Film Opening Research- Brian

LORD OF WAR OPENING SCENE ANALYSIS 

Lord of War uses a very effective opening sequence that draws its audience in because of its uniqueness and originality. The opening consists of a 1st person narrative of a bullet. We see how the bullet is manufactured, checked over, packaged, shipped, loaded and used to kill.

The first scene starts with a crane shot/establishing shot coming down overlooking a factory. The factories lighting is very dark. This could possibly be to show how sinister the birth place of a bullet is. This factory creates weapons of death and the dim lighting used corresponds this. It could also be dark to show how the bullet is still in the womb of its process as it gradually gets lighter as it is shipped about until finally the bullet is taken out of its box and spilled onto the floor. Here bright colours are used to show its final birth before it is loaded into the gun. A fantastic view down the barrel of the gun is then used while the gun is aimed about and finally shot. As the bullet leaves the barrel we follow its path until slow motion is used to allow us to look into the face of its victim. Quiet shockingly the victim is a young boy which makes it all the worse when the bullet penetrates his head.

The lighting also shows us how far around the world this bullet has travelled from a dark factory to a pale shipping dock to a rather sunny equatorial region of Africa.
Amazing camera shots such as panning are used when the bullet is dropped and begins to roll. The camera remains in a 1st person shot spinning around and around until it is picked up just before falling over the edge of a dock. When it is picked up a finger and thumb appear each side of the camera making it very realistic as if the camera is really a bullet being picked up. 

The song choice (Buffalo Springfield "Stop Children What’s That Sound")is also an excellent one as it is calm and relaxed and not at all the sort of song you would expect to be played when corresponded with images of bullets, guns and death. However the pace of the song matches the flow of the course the bullet is taking well and also lyrically matches the theme of guns and resistance, "Step out of line the man come and take you away".

Personally this film opening to me was successfully and probably of o the most effective openings I have seen as it kept me trying to read into the message that was the director wanted to pass with it, mainly about the causes as well as the consequences of war and violence.

By Brian