The Batman: Deleted Joker Scene

A deleted scene from the movie The Batman was posted online yesterday. What makes it so good? Here’s a few thoughts:

First, is what I call Conceal/Reveal principle. What’s that? Anytime a filmmaker hides things from the audience and slowly reveals information it immediately makes any scene more interesting. By showing the Joker out of focus and then showing bits and pieces of him in focus: the back of the head, the hair, the eyes, the mouth, there’s a suspense created, a mystery that makes the audience lean in and want to learn more. The principle is the more you can layer a scene to have concealed information, the more intriguing that scene will be. Because you’ve made the work for understanding and that’s rewarding to any audience member. 

Second, is the Role of Joker. Batman is beloved, but Joker is a show stealer. He’s Batman’s most popular character. But he’s been used a lot. Perhaps overused in cinema. But what if they tried him in a different role? Instead of out roaming the streets and creating chaos he’s sort of an ally to Batman. Think Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. Joker is a bad bad guy that Batman needs to solve cases. If the Batman continues with this role for Joker it could just be the perfect role for him in this reboot.

Lastly, I think the scene pulled a ton of inspiration from the end of Kurosawa’s High and Low. There’s a scene at the end of the film when the protagonist and antagonist characters, high and low, face each other through a prison visitation room lined with glass. When there’s a close up on one there’s a faint reflection of the other in the window. We see the two faces of the High and Low as a reflection of each other, what makes them high and low and their two ends. They’re different but in some ways the same.

Another show I believe The Batman pulls inspiration from is The Night Of. The theme is all about how the truth is obscured by the "justice" system. Even the cinematography plays into this. We have a lot of shots with things blurry or people hidden or boxed in by things in the foreground, or in a corner of the frame. This all gives the intended affect of obscurity, subjectivity, and things being hidden. The Batman takes a similar approach using focus very thoughtfully to obscure the frame and thus obscure the audience from seeing the whole picture.