Barry TuriDiscuss how antagonists are represented in The Dark Knight (2008) and Kingsman: The

Secret Service (2015)

In this essay I will be analysing all technical aspects in The Dark Knight (2008) and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), and how they contribute to the representations of the antagonists (The Joker, Gazelle and Richmond Valentine) in these two films.

The Dark Knight’ was directed, co-produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. The film revolves around the rivalry of Batman and The Joker, who rises amongst Gotham’s criminal underworld in an attempt to finally bring Batman to his knees.

The Joker is one of two antagonists in the film. He is the main atangonist, while Two-Face acts as a minor secondary antagonist. The Joker is represented as a powerful psycopathic man. One scene is the chase scene between Batman and Joker about half way through the film. This scene highlights the Joker’s superiority over everybody in this scene. Mise-en-scene helps the audience understand that the Joker is the main subject of the scene. His distinguishable purple jacket, his painted face and his scars differentiate from every member of his mob and the GCPD, who are mostly wearing black clothing,

suggesting that they are less important and connote their lack of remorse and amount of sinister – the colour black connotes darkness, so the costume could represent the two men as sinister. He is also portrayed as the most important of the mob. His positioning in the frames he is in signifies his authority – he is in the middle of the frame, in between the two people giving him weapons. The different props he uses gives him the upper-hand against the authorities. The Joker gets handed a pistol, then an assault rifle, and finally an RPG. This connotes that he is becoming even more powerful in the scene, as his weapons progressively get stronger and cause more chaos. The Joker and his mob are also in a bigger van, and camerawork used helps the audience to identify that. Long shots and two shots of the truck and cars are used to show the size of the vehicle and how it helplessly crashes through every GCPD van on the road. The low-key lighting used throughout the scene also connotes the sinister within The Joker, portraying him as a dark psychopathic criminal. He isn’t accepted by society because of his ‘scars’ so inflicts mayhem on everything and everyone around him. When the truck is flipped over, The Joker emerges from the wreckage and pulls out a machine gun, which is another prop that gives him, power. He is more dominant in this part because he is the only character with a gun, which is deadly. Sound is used effectively to represent The Joker in a particular fashion. Suspenseful music that increases in volume begins to play when The Joker gets out the van. The suspenseful music after he gets out of the flipped truck creates tension, as we do not know what The Joker will do next. This gives the impression that The Joker is an unpredictable foe. Cinematography shows that The Joker has more power than Batman himself. Low angles are used to give the impression that we are looking up to him. The angle of the shot creates an effect that the audience are powerless against the Joker, further heightening his dominance. It is prevalent that Batman is not the dominant force in this scene. Shot-reverse-shot close-ups of both The Joker and Batman show that The Joker is a more remorseless character – he isn’t scared of Batman nor does he care if he gets run over. Instead he offers “Come on. Hit me!” – his dialogue is more forceful and emphasised. His facial expressions show a more fearless attitude to someone who is typically feared. His head is tilted forward and he looks angry and forceful. This scene is just one example out of many occasions in the movie where The Joker is one step ahead of our protagonist.

Again, The Joker prevails as the dominant figure in the “phone call” scene, demonstrating his lethality and his sarcastic attitude towards the authorities. Batman physically poses as a superior character physically, and this is shown through high angle shots on The Joker to present him as an inferior physical challenge. He is on the floor as well, being punched by Batman, and this creates the effect we are looking down on him from a higher

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Barry Turiperspective. The use of punches and remorseless violence Batman inflicts on The Joker shows him as a powerless character too. The Joker is represented as an enigmatic character in this scene. The use of the 180-degree rule is broken. This creates a sense of illusion, as The Joker is one who psychologically poses as a challenge for Batman. The break of the 180-degree rule can also show that the Joker is a rebellious character. Christopher Nolan has purposely incorporated this to foreshadow the narrative of the film, where The Joker breaks free of custody. A shot-reverse-shot is used not to only show conversation, but to also emphasise his power and dominance over the police. Medium shots are used for The Joker and his hostage however; wide shots are used to show three police officers aiming guns at one villain. Still, he gets his ‘phone call’ as a police officer hands him the phone. This gives The Joker power because he is one person against three policemen; he still gets what he wants. The Joker is also presented as an extremely unpredictable character. His costume is one of a lower-class person as opposed to the policemen, who have authority. Codes and Conventions highlight that someone of a lower class is expected to be less superior; however The Joker completely countertypes this and holds the guard at knifepoint. The location of the scene can also highlight this to a further extent as well; he is in prison, which is somewhere to detain a criminal. Instead, Joker rebels this and begins an escape out of prison. Parallel editing is used to show both instances where The Joker makes his call and when the phone rings in prison. This makes him seem intelligent and prepared. According to stereotypes, The Joker should be the weaker figure, however he isn’t. He happens to be the strongest. His costume is less formal suit than the guard in the room with him, he dresses completely different (face paint, make up) and has a physical disability (the scars on his face). The police should also have authority over The Joker as well. They have special occupations and are dressed accordingly for their jobs (white polo shirts, formal trousers) which happen to be the most important jobs that Gotham City can offer. However he still holds this guard hostage and talks these police officers into giving him a phone. Not all antagonists are presented the same way though. The Joker also has some of his mob in the prison, which he had mischievously manipulated. He treats them like animals, and they are represented in the same fashion. They are objectified. They are the lowest of the low. They are in prison; almost as if animals were put in cages. The wardens also so no interest in the dying inmate until he has actually died, implying that nobody shows regard to low-ranking people.

‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ was directed and co-written by Mathew Vaughn. The Secret Service of Queen Elizabeth must save the world after a corrupt, rich internet personality creates a SIM card that controls people’s behaviour, causing them to kill and attack their loved ones.

Kingsman has two main antagonists; Richmond Valentine and Gazelle. Together they represent evil, but separately they are two different portrayals. Starting off with Gazelle – Gazelle in this movie challenges the female stereotype in action films. She is cunning, violent and not afraid to take on a fight, giving the impression that she goes against the woman stereotype. She is involved in most of the fights (eg; her fight with Eggsy near the end of the film, her fight in Valentine’s mansion.) At the opening sequences of the film, a Kingsman saves a scientist but get sliced in half by Gazelle’s razor-blade legs. She is presented to the audience uniquely not just because she is a female and is the last one standing in the scene, but her disability too. She doesn’t have real human legs, but rather bionic ones, however she uses this to her advantage to prevail in the scene. The Kingsman dies positioned in the centre of the frame, and standing directly behind him is Gazelle, who then takes the centre of the foreground after. This means that Gazelle has taken the power from the Kingsman, who was the dominant figure in the scene up until now. The slow camera movement around the sliced Kingsman shows a slow and brutal death, this represents Gazelle as a deadly character, and introduces her in a different fashion in comparison to woman in other movies (Bourne Supremacy – Marie is represented as submissive). Women are usually introduced through domestic work, represented as submissive and weak, and are often the centre of attention for the hero to save, however Gazelle in this scene introduces her as a force to be reckoned with, showing she can cope by herself. She opens the door to Richmond Valentine however, and despite him not actually taking part in the action, he takes control of the power in the scene and takes the scientist with him. Valentine is the one who officially captures the scientist, but through the help of Gazelle he was able to do that. This presents Gazelle as a typical female in action films. She is the assistant, the secondary antagonist. She helps Valentine who is of an even higher class than she is, and a lot wealthier too, and also because he is a dominant man and the main antagonist. Later in the film the see Valentine capitalise on his wealth to construct clever plans, representing him as a corrupt

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Barry Turiman. Gazelle’s costume in a majority of the movie implies that she is a woman of a high class, as she is dressed smartly (due to Valentine’s wealth). She shows no remorse of killing anyone. Richmond Valentine does not appear much in this scene; however he is introduced a lot differently to other lead male antagonist introductions. Firstly, his costume could be considered laughable – he wears a hat, a casual jacket, a polo top, skinny jeans and boots. He dresses as a casual man and throughout the film he dresses in the same way. He isn’t represented as your typical male lead antagonist. Others would be represented in a more formal fashion – the mob boss from The Dark Knight for example. He is dressed in a suit, giving him some sort of formality and authority amongst the other men in the room. However in this opening scene he is given power through his positioning. He is standing over the scientist who is tied up, showing he has more power, but also Gazelle is behind him at this point. This emphasises the generic convention of men being more dominant than women; Gazelle standing behind him means that she doesn’t have most of the power Valentine has. Valentine being positioned in front of Gazelle highlights his authority and importance, and most audiences can agree on this.

Out of both Gazelle and Richmond Valentine, Gazelle appears the most powerful and dominant. Editing is used to heighten the pace of the fight between Gazelle and Eggsy. Cross cutting is used to show two different perspectives of the fight. It shows the perspective of Richmond Valentine, who looks scared. His dialogue proves this – he says “Holy f*ck”. He is represented as a cowardly individual, and he doesn’t conform to the stereotypes of a typical male in films. If he did, then he would be fighting but he isn’t. Also, a close-up is used to show his emotion towards the fight, showing a frightened face. This emphasises that Valentine is a countertype of a male antagonist. Gazelle shows these more fearless traits more, making her a more powerful person physically and mentally, but still the audience acknowledges that Valentine is the more dominant because of his economical status and his gender too. The pace at

which the shots cut to one another creates a fast and tense feeling to the fight. Another piece of evidence to support the idea that Gazelle is a more dominant figure in the scene is when she jumps out the window. The camera is positioned to show more of Gazelle than Eggsy. Gazelle is more prominent in this over-the-shoulder shot, and the director purposely makes Eggsy a smaller, less obvious figure in the shot to show he is at a disadvantage.

In conclusion, I have found that The Joker, Richmond Valentine and Gazelle are all represented in different fashions. The male antagonists are very different to each other. The Joker poses more of a threat as he isn’t afraid to go to extreme lengths only to face the consequences, however when Valentine is pinned down to an awkward situation he only relies on his assistant to resolve the issue or deal with the threat. Because The Dark Knight is set in a more realistic world, The Joker relies on an arsenal of different weapons (props) to take down the Batman and the authorities. The Joker is represented as a typical villain to the superhero. He is menacing, and presented as an unusual man, with an unknown past, making him seem mysterious. He only mentions about “how I got these scars” and how his father was abusive through dialogue with his victims. Richmond Valentine however is presented as a countertype of a male antagonist. He has the brains, which is only considered half of what a typical male lead should have. He doesn’t have the guts to fight the protagonist, and doesn’t quite come to terms when he kills Harry. The male antagonists are very different to each other. Lastly, Gazelle is a trained female martial artist, which is unusual because in action films it always tends to be a male with these skills, but in some aspects she still conforms to the role of a female. She only takes order’s from Valentine, who is socially wealthier than her, and also because males are typically portrayed as superior to women.

Word Count: 1964

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