'The Untouchables' begins with intoducing the main antagonist of the film - Al Capone. This is done to establish right from the start that there is an element of threat, and that threat has power.
From the first shot of the opening scene,
this power and money is shown through his luxurious
house and his many servants. The scene takes place while he is shaving, again
showing his immense power by the way he is so laid back in an interview. He
knows that whatever he says the press will make it sound good, and that is read
power.
The opening shot is a birds-eye view shot
of Al Capone being shaved. The camera is at an angle that shows Capone the
right way up, while looking down on the rest of the room. This reflects
Capone’s power, as the camera will go out of its way to show Capone in the
right way. The birds-eye view shot is also called the ‘God Shot’ as it shots
the world from the perspective of God looking down on the scene. By using this
technique for this scene it is as if Al Capone is looking back up at God, and
it puts them on the same level. Another reason for this shot is to reflect the
grandeur of the room, and thus excelling the grandeur of the person who owns
it. As the camera comes down it rotates
slightly, to frame Capone better. It didn’t do this at the beginning as the
room had to be framed correctly. But in addition to this, the camera work does
look very grand and impressive.
An interesting point in relation to the
cinematography is that there are only 3 shots and 6 cuts in the entire opening.
Most of the time the camera is strictly focused on Capone, and only cuts to
very short clips of the people he is talking to a few times. Clearly this is to
centralize Capone as the main antagonist of the film, and not to let the
audience get distracted from him. Also it
once again shows his absolute power in the scene, where the camera is
captivated by him.
But the technicalities behind this scene are not as important as what happens in the scene itself. De Palma doesn't want the audience distracted by clever tricks or visual effects, he wants the scene to focus on Capone, and he wants Capone to have the power, not the camera.
So with the technicalities of the scene stripped away, Brian De Palma is giving a clear message to the audience that the scene is about Capone. Capone is introduced as a business man, or a man who is very high in society, yet the audience knows that he is not as good as he sounds. The audience knows that Al Capone was a ruthless gangster in 1920's America, and with this in mind the scene is given a new meaning. Capone says he's a businessman with good intentions, but we know that he's a gangster with selfish motives. This adds a lot of depth to the scene, there are layers which the audience has to look through, and this draws them in. Even if they did not know that Capone was a gangster, there are various hints throughout the scene, such as when the man shaving him accidentally cuts him and then suddenly looks terrified that his life might be at risk. Also the newspaper reporters claim that he uses violence, and Capone admits that in the neighbourhood he grew up in violence had been the way of doing things. These hints show his true character, and make it blatantly obvious that despite his attempts to cover up, in the end he is the antagonist of the film. This sets up the film very neatly, by showing the antagonist, his power, his personality and draws the audience in through their wonder at how someone could overcome such a powerful man.
The Dark Knight
'The Dark Knight' opens with an action sequence, which immediately grabs the audience's attention and obeys the conventions of an action/crime drama. In the build up to the release of 'The Dark Knight' there was a tremendous amount of advertising and publicity, from Harvey Dent elections to real live recruitment into the Joker's 'army' via cellphones hidden in cakes. After this intensive advertising campaign the filmmakers knew that they had to deliver, and so to start off with a large scale action scene was the best way to go about this. The audience get what they expect, and are immediately drawn in. Another strength of this opening is the introduction of the main antagonist. This is an area which the director holds back on, as he knows that fans of the Batman comics will be very excited to see how the joker is portrayed. He lets them see an action sequence to keep them happy, but then he makes the characters talk about the Joker without revealing him to keep them guessing. For the people who are not fans of the comic, Nolan presents them with an enigma as to who the Joker is. This keeps them interested as they want to know who he is, why he is associated with the robbery, and what sort of a villain he will turn out to be.
The opening shot is an establishing shot of Gotham City, and the audience knows straight away that it is a big budget film. This shot swoops in on a skyscraper to centralise the audience's focus on on building and then one windowpane, as it shatters open from the inside by some sort of explosion. From one shot the audience is aware of many things: it is a high budget film, it is an action film, it takes place in a rich city and something big is about to happen. What 'is about to happen' is the bank robbery which commences immediately.
The next shot answers the enigma of what the explosion was, but then it raises more questions. It shows us that there are two men in the building who blew out one windowpane in order to fire a grapple hook across to the adjacent building, but then why are the men wearing clown masks? And why are they so determined to get across to the opposite building? Nolan can't help but add to the enigmas!
As the scene goes on, more enigmas are introduced, but more are created. The conversation about who the Joker is adds enigmas, as does the scene where the bank manager yells 'do you know who you're stealing from? You guys are dead'. Yet enigmas are solved as we find out that the characters are robbing a bank, and want to kill each other off in order to have a larger portion of the share. This is all presented very cleverly, as it presents the enigmas subtly without detracting from the fun of the action, or making the audience feel too confused.
The conventions of the action genre are made very clear through many aspects, such as the use of guns, the exploding window, and the bus going through the wall, but I think that what really brings out the action is the musical score. This was composed by acclaimed film composer Hans Zimmer. The music is very subtle, without any definitive melody, but just a bass undercurrent that hangs over the images and pushes the action forwards. What is very impressive is the way the sound levels go up and down according to whether there is dialogue, or action or whatever else is going on. The movement is immaculate, and unless examined closely is very hard to pick up on, but nevertheless adds another dimension to the scene. There are, of course, a few moments where the music picks up a bit and adds even more to the scene, such as at 1:40 when the men are going across the grapple, there are three hits on some form of drum, bringing out the danger which the men are putting themselves in, in order to heighten the drama.
'The Dark Knight' opening is very different to the opening to 'The Untouchables' as 'The Dark Knight' relies more on the idea that actions speak louder then words when it comes to presenting an antagonist. On the other hand 'The Untouchables' shows the antagonist speaking, but it is based on the idea of a lying, deceitful antagonist, and the audience are shown what he is like, not by what he says, but by following the opposite of what he says. Both of these openings present equal enigmas. In 'The Dark Knight' the audience is not shown the antagonist, but they learn things about him, whereas in 'The Untouchables' they are shown the antagonist, but they are shown almost nothing about him, and they have to read between the lines. It is very interesting seeing how this works, as it defies the belief that to learn about a character you have to see them. Despite them both being very good openings, I think that the opening to 'The Dark Knight' is more iconic and memorable, as the action is fast paced and exciting, whereas 'The Untouchables' starts slightly low-key, but it builds up the pace. Both of course did very well, and you can't complain with that!
No comments:
Post a Comment