Film
Research #5 - The Departed
The Departed is a 2006 American crime drama film. The
film takes place in Boston. It features a mob boss who plants a mole in the
local police department but the local police department do the same to the
mob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIsyHKsjftY
The film
starts with a still of a black title card with the words 'Boston' and 'Some
years ago'. Having this be the first scene we see is effective as not only does
it create mystery and confusion in the audience but it clearly displays where
the movie is set, Boston as well as telling us the scenes to follow were in the
past and have already happened. It then straight edits into a fight between two
men, during this scene the camera is extremely shaky which does 2 things; it
tells the audience that the person recording is
an amateur and
due to the context of it being a fight in the streets it allows us to presume
the person recording is a bystander who has decided to record the fight. It
also emphasises on the action, as this is a convention in most action films, to
make the camera unstable and shaky to display action and emphasize it. In the
shot we can see two grown men with old fashioned clothing and big hair
which tells us this is most likely real footage of a fight in the past, most
likely shown on a documentary or other educational movie/tv program. The
mise-en-scene in terms of clothing and hair style help emphasize the time period
this shot is in. With slight research I believe the audience is lead to believe
this shot is in the late 1980's with the clothing and big hair have being
typical of the time, this is also when camcorders were commercially available
and a bystander would be able to record a fight. Around this time, and it was
reported on so the older audience may know but there was a few gangs around
Boston during the 1980's and onwards and fact the narration is saying 'I don't
want to be a product of my environment' can mean that he doesn't want to be a
part of the gang violence and that he wants to change his area. So the audience
can assume that this fight is gang-related and quickly turns from a 1v1 fight
to a bunch of guys beating up a single person.
The next shot
of importance is right after the fight, as the narrator is saying his first
line it cuts to a shot of police officers looking after the transport of some
American school buses, eluding to the fact that the area is unsafe and the
buses could be attacked or in danger. Then as soon as the narrator says 'I want
my environment to be a product of me' it cuts to the fight, potentially showing
a link between the phrase and the big fight maybe being the fact that the
narrator wants to cause similar fights like this, maybe the narrator is the
leader of a gang and he wants violence like this.
It then cuts
to a shot of a mail box painted with the word 'No' and immediately after a bus
full of black children is shown as well as a shot of a black child looking out
of a smashed bus window. The significance of this order of events, the 'No' and
then the black children shows that the setting of the film is a racist setting,
the white 'No' symbolizing the white community's lack of
acceptance of
the black community as after the smashed window a large crowd of loud white
people is shown to have been blocked from a street from police. Due to the
choice of editing the audience can assume that they are blocking them from a
street that maybe has a black school on it or houses within which black people
live. The scene also has a narration which says 'years ago we had the church,
that was only a way of
saying we had
each other' eluding to the fact that maybe the church is no longer operating
due to certain situations between the black and white communities or maybe it
means that the church no longer acts as a way of uniting the community as
it previously did, as it previously made everyone feel as if they had 'each
other' to rely on and these recent events causing tension between communities
mean the church is now dominated by one community and intimidates the other
from going. It then cuts from a large gathering of some sort, most likely a violent
one due to the context to a black man saying 'Now, I don't know, they put
hate in your heart' and the editing of this makes it seem as if it is the
narrator continuing to talk, now saying the church puts hate in people's hearts
which could elude to the fact that it is the church that caused the conflict. When the voice over says 'we had each other' the crowd in the scene cheers, simulating the fact they are cheering for the non-diegetic voice over.
At this point
the soundtrack starts, cutting to an establishing shot which we have identified
as a convention within this genre. The narrator continues to talk about 'The
Knights of Columbus' which is a catholic fraternity who help low-income
families and he describes them as 'head-breakers' which could mean they
manipulate and convince people of their ways in a shady fashion which could be
classed as low-key hypnotism continuing to say how they 'took over' their part
of the city which only enforces this idea.
A tracking
shot is then used to follow a shadowed man left as the narrator continues to
talk, the shadows is clearly a mature man and the focus on him by the camera
leads the audience to believe that the narration is the thoughts of this man.
The narration goes onto talk about the presidency, irrelevant to the plot but
also talks about what he has against the 'black chappies' also referring to
them as niggers which is a highly racist term, telling us that this man is
not a fan of the black community and the fact that he could also be racist.
