Snatch (Opening Sequence)

Analysing an opening sequence
Snatch (Richie, 2000)

Snatch is a film about a group of people trying to steal a diamond. It has English actors, English directors and the film is filmed in England. It has a theme of crime and violence throughout the film. This makes the film a British Gangster movie. When watching British gangster movies the audience will expect to see men committing violent crimes in the cities on England. It will involve guns, blood and a lot of violence. This is exactly what we get in this movie. We are presented with 2 middle class men. They look quite smart by the clothes they wear. Turkish (Jason Statham) narrates through the first scene of the opening sequence. The narration usually condenses the story line considerable. We immediately know that he is British because of his cockney accent and he states “funny name for an Englishman” in his second sentence. The generic expectations of a gangster are therefore fulfilled in the first scene. But in the second scene we see a group of Jews walking through a building. We are led to believe that these people are Jewish because of their costumes and hair as well as having a foreign accent; therefore they are not English people. The soundtrack enhances this by playing Jewish type music so it anchors the thought into our heads and makes sure we know that they are Jewish as we do not expect it in a British gangster movie. This starts to challenge our generic expectations because there are not many foreign people in British gangster movies. As we find out, these people are not Jewish but are English men that dressed Jewish. As they start to rob the place, they shout “Get the **** Down!!!” this ensures us that they are British, and by the way they shout, they are lower class criminals. We also know that they are lower class criminals because of the van they are in. So far, we have only seen these characters hiding behind the beards, but in the Van they take them off and it shows a group of middle aged men who obviously do not look Jewish but a rather ‘British’ face. The van also looks very cheap and tacky so we know that they are not rich. The crime itself was different to usual robberies. Usually a group will just charge into a building with guns and loud voices but this group gets in by acting as though they are someone else. That shows that they are not the typical robbers. They have thought this out. Near the beginning when one of them was being checked and he beeps he says “What do you want me to do? Drop my pants?” The person knows that the security guard will not check under his pants. This is quite an intelligent move from the robbers. This plays with the characteristics of the genre but overall the text conforms with the genre greatly.
Film Language
The mise en scene in the opening sequence tells us very little about the film but it is very direct. We do not see much in the first scene as the room is dark and you cannot see much of the surrounding; only the characters but the narration tells us the most important thing. I think that because the narration is important, the first scene is very boring when you watch it without sound so that would automatically make you listen to the narration. The narration doesn’t give you much about the movie either. Turkish talks about his name and his partner’s names and only mentions diamonds near the end which is what the film is about. I think they have said these things to show how simple minded these characters are. The clothes they wear are quite plain and the colour/lighting was dull which shows us that it is boring.
When Turkish says “Not many people are named after a plane crash” he seems proud of it as though he doesn’t have much else to be proud of. When he talks about his partner Tommy (Stephen Graham) he says “he tells people he was named after a gun, but I know he was really named after a famous 19th century ballet dancer”. This shows that Tommy has a reputation to keep. The thought of being named after a gun will represent someone who is dangerous, fast and a murderer so it will be good for his reputation. But being named after a famous ballet dancer will give him a weak image and would be embarrassing for a gangster. The overall view that we get from the mise-en-scene is that these two men are simple and have a reputation to keep on the streets which in some aspects is similar to gangsters. They will do things to keep their reputation high and gain respect. The way that this opening differs from other openings is that there is not much activity in this scene that tells us the story; it tells us more of the characters. From the second scene of the opening sequence we learn a lot more. It is a group of 4 Jews walking through a highly secured building. We know it is highly secured because there is CCTV’s every step they take which the camera follows. This is how we see the action and until they get into the room. When they get into the room they end up robbing the place which is totally unexpected. The whole scene leading up to the robbery is in black and white. This enhances the CCTV theme as well as telling us that they are entering a highly secured building and there is obviously something very expensive or important which is why security is so high. When the robbery is taking place the camera techniques change and the music changed to a high tempo track. This makes everything faster and the camera does a high speed zoom to their faces. As it comes to the end of the zoom the camera twists. They show the high speed and messes up our position in the film like the people in the room at the same time. They would be disorientated because of they are panicking and everything is moving so fast, the camera technique reflects their views onto us by twisting the camera while zooming. We do not see anything for more than a few seconds so the robbery is also a surprise to us. The sound anchors the fast moving pace.
