Opening Analysis

In today's lesson we were deciding to look at the different types of openings that films have. The beginnings of films that we decided to watch were:

-A History of Violence
-Brick
-No Country For Old Men
-Zodiac

I have decided only to discuss A History of Violence, No Country For Old Men and Zodiac. Firstly, i will talk about Zodiac. At the beginning of Zodiac, it is very slow and we get a nice feel to the beginning of the film. First, there is some radio that is played at the beginning before the title is shown. I think that first many people believe that it is non diegetic sound (Sound the characters cant hear) because it plays before we are given the scenario but on the other hand, it could have been the car radio which we see at the beginning. There were also loads of fireworks in the background which also adds to the whole nice, quiet and friendly scene. Next, we see two teenagers in a car driving to a diner but they change their mind and decide to go to a deserted area to chill and talk. But then a car decides to pull up behind them and then suddenly drive off. This makes us think that the car has gone away but then we hear the the car screech and then it begins to come back. This ends up with both of the teenagers being killed. Apparently this movie has been created after real events which started to happen on the 4th of July which they still haven't found out the killer.

In No Country For Old Men we have a weird beginning to the movie because we are first greeted with a voice over then all we see is a sheriff putting someone into their car and driving them to the station but what is most strange about the villain is that we don't actually see his face until later, all that we see it his silhouette and hair. Which we can see he wont be a good character because since the beginning he has always been in darkness. In the first fight, the evil character strangles the sheriff to death which is seen as a very rough fight but later on when the character kills his next victim, it is very calm  and easy which is the opposite of the first fight that we encountered so the pace basically calms down. I think that after watching the opening for this film i would definitely want to watch it.

A History of Violence is an especially weird film because at the beginning it just looks like two guys that are checking out of a hotel. But then they go into the head office and then we find out that there are two dead people in the office. After this, the guy goes back to the car and then they find out that they don't have anymore water left so one of them decides to go into the office and fill up their water then return to the car. but then a little comes out of the back of the office door which the guy shoots. We then come to a clip of a little girl screaming as if she was having a dream. This is weird because at the beginning at the first shot we see, it is one continuous shot and an annoying humming in the background (which i believe is the sound of the flies from the dead bodies in the office). It is a very strange and boring opening. i think which is why i don't really want to continue watching the film because it hasn't really drawn me in to want to watch more of the movie.

Overall, i think that the best opening of all of the beginnings that are shown above has to be Zodiac because it was the one that stood out to me and honestly i would want to watch the rest of the movie.