When talking, the narration says 'is this' and then pauses, this makes the
audience pay attention to the voice-over and pay attention to what he is about
to say which will clearly be of importance. After he finishes that line the
music increases in volume to symbolise the magnitude of the line for the plot.
It then cuts
to a POV shot, moving in a way similar to the way a man would walk, towards a
store. We see that the street sign says don't walk which tells us that the
person we are in the POV of is a rule-breaker and while this is a minor rule
that doesn't affect life much it plants the idea in the audience's head that
this person easily breaks rules meaning he could be capable of a lot more and
could be a criminal. During this scene he goes inside the shop and the shot
transitions from a POV to an over the shoulder shot from the man whose POV we
were in. The man behind the counter, presuming he is the owner when taking
into consideration his age, appearance and the fact he goes into the till to
get money to hand to the blue shirted man, for the purpose of this research we
will call
him 'Man A'. Man A gets handed some money and tells the owner 'don't
make me come down for this again'. As Man A comes into shot we hear a screech from what we can assume is the car in the background, this simulates the panic and fear from the owner as if he was scared of Man A. We can assume this money is rent and that
Man A owns the building or is using threats to earn money from them, for
example telling them to pay him or he won't stop his gang from attacking them,
we of course do not know this or if he is a leader of a gang but this is only
what the scene suggests. The shot transitions into a two-shot with a girl in
the background being mentioned by Man A and a boy in the foreground symbolising
the importance of this boy because he is in focus unlike the girl and his
mise-en-scene, clothing, is a brighter much more diverse colour than that of
the other people around him, bringing him to the attention of the audience.
Man A then decides to buy something from the shop but tells the girl to
serve him instead of the man, showing a convention that the men in these films
would rather interact with women than other men, symbolizing their
objectification by a majority of men and this is emphasized when Man A asks the
girl if she has had her period yet, possibly meaning that she has committed a
sexual act with Man A or someone else, most likely for money as she is
reluctant to serve him and frowns when he holds a tight grip on the product.
He then turns towards the boy and references him as 'Jonny Sullivan’s kid'
telling the audience that he is in contact or has been in contact with the
boy's father and therefore knows the boy. When the shot cuts to a close-up of
the boy's face to display his reactions to the conversation he is shown as
being quiet and shy, meaning this is either the boy's personality or Man A has
a reputation of violence or intimidation causing the boy to be afraid of him.
However, when the man
starts to tell the owner of the shop to gather up some
food and supplies, he is shown in a charitable, kind light, having learnt the
boy lives with his grandmother may have triggered a feeling in Man A to which
he respects and wants to help the boy and his grandmother. The gathering is shown in a quick succession of cuts to display a rush, the owner wants to do it quickly to please Man A. Instead of paying
for the groceries and getting the change he tells the girl to keep the money he
just got from the owner and to 'buy yourself some makeup' to the girl, further
showing this convention of the power men have over
women in this genre, telling
her what to do to look pretty. He then hands the boy some spare change from
earlier and tells him if he wants more to meet him down Man A's road, this
makes the man seem dodgy, offering a child work as child labor is illegal in
most places in the world. The soundtrack displays the dodgy nature of the conversation as it is much lower and quieter than before. The shot then goes into a shot of the boy walking
home with the groceries and the man watching him, this shows the man's interest
with the boy showing the audience that the man has plans for him. This can be
seen in two ways, devious and ominous causing the audience to see malicious
intent in the man's actions which could corrupt the boy and turn him to a life
of crime or that the man merely wants to help the boy in life, giving him some
key skills and work experience, earning money in the process. The soundtrack picks up where it left off here displaying the situation returning to normal.
