Textual Analysis

Daniel Rothery

How do the films Skyfall (Sam Mendes, 2012) and The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012) explore the generic conventions of the action genre?

The films I am looking at are ‘Skyfall’ (Sam Mendes, 2012) and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (Christopher Nolan, 2012). I will be discussing how the directors explore the generic conventions associated with action films. Conventions of an action film include; themes of good v evil, the use of high tech gadgets, fighting and chase scenes, it can be argued that both these films use these conventions throughout.

Both of the films had big budgets, to accommodate the costs associated with hiring ‘A list’ costs and performing elaborate stunts, performing the elaborate stunts is also a convention of the action genre. ‘Skyfall’ had a budget $200 million and achieving a gross of $304,360,277 making it the most successful British film of all time. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ had a budget of $250 million and grossed $448,130,642; making over $100 million more than ‘Skyfall’. The reason the films grossed so much is the fact that the films being were made on the back of a successful franchises, therefore these films appeared to have ready-made audiences and are not risks – they are bankable concepts. The James Bond franchise is very well known to feature lots of action, explosives and high production values. The same can be said for Christopher Nolan’s Batman series; he brought in a side to Batman that nobody had ever seen before in film. Older films saw a Batman that was rather camp, but Nolan incorporated David Finch’s side of Batman, ‘The Dark Knight’; and that really appealed to audiences.

The focus point for ‘Skyfall’ in this essay is the five-minute chase scene at the beginning. Bond’s mission is to retrieve a stolen computer file that contains the names of past British secret agents.

Sound in this clip is very prominent and it really serves to fit the genre of action film. For example the non-diegetic soundtrack is very pulsating during this chase scene; it makes the audience feel more involved, getting them to ask narrative questions around the enigmatic situations set up by the director. It sets the atmosphere and the audience can share the emotions of the characters. The most notable piece of soundtrack in the clip is a sound motif; it is the very iconic original James Bond theme tune, it appears throughout the franchise and is very recognisable to audiences.

Dialogue features in this clip as diegetic sound and it is also linked in with the editing. We see Bond, Agent M and the field agent all using earpieces to be able to talk to each other; but what the editors have done is arrange the clips of each character in the different locations saying their lines using the earpiece and edited them together to create continuity. This part of the clip is also parallel editing, where the little clips are edited together to make it look like they happening at the same time. These shots are edited with sharp cuts; this adds a sense of urgency to the atmosphere.

The other editing technique used in this clip is shot reverse shot between Bond and the villain on the motorbikes; they are constantly looking over at each other, the camera using over the shoulder shot.

Everything in the scene is put there on purpose; this is called mise-en-scene, which includes location, costume, lighting, properties and characters/casting. There are two locations used in this clip; one in Istanbul and the other location is London, MI6 headquarters; these scenes where filmed on location rather than in a studio this is a trademark for the Bond franchise, filming on location helps the film have verisimilitude. The on location filming also creates escapism for the audience.

Bond, the villain and the field agent are in Istanbul and M and another agent are located in the MI6 head office in London. London is a very iconic city and can the audience can easily establish this because there is an establishing shot for this location that shows the MI6 building. The office scene has lots of other aspects of mise-en-scene inside it. For example they have extras as well as the main character M. All the extras are sat around at computers to make it have a sense of verisimilitude. The more verisimilitude the film has, the audience have more familiarity with the film.

In this clip there is lots of examples of conventions of genre; this scene is a chase scene. This chase scene leads into a gun fight section.

We also see in the screenshots above themes of good vs evil. Most action films have conflict and this film explores this by having James Bond, the good guy chasing the bad guy on motorbikes on the rooftops of houses in Istanbul.

The chase scene then ends up turning into a shoot of on top of a train, another convention of action.

‘The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012)’ clip in focus is the iconic scene where Bane, the villain blows up the stadium and the bridges in Gotham. Both ‘Skyfall’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ were released in the same year, which could be of some significance when comparing the two films.

Because these two films where released in the same year and had similar budgets, they are on a similar scale in terms of production values.

The iconic stadium scene has a lot of action conventions contained within it, again with the good vs. evil and huge scale explosions.

The first image that the audience see at the start of this clip is an establishing shot of a stadium; this lets the audience know that most of the action is going to take place there. The shot then continues tracking over the stadium until we hear a boy singing the American national anthem, then it cuts straight to him enabling the audience to see where the sound is coming from (synchronous sound). The clip then cuts straight away to the villain Bane making his way up a ladder. This is an example of parallel editing; the Bane scene is parallel with the stadium scene. Bane is easily recognisable as the villain because of the costume; he is very big and muscly, looking like he wants power over the situation. He is also wearing a mask, most probably to hide his identity.

