bus.

DEVICES

‘Hanna’ uses exposition to give background information to the audience about the setting and the characters of the story. This can be seen when she is in the forest. However, in the opening of ‘Hanna’ the audience doesn’t really get a clear idea of what the main character looks like. Whereas a close up of The Joker (as seen below) gives the audience a look at what type of person he is and this is emphasized by the fact that he reveals his mask to show this.

LOCATIONS

The location of ‘Hanna’ appears to be set in a very cold, remote area. This intrigues the audience as to how she is living there and why. ‘The Dark Knight’ is set in the polar opposite in a city. This suggests a fast pace thriller and fits in with the genre of crime as there is often lots of crime in the city.

PROPS & COSTUMES

Props and costume add to the appearance of the character. Both characters are well hidden in the opening scene until they reveal their identity at the end. This builds up tension and suspense which is key in thriller films. Hanna uses more traditional weapons like arrows and a gun whereas The Joker is more advanced and uses bombs in the opening scene. This may give an insight into their background and/or how they will come to use these types of props in the future.