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Week 2 Day 5: Protag/Antag Relationship Scene — THE DARK KNIGHT
1. Please watch the scene and provide your insights into what makes this scene great from a writing perspective.
2. Read the other writers comments and make notes of how you will improve the relationship between your protagonist and antagonist.
3. Rethink or create a scene showing the relationship between your protagonist and antagonist using your new insights and rewrite the scene.
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2 Replies
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What makes this scene fantastic is the unexpected reactions from what would be expected by someone getting their head bashed in by Batman. The Joker is just laughing, almost ‘getting off’ by Batman’s powers. The other interesting element of it is the Joker attempting to point out the similarities between the two and, in the end, how they are both alike (irony), even suggesting that they both should be against the same enemy. This seems to start to resonate a little with Batman, until Joker continues to spew venom from his mouth and he is reminded what a weasel this guy is. The motivation for Batman is to find out where he is holding the kidnapped victims. The motivation for Joker is to get out of this alive, even perhaps with a new ally. The taunting words by the Joker seem to be tempting Batman to beat him more, or join his forces. Such a great scene and the late Heath Ledger is brilliant.
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I don’t like the Batman movies. I don’t consider this scene great. What it does is blur the lines between protagonist and antagonist and make the audience root for evil. Batman starts off by slamming the Joker’s head onto a metal table. He smashes his hand. He throws him around the room. He wedges a chair against the door just in case the authorities watching this interrogation decide Batman has gone too far and decide to save the Joker. We as viewers are expected to root for Batman’s brutality because his intentions are pure. He’s trying to save lives even if he’s breaking rules of respectability to do so. He’s not getting the Joker to admit feeling pain. The Joker rather enjoys and encourages it. As viewers we admire Joker’s strength.So even though he finally gives Batman the information that he needs, he’s done it in his own terms by controlling the scene.
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