The lighting around Bane’s scenes is very low key which resembles him being underneath the stadium and it also shows him as being the dark and twisted villain, compared to the very high key and natural lighting of the little boy singing; the boy is seen as innocent. The characters of the boy and Bane can be seen as one of Levi Strauss’ binary oppositions patriotism and terrorism. A binary opposition is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms. In this section the boy is clearly seen as loving his country (the patriot), singing the national anthem and Bane is the terrorist. 

Bane in this film can be compared to modern day and historical dictators of the real world. He is a very prominent figure who gets his own way by killing people or causing havoc. There is another scene in this film where Bane has three people murdered then hung off a bridge, sending out his message to the world he wants ultimate power.

There is a mixture of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound in the Bane and stadium sequences; the sound of the boy singing continues to play over the top of the parallel scenes. The diegetic sound in the stadium is the crowd members can hear the little boy singing, but because it is bridged over the top of the Bane scene it is classed as non-diegetic because ban cannot hear it.

The sequence continues and there is another piece of parallel editing; the scene cuts to the policemen walking into the tunnel, then cuts again to the head of the police department and he shouts ‘pulls them out’. It is at this point the audience infers that Bane is about to do something bad.

All these shots are edited as a montage to show progression of time, and this time the focus point is a medium close up of a man going up to his friend and taking a cup off him, this type of shot puts more emphasis on the characters significance in the film. Then yet again there is another sharp cut to Bane who is walking to the side entrance to the football pitch; the lighting again is low key on Bane, you can hardly see him. This is the point where Bane blows up the stadium and the bridges. The match kicks off and then the explosion starts. The man who was in focus before gets blown up; the stadium pitch then gets blown up and so do the police officers in the underground tunnel. In this explosion sequence there is a mixture of special effects and live stunts. The filmmakers used a raised pitch and made holes for the stunt men to fall down; they then edited the piece to make the pitch flat and to make it look like the men actually fell into the explosion holes.

All of these explosions in the sequence are used as post 9/11 hysteria they have negative connotations of the event and make America seem vulnerable. Unlike Britain, America is not used to wars or battles being fought in their own country; whereas Britain is. Britain was bombarded with German attacks during World War 2 and the British people got up and got on with it. America on the other hand are still in the process of getting over the September 11^th attacks. In this film Bane acts as the main terrorist and blows up the city of Gotham leaving it to seem very vulnerable just like America after 9/11.

This sequence, just like the ‘Skyfall’ clip, features a lot of the action conventions. There is a common theme of good vs evil throughout (police/citizens v Bane), it features the huge scale explosions. The intensity of the sequence also plays its part; it keeps growing until it reaches the climax then the explosions start. The special effects used give the film the sense of verisimilitude and as explained before it is crucial. Other conventions include the use of weapons by the antagonists. In most action films the antagonists seem to have the upper hand on the good guys regarding the weaponry; and this film is no different. The protagonists in this sequence are the police and they are very similar to the police in the real world; no matter how much authority the they seem to have over a situation there is always someone who breaks the law, (Bane) and that they are very weak and vulnerable. The police are there to give justice to the public and in this case fail to do so.

A question that may be asked of these movies is do they develop codes and conventions of the action genre or do they not.

Of course they feature the basic conventions such as high tech weapons and huge scale explosions but I believe that they do move the action genre along; bringing a whole new meaning to the word superhero. Yes, it can be argued that The Batman and James Bond do not possess superpowers; they do have an extraordinary physical prowess. 

In Christopher Nolan’s Batman series he brings out a side of Batman that audiences enjoy watching. The Batman is normally associated with tackling crime with his sidekick Robin but in this franchise we see a darker and a more physically stronger Batman that audiences are not used to. Especially in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Batman is seen as more of a vigilantly and the villain for some part of the film. This in its own moves the audiences view of Batman on from the ‘Camp’ side that older generations are familiar with, making it a film that can be more associated with modern high budget action films.

This is similar to Sam Mendes’ ‘Skyfall’; James Bond is the antihero in the film. It is only that since Daniel Craig was introduced as the actor to portray Bond that audiences have seen a rougher side to Bond, and ‘Skyfall’ moves it onto new levels with the film becoming a journey through Bond’s personal life.

So yes, the two films can be said to move the genre on bringing something that the audiences want and bringing to the screen the high budget explosions and high tech gadgets that people expect to see in contemporary action films.