apocalypse now opening scene

 - there is no imagery, first thing we get is sound - the sound of a helicopter which we would associate with the war and with the epic context of a war movie. sound is kind of manipulated, feels kind of dream like and hallucinatory

- first image ;lush tropical inviting imagery; associated with studio system, technical colour was brought in to encourage people to come to watch movies at the cinema, was seen as a wonderful joyous kind of thing, but Coppola subverts this, as its in fact absolute destruction that emerges from that image

- wide angle lens to give sense of epic vision

- smoke coming in from the side, we are robbed of context. usually the establishing shot provides context but we are simply given brightly coloured smoke coming from nowhere, emphasising the feeling of surrealness, maybe even nightmarish

- Song 'The End' by band 'The Doors' which is associated with drug culture helps to present Captain Willard's state of mental alteration during the film

- explosion overpowers audience - fire and flames engulf the screen, the first camera movement (pan) timed with introduction of vocal "this is the end" in the song.

- split screen effect with Willard on the screen as well as forest fire, so we get the idea that all the imagery is in his head, he is also upside down so that implies that he is seeing the world in a skewed way,, cross fade to blades of fan that he's actually looking at making same sound as helicopters makes us experience the world as willard sees it; his subconscious 

- fragmented editing influenced by french new wave; jump cuts, used for symbolic purposes; Willard is living with no real sense of time and space 

- hotel room with little possessions could indicate absence of self..

- the dialogue delivered by Willard in this scene is dubbed over the cuts of him in his room, adding to the sense of insanity

- we see a high angle shot of Willard crouched down in the room appearing very small as he states "each time I look around, the walls move in a little tighter" this adds to the feeling of instability and conveys to the audience how disorientated Willard is 

-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buster Keaton 'One week' and 'The scarecrow' analysis

One week meaning is created in the frame itself, rather than through editing or cuts editing is extremely minimal, as invisible as possible, only present when completely necessary editing used is all for functional purposes rather than to create meaning; for example the opening shot cuts briefly to a close up of a new character before cutting to another long take of them getting in the car. so used to advance the plot rather than have an effect on how the audience view the events. the framing fits the size of the joke, mostly wide shots to show all the action happening, closest shot is the medium shot towards the end majority of, if not all Keaton's emotions and expressions are expressed through exaggerated body language and movement  size contrast is as a comedic effect - Keatons small stature is used to an advantage vs tall fatty man Keaton uses several silent comedy conventions - stuns, falls, special effects, chase sequences, set design, using mis en scene for jokes breaks 4th...
Read more

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: questions to consider

Do you find the ending of the film to be satisfying resolution ?  Why ? it was not a satisfying resolution at all - the audience does not see any conflicts resolved between Llewelyn and Anton How were you expecting the film to end ?   I was expecting there to be an ending fight scene in which either one of them dies and maybe Sheriff Ed Tom Bell gets involved in some way. Also for there to be a triumph on either sides it was quite ambiguous throughout the film as to who would get the money to succeed. Why do you feel the Coen Brothers decided to have their main protagonist killed offscreen , and then avoid a final climax between Sheriff Bell and Chigurh ?  Consider the effect on the audience in terms of expectations of genre and narrative,  and the  themes of  law and order v criminality , good v evil , heroism etc. I think that the reason the Coen Brothers decided to end the film in this way is because they wanted to demonstrate the idea that as peopl...
Read more