The opening is structured as at the beginning of the film it is an establishing shot, from this shot we are able to tell that we are in New York as we can see lots of yellow American style taxis, we also can see that the main characters is going from a cab to into the subway. The music at the start of the film is that it is very intense, fast and upbeat, aggressive and the music does not go anywhere. The music also links with the title where the titles match with the rhythm of the music. From the opening sequence we can tell that all four of the men in film are linked to each other, we can tell this because all of them are wearing coats, have glasses on and is wearing a fake moustache. When the men are getting on the train we can guess that the boxes all of the guys are holding have a bit of significance where there is a long shot of each of them showing the boxes, it could be gathered that in all of those boxes there is a gun because all of the men hold them close to them and as they are trying to take over a train and it can be said they need some sort of weapon to show they mean business. On each stop of the train there is a new man that appears and comes onto the train. The first is the weak one in the group, we can tell this because he is ill and he keeps checking the time and looking at his watch and from this we can tell that he is also very nervous and shows he could be the weak guy. The second guy is the flirty guy in the group, he can tell from his movements and actions e.g. checking out the woman, that he is very confident in his self and might see himself as a ladies’ man, another way we can tell he is confident is that he even takes off part of his disguise where he takes off his glasses whilst the others still have them in. The third guy who gets on the train can be said to be the tough guy of the group, he has a big build and when he walks onto the train he barges past other people, this can show that he might be a very aggressive person. The fourth and final guy who goes to the train is the leader. We can tell he is the leader because he is the only one with the gun out and is calm and quiet when he comes on screen, he is also smiles at the guy when he goes to the train showing how calm he is and this also shows his authority where he is the only one with a gun, and it can be said he is the one that starts off their mission by going into action by going over to the new train driver and telling him he is taking this train.
This is an image of the fourth man talking to the train driver in the opening sequence:
There is some excellent analysis here. The first part, about Pelham 123 is spot on in it's outline of how the characters are introduced. The part where you discus Strangers on a Train is less good. The point is that we tend to feel that movement from right to left is somehow wrong and so we tend to think of the man walking this way as being possibly a bad character.
ReplyDeleteIn the piece on Psycho you analyse the characters body language well. You are equally good on the music. However, the overhead shot surely affects us because it is so odd: we are suddenly right above the action. I remember the first time I saw this; I was so disoriented by the shot that I wasn't sure what I had actually seen (no rewind back then!) The comments on the music are fine inasmuch as you mention how the music has an emotional impact on the audience. This is vitally important. Well done!