Through the whole of the first scene Turkish and Tommy do not talk at all. They are just sitting on the chairs facing a guy. From the looks on their faces, you can tell that they are very bored. Their eyes wonder around not looking at the person in front of them. Turkish scratches his ear which shows boredom and it looks as though he is trying to find something to do. They don’t ever make eye contact. Tommy looks around at nothing and we can even hear a fly which means that the room must be really quiet. All this shows that the two are really bored and have nothing much to say. They don’t really want to be there but they can’t really get out of the situation. In the second scene, we do not see much visual techniques. The 4 men are walking along the hall way but we don’t get to see their faces until they get into the lift. At that point they are all silent and have ‘empty’ faces. From these faces we see that they are not excited nor are they unhappy which surprises us that they end up robbing the place as they did not look like they had that intention in the lift.
The narrative is spoken by Turkish who is one of the main characters. He starts of by introducing the characters themselves and talking a little about each of them and then speaking about the plot – diamonds. On the first time watching the movie we still wouldn’t know what Turkish is talking about as it is very vague. The audience will feel as though they are in a privileged position because we know what Tommy’s name is from. If Tommy says he was named after a gun he obviously doesn’t want people knowing that he was named after a famous ballet dancer but because we know it we feel as though we have an advantage thus giving us a privileged position because we know something that others in the film doesn’t. Turkish also talks about himself. He talks about how he got his name. We get to know him personally as he tells us he is named after a gun. Our relationship with the narrator extends when he said “Doesn’t mean we hold hands and go for windy walks”. It feels as though the narrator is talking to us and that we were questioning him about his partner. There is not much tension in the narration but Turkish hints tension as he speaks. He starts of saying “What do I know about diamonds” and then does on to say that he was a happy boxing promoter until a week a go… So as he speaks he is not happy. The thought of an angry gangster usually leads to violence. He finishes of by saying “What do I know about diamonds” again. He stresses this point twice which means it is important. The repetitiveness and silences creates slight tension, but the tension is lost when the music starts on the next scene as it is quite ‘happy music’.
The groups represented in this sequence are typical gangsters. Although Turkish says he is a boxing promoter he also says “keep him out of as much trouble as he inflicts on me” which shows that they must cause trouble quite often. Another group is the group of Jewish men. From the van they end up in they are seen as lower class criminals. Also, the way they shout when they are robbing the place, gives them a more lower class look.
I think the director plays the characteristics of the genre because there are 4 gangsters dressed up as Jews talking about the Catholic church. It doesn’t seem like the typical shouty gangster until we reach the robbery scene.
The target audience of any British Gangster movie is usually aged from 20-40. The audience are usually male as the movie is seen from a man’s point of view. There are no women in the opening sequence and the men are all aged between 20 and 40. This is because there are not usually ladies doing robberies or ending up in difficult situations. The preferred reading of the text is the attractive life of a gangster. All they did was have guns and shout really loudly and they got themselves a fat diamond but we know that this is against the law and is morally wrong. The negotiated reading takes exception to the robbery as it isn’t really that bad. They didn’t kill anyone and they just made a mess of the place. The oppositional reading however says it that does not happen. No criminals who rob a place will get away with it that easily. Even if they did they will normally get caught within a few hours or days.
From seeing the scene I wouldn’t mind being a robber. They get to hold guns and mess up a place which for me looks fun and you also get a massive diamond which is worth millions. I completely overlooked the law because there are no signs of police there. The closest to the law was a security guard but he got knocked out and he also looked quite ‘pathetic’ as he was young and inexperienced. He looked scared. This made me think of the law as small and that I could get round it without getting caught really easily. You don’t need to do much work and you won’t need any qualifications. You get a lot of money so it sounds like a brilliant idea.
At the time the film was made Jason Statham was famous from lock stock. Guy Richie also directed the film so people may watch it because he is working with Statham again. If people enjoy Lock Stock and two smoking barrels they will come to watch Snatch for the similar cast or story line as they are both British Gangsters. Not only are British fans pleased but the Americans may watch the film because Brad Pitt was in it. Brad Pitt has been in many famous films such as Fight club and se7en. Both of which are excellent films. The budget for this film is $10million which is very low considering many films are usually about $40million. Jason Statham with Guy Richie made ‘Lock Stock’ very successful so they would not have a difficult job getting production companies. They had Columbia Pictures Corporation and SKA films, both are massive in Hollywood. SKA also produced ‘Lock Stock and two Smoking barrels’. Having such big production companies that means that this is industrial film but it doesn’t have a very small budget. There’s a scene in the opening where it says it is directed by Guy Richie and it has a picture of a gun. This may remind people of Lock Stock.
There are several ways which the directors promoted the film. They took advantage of Brad Pitt and the success of Lock Stock. In the trailer it says “from the makers of Lock Stock and two Smokin’ Barrels”. So people who enjoyed that film will want to watch this one as well. And the posters have Brad Pitt at the front of all the other characters to attract Pitts fans.