However, when I saw the opening bank robbery scene in Christopher Nolan's 2008 The Dark Night, I had a feeling that I had seen this somewhere before.
Not only that, but I could've sworn that it somehow involved bank robbers shooting their cohorts during the robbery to demonstrate their seriousness (or cunning) was being played for laughs.Then it hit me- this skit from the 1993 season of Kids in the Hall.
The crux of the skit seemed to be the man with the list (Kevin McDonald) and his cluelessness about the dire situation he suddenly found himself in as much as the robber's (David Foley) ability to casually gun down his acomplices mid-crime to demonstrate a fairly unimportant point.
I'm not saying Nolan actually plaigerized the Canadian comedy troupe's skit line by line. Rather it almost seems like somebody challenged Nolan to incorporate a scene with a similar premise for Dark Knight, only to play it straight (and embellish it by having it be a mob bank complete with mafioso on the premesis).
Granted i'm nowhere near as well versed in matters of pop culture as some of the visitors to this blog, but what do you think? Am I imagining things?UPDATE: Thanks to Pi Guy for showing me a (literally) side-by-side comparison of the two:
| YouTube Doubler |
The Dark Knight robbery was to draw the Joker as someone that was utterly ruthless and very clever all at the same time. The center of attention is the joker, the principle bank robber and arch villain of the movie. The killing of the bank robbers was to reduce the shares to one.
ReplyDeleteThe kids in the hall skit was drew the man with the list as someone that was completely out of touch, even if totally aware (noticing that he knocked over the same old lady twice) of his surroundings. The killing of the bank robbers was to show that the head bank robber was just as nuts if not a bit more so then was the man with the list. An absurdity compounded.
The focus is different.
The one could have originated from the other, but I would doubt it.
The focus is different, but people rarely steal "the focus" from a scene when ripping it off (or "homaging" if you want to be nice about it). Much more common is the general idea or aesthetic. Look at Tarantino for numerous examples. He changes the focus all the time, stealing and repurposing for his own use. Nice find! The similarity is uncanny.
ReplyDelete