Justin's Analysis of an opening sequence

Analyzing an opening sequence

Revolver (Ritchie, 2005) would be classified as a British gangster film due to the main actors being British born and also the director is British. It also contains some conventions of a gangster film like narrative, a flashforward, organized crime and people of a gangster type. In this opening sequence you do not see drugs or violence of any sort, but it does contain the main character being released from prison which could give the audience a thought about what he did and why he was in prison. Also there is a scene where he gets rejected from the tabkles in a casino which could give the audience an idea of him being in crime and he may ahve robbed this casino of money before. Revolver in many ways does show conventions of a gangster genre but on first impressions you may think of it as not being the average british gangster film due to the lack of drugs and violence.

The mise on scene conveys meaning in this sequence by the actors wearing suits. These suits show us as the audience that these gangsters are rich and not your average gangsters. Also when they enter the casino it is a very well layed out casino with very nice and expensive things. This also shows us that these gangsters are very serious and are dealing with very serious and expensive people. The telephones used are very old fashioned telephones which would not be on average use and also the amount of people that call because of the entrance of the 'gangsters' shows us that these are very important people and also should be on close watch. At the begining in the prison sequence when he is walking with two security guards there is a close up on his feet which shows us that he is isolated in the prison and also that he is under heavy watch. There are two close ups, 1 of the door opening and the other of the door closing. This is used to show us that he is being released from some sort of prison. There is a tracking shot whilst he is walking out of the prison to show us that he is fully being released and also how heavily guarded the prison he is leaving from is which gives us an insight on what he may have done showing us that it is bad and also the rain is used to cover and blur his face so we do not see the main character yet. Then when we do see him the rain is not so much in his face and then the star is easy to see. Rain always has the generic conventions of being bad so the use of the sound of rain is here to anchor our thought to think of something bad and to add darkness to the opening scene. A slower and relaxing song is used to start but then as the tension in the film gets bigger the sound in the song starts to get faster and also louder to help keep the tension going. The director has decided to use a crane shot when he is showing us the casino because this shows us how nice and how extravagant the casino is and also how big it is compared to the small characters. Then a handycam is used to follow him into the casino to make the camera barely noticable and to diguise it. When in the casino a lot of mid shots have been used, these are to not only show the surroundings and to show us how beautiful and rich the area is, but to also show us the reactions on the people faces. There is a lot of Cut editing to emphasise the reactions on peoples faces and to also show us who is speaking and what is going on at that point in time. The lighting in the first sequence is very dark, this is used to show us that the situation is very bad and also serious. Then when in the casino the lighting changes to very bright and alive.

In this sequence there was only a little bit of narrative. The first narration is used when he is being released from prison. Whilst walking out you hear him talking about how long he has been in the 'game' and also you hear about conning in a way. This can show the audience that he may have been tricked in a way and he may want some revenge. The narrator is talking directly to the audience about his experience int he game and also about how you need to learn how to not be the victim. The next piece of narration is at the end of the opening scene which is not directly to the audience, it is showing us his thoughts and feelings at the time. There is not much narrative but of what we hear we can see that he is a very cautious man because when he is in the casino and is about to go upstaires he says about taking the staires instead of the lift because there could be danger. He is shown also as a very smart character too because at the begining he talks about being conned and knowing when you are being conned or being the conn-er. The major themes showed in the narration talk about conning, being tricked and also learning about the game. Tension is maintained in this opening sequence because the music in the background is getting louder and fatser every time something new happens and also when he is walking through the prison different quotes come up from famous people who were considered bad which shows us that this character may be an anti heroe.

The social groups shown in this sequence are gangsters. They are shown as being very rich andwearing what looks to be expensive suits. Policeman are shown as forceful and also powerful. Casino owners and workers are shown in this sequence and also people who visit the casino are shown. Some values and beliefs shown in this sequence are that crime industry can be very good for one because the gangsters are always wearing suits and are also shown in a fancy car going to a fancy casino. But also it shows that crime is not always good because you see him exiting a prison and also when he is in the casino he gets treated rather badly by the workers. The semiotics as a framework show us that crime can and also cannot always pay off because he was thrown in prison in the bgining for doing something wrong, but also he seems very rich if he can afford the suits, fancy car and also be able to go into a fancy casino.

This film was rated 15 in Uk cinemas which means that the target audience would be anyone over the age of 15. The reason why it is not suitable for people under the age of 15 is due to the violence later in the film and also this type of lifestyle is not suitable for children to be viewing and getting ideas from. The preffered reading from this opening sequence would be that crime is bad and also can get you thrown into prisons and also in bad situations. The negotiated reading will be that crime is bad, but they people in the film are dressed so nicely and have such a nice lifestyle that crime can be ok in some circumstances. The oppostional reading is that crime is good and that it can make ones life better but in retrospect it is bad and the abberant reading would be that crime is good and helpful to people. The film seems to not be like an ordinary gangster film that i ahve watched due to the conventions not being displayed in visuals but i would read the text by the negotiated reading because they have shown these gangsters in a way to make them not look like they are gangsters but more like business men.

Jason Statham was used in this film. He was a star by the time this film was made. He had been in a lot of famous movies like Transporter 1 and 2, Lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels, Snatch and Italian job. Also Andre Benjamin, AKA Andre 3000, from the band outkast was used in this film. He is a very big star in the music industry. The use of these stars was important because it can help to sell tickets and also people who really like these stars will definatley come and see this film. Ray Liotta was used too. He is used in many gangster films aswell. This film was distributed by Warner Bros. which is a very powerful industrial film company. This film was not marketed very well. It was released over in the UK but not really in the USA. The poster is a picture of all the actorewith a quote at the top saying how brilliant the film is. A soundtrack and dvd copy of the film was released. The opening shows us that the film was quite expenive to make and also shows that it is very professionally made.