Choi Batman Response

Tim Burton clearly integrates a number of elements of Film Noir in Batman. Batman conforms to the traditional Film Noir style in terms of mood, style, conflicted heroism, and urban modernity, but at the same time undermines the style in its use of female figure.

The mood and style of Batman is set from the very beginning of the movie, the opening credit. The lighting is rather dark and low key, which complements the dark and rich shadows that fill the screen. Such use of lighting is further exploited throughout the movie, especially in the scenes where Gotham city is shown. Gotham city is depicted as a place with generally dark and heavy atmosphere, where there is barely any natural light from the sun, and the alleys engulfed by nothing but shadow and darkness. The mood radiated by the city is very mentally distorting, and gives its audience a strong sense of claustrophobia, neatly falling into the style of Film Noir.

Gotham in itself is a crucial element of Batman that carries the spirit of film noir. It’s an exaggerated, yet a classic representation of modern day city - highly industrialized, heavily polluted, corrupted, and crime infested. While the buildings are tall, modern and somewhat magnificent, there is always a hint of darkness that haunts and lingers in every corner, every building of the city, creating a strong sense of alienation and isolation, keeping the audience mentally off-balanced. Such expressionistic portrayal of Gotham city clearly is Tim Burton’s conscious effort to allow Batman to lean into the territory of film noir.

The depiction of Bruce Wayne is another element of film noir integrated into Batman. While it is very clear that Batman stands on the good side, he can also be considered an anti-hero. He is not loved, he works in the shadows, and although he has very clear set of moral codes of his own that he follows, he yet is considered an outlaw by many. Furthermore, Bruce Wayne is very mentally unstable due to him witnessing his parents’ death as a child. On the surface, he is a perfectly normal and respectable gentleman but in the inside, he seeks an outlet for his anger and terror induced by the tragic event. Batman is the one outlet that Bruce Wayne has, and the element or noir is shown in such a conflicted personality that Bruce Wayne/ Batman carries.

Best friends forever?

One thing that doesn’t conform to the classic elements of noir is Vicky Vale. She is just a normal career woman who isn’t seductive, does not abuse the male character for wealth or power, is not dangerous, and though beautiful, not necessarily glamorous. Tim Burton undermines film noir in use of such a normal, rather insignificant female character, which is quite interesting as a lot of elements in Batman charters the territory of film noir.

Choi Beetlejuice response

Why does America refuse the idea of death? Compared to many other civilizations around the world such as China or Korea, America has a very short history. China has developed over a course of a few thousand years, whereas America was declared independent only 237 years ago. Despite being such a young nation, America has achieved a lot over a very short period of time which is nothing but remarkable. On the other hand, such rapid change and progress could have entrapped the minds of Americans in the “present”. Since everyone was busy playing their parts in helping the young country develop, there surely would have been less room for people to think about neither the past nor the future (in terms of afterlife), needless to say that they did not have the chance to acquire the laid back, somewhat optimistic approach to death that some “experienced” countries with long history have. America is a nation that did not experience too much history or change, and therefore people are afraid of changes, and love being in the present. Death, being the one greatest change in our lives, is not the kind of thing that Americans would love.

Having said that, the view on death imposed by Beetlejuice can be described as the epitome of such stable, unchanging way of life that many Americans prefer and live. Upon death, the Maitlands have a hard time comprehending what happened to them. When they realized that they are dead, their first and most natural instinct was to go back to where they were in life, not accepting the fact that they were dead. They did not want to leave their house (although they couldn’t even if they wanted to), they did not want intruders in their house, and they wanted nothing to change when everything has changed. Beetlejuice is a story built on that one great desire to seek stability in life. It could have been a story about the Maitlands going through a mystical and fantastic journey through the world of afterlife, but instead, Tim Burton chose to depict a couple seeking to retrieve their original lifestyle, although their life seemed pretty mundane and uninteresting to me.

The Maitlands

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if afterlife is way more adventurous and interesting than life. The Maitlands just wanted their lives as they were, and change was something they didn’t want, no matter how dull and colorless their lives might be.

Choi Introduction

I am Jae Yun Choi from South Korea. I go by my last name, Choi, because non-Koreans have a hard time pronouncing my first name correctly and going by my last name just makes my life a whole lot easier. I have been living in my hometown, Seoul, until I was 6 and moved to Shanghai, China in 1999 and lived there for almost 13 years. Now I am here in Loyola New Orleans studying jazz guitar, but my love towards jazz is significantly smaller compared to my love towards blues and rock, as I have an insane obsession toward Pink Floyd and Steely Dan.

I feel very privileged to be here in birthplace of jazz because the overall music scene in Shanghai and Korea is just substandard in terms of both quality and quantity. The music scene of New Orleans simply supersedes the music scenes of China and Korea combined not only in quantity and quality, but also diversity. In the past few month of my stay in this city, I have already been to more concerts and seen more maestros of music than I have in my entire life.

I have very little interest in things other than music, but movie is not one of them. In college, my brother studied Broadcasting & Entertainment, which essentially falls into the field of filming, and his love toward films and movies aroused the same interest in me. Watching movies is one of my favorite, if not the favorite time killing activity. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller movies are some of my favorites but I like crazy odd, mind twisting, out of the ordinary movies such as Alice in Wonderland and Corpse Bride more than anything else. To be honest those two are two of the very few Tim Burton movies I have watched, and I didn’t even enroll in this course myself but I am still looking forward to have a great time watching some Tim Burton, and to find out more about him as a movie director but also as an artist. It is always interesting getting to know a crazy figure such as himself.