The Last Laugh

The convoy sequence from director Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' remains one of the most famous parts of the film. A thrilling attack by the elusive Joker in the streets of Chicago (doubling as Gotham City) against the convoy harbouring Harvey Dent, the city's district attorney. What ensues is a hyper-realistic bombardment of the trucks, and the ultimate arrival of the Batman. Now, whilst many who saw this film widely regard this to be one of the greatest comic book movies of all time, if not one of the best thrillers in the last decade, editor Jim Emerson has a very different view.

Below in this video, he creates a detailed analysis of the convoy sequence, allegedly claiming it to have many editing faults that break or ignore basic fundamentals and principles. Whilst he may appear to be pedantic or overly critical in places, some of his points may have some merit as to the general approach and problem solving that could have been applied to the scene's more hectic aspects.

In the Cut, Part I: Shots in the Dark (Knight) from Jim Emerson on Vimeo.

Now, as I was watching this video, something occured to me: this guy was actually outlining a possible criteria to essentially redo this sequence 'correctly' according to the errors he highlights, and the principles he cites. He goes on to point out the confusion in spacial relationship between the interior of the truck and what's happening outside. Furthermore, we see that we apparently lose track of the actual participating players, to the point where one vanishes by the culmination of the sequence. Finally he also proposes some mild alternatives (with only the existing footage to chop around.) So after reviewing the video, I broke down the key points to address as these:

-Do not disrupt the geographical flow of the convoy

- Build suspension of the main villain until the proper entrance, make it ominous

-Clearly define the spacial relationship between the interior shots (Harvey Dent) and the exterior (The convoy)

-Maintain the forward direction of the action, with no deviations. Both characters and audiences must be aware of the orientation.

-Illustrate, from start to finish, the participating players and their number throughout the sequence

In addition, I also took into consideration the filming sensibilities of Christopher nolan himself, and so created a sub-critera, of sorts, to make note of:

-The sequence should remain within the bounds of hyper-realism

-All angles and frames must have the potential to be realized by practical filming on location only

-Doomed minor characters must be introduced/established prior to their demise throughout the sequence (squad cars)