Effective Movie Openings

     Today, in class, we watched three successful and effective movie openings from a range of genres and discussed how and why the opening reached out to the viewer as interesting and how it worked well. The movie openings we saw were 'Four weddings and a funeral' , 'City of God' and 'Goodfellas'. My comments are below on why it worked well and what it told us about the rest of the movie.

Four Weddings And A Funeral

 This movie is a comedy drama released in 1994 and nominated for 2 Oscar awards. The opening is high in action, fast paced and also humorous. The films very first minute or so shows elegant wedding set ups, so right from the start we can tell that this is what the movie is going to be about. The music at the beginning also seems to be quite jolly and may be seen as jazz music which also fits in well to the semantic field of weddings. From the first scene we can tell that Hugh grant will be the main protagonist through the rest of the movie. This unique opening is not usually what we expect with a high amount of simple swearing being mostly the only thing spoken, which, to me is effective. Also the fact this movie is British and British people are seen as usually quite well spoken in media this contrast, I think , works well. Another aspect that is effective is how wedding days are normally seen as being highly organised and perfect, and the contrast between the unorganised couple starting the film and the highly organised wedding couple is very obvious to the viewer. This provides humour and works well.  

City Of God

The 'City Of God' released in 2002 follows the storyline of two boys growing up in a violent neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro taking different paths: one becoming a photographer, the other a drug dealer. This opening sequence is effective straight of because it goes straight into high action when the boy and girl hijack the vehicle, which leaves the viewers questioning why the young people are actually stealing the car and feel the need to run away. The opening sequence is highly emotional as we can tell there is some love involved between the two characters at this point. At first we grow a relationship quickly with 'Shaggy' and he then becomes the character we feel may be the main protagonist, who then is surprisingly killed, in a high adrenaline and highly emotion man chase. The scene is set well showing a quite sandy and desert like setting which suggests it being in a hot climate country. The clever use of shots make both characters seem confident that they will escape although may suggest Shaggy is quite vulnerable. From the opening we can tell the movie will be high in action, emotional and contain scenes from towns with dangerous living conditions and high rates of crime and we can expect more plot twists such as Shaggy's unexpected death.

         

Goodfellas

'Goodfellas' released in 1990 is a biographical crime drama about how Henry Hill and his friends work their way up through the mob hierarchy from being a normal boy to becoming and experiencing life as ' a gangster'. We can tell Henry is not really used to this environment and may be a lot more fear filled than his other two companions Tommy DelVito and Jimmy Conway are quite brutal and used to experiencing high gory violence, which the use of red in the title may suggest blood and notify the viewer that violence and blood may play a key role in the movie. A sense of humour is present when we find that this possible car problem is actually a man which has been kept in the boot, humour is present again when they all go in stabbing the body numerous times as if its a competition and whoever gets most stabbed or shoots may just be seen as more masculine. This would reach out to the audience as it is quite a gritty situation although there is humour present which makes it effective, enjoyable and signals to the audience that this is what may happen throughout the rest of the film. The fact the story starts what seems part way through which is unique to 'Goodfellas' leaves the viewer with many questions such as why has this man been killed and what will they do next etc, which is another factor that makes the opening more effective. Themes we expect to see throughout the movie from this opening are crime, Gangsterism, fear and respect