The next shot is inside a church which we know because of the clothes the boy and what we can presume is the priest and the surrounding area, focusing on the boy in robes displaying
his innocence and good will, helping lead a funeral service. The focus of white
shows us that currently the boy is pure and innocent. To contrast this, the
next shot is inside a dark garage, with Man A in the shadows and the boy listening
to him, symbolizing the boy listening
the shadows, to the dark, to what the
church sees as evil temptations. Man A is describing church as telling the boys
that 'church wants you in your place' saying it wants you to 'kneel, stand,
kneel, stand' symbolizing the repetitiveness of the whole idea and the
obedience it wants from its visitors. Man A goes on to say to them if 'that's
what your going for I don't know what to do for you' meaning he isn't going to
be telling the boys exactly what to do, they have to have initiative
and this
is backed up in the repeated phrase from earlier in the opening, 'A man makes
his own way, no one gives it too you, you have to take it' which tells the
audience that Man A must have had a rough experience involving work, a
situation where he realized he would have to do everything himself, the
emphasis on this phrase and it's repetition means it is important top the man
and of importance to him. To display the side of darkness inside Man A as
discussed later, he describes to the boys what happened to the people who last
tried to tell him what to do and immediately cuts to a close up of a gun just
before he shoots a man and woman in the back of the head. The fact that
the same song is playing throughout the past scenes and continues through this
one shows Man A's distance from the reality, he has little to no hesitance
to shooting these two and laughs because the woman fell 'funny'. This gives
insight to the character's behavior so the audience can then justify his actions
and intentions later on in the film.
The next scene starts with a voice-over from the previous seen, Man A
talking about being someone at the end of the shooting scene shows us that this
is who he has decided to be, who he wants to be and that the church did not
help with that decision. This is where the music finally changes to a more
serious tone, slower and more methodical describing the situation, emphasizing
on the fact that he is giving some serious, down to earth advice to the boy,
saying that the church wont let you believe you can be who you want, continuing
to say that the church would tell people they could be either 'cops' the good
people in life, pursuing evil or just not committing it 'or criminals' the
people who sin, the people who brake the laws and dishonor God.
It is important to note that through this entire opening Man A's face has
been shrouded in mystery, the director's use of lighting keeping it in the
shadows, hiding any important features of it from the audience making them wander, who he is, what he looks like and the ways he reacts. He is hidden as it creates a sense of mystery, and causes the audience to not judge him based on what he looks like, keeping his face hidden means that they don't assume anything about the man until the film gives them some information to make these presumptions from. At the end of the opening he walks up to the boy, revealing his face saying how 'when your faced with a loaded gun, what's the difference?". They decided to show his face at this moment because it is a moment of honesty, he is telling the boy exactly how it is and giving him some solid advise, and the reveal of his face means this is the true man, they way he will be throughout the rest of the film. It also displays trust, he has kept his face in the dark to everyone else but reveals it to this boy.
Overall, The Departed has taught me the effects of keeping a character's physical features hidden throughout a scene or opening and how it creates a mysterious element around a character and stops the audience making assumptions based on their features instead of their actions. It has also taught me how the soundtrack can help emphasize the dynamic of the opening and bring attention to certain parts of it, highlighting and assisting in the effect the scene creates.
Here we are shown a Mid-Two shot of two men, a white and a black which immediately displays a sense of power between the two which we can tell because the white man is in a clean, smart suit leaning up against his car look impatient, watching the black man drive in, smiling and nodding his head disapprovingly. The black man is wearing a large black overcoat which makes the audience feel uneasy due to the amount of hidden space, leading the audience to assume at this point that the white man is the more important of the two due to his more official and smart looking attire. We also see that the black man is wearing sunglasses even though it is night which symbolises that he has something inside him he wishes to hide, which is revealed later on. The scene continues to a conversation between the two, discussing who is late which the audience can tell is the black man since he arrived, clearly in a hurry due to his reckless driving. During the scene the white man takes his glasses off, proving to the black man that he has nothing to hide in this confrontation.
The black man uses fast speech and crazy hand gestures to distract the white man to the fact he was late, diverting his attention to trying to understand what he is saying and following his gestures. As we saw in other film openings, this is a convention in cop films when a black man is involved as they use their speech and gestures to distract to the underlying fact. He also acts as the white man's friend, being all chummy with him
telling him to 'put gun away' which is clearly a threat to the black man which he wants to get rid of so hides his intention of protecting himself under his 'concern' for the white man. As they walk to the back of the car the black man starts quickly looking around nervously checking each side multiple time, this makes the black man seem nervous making the whole event seem illegal to the audience as why else would someone check their surroundings multiple times. It also enforces the stereotype that black individuals are often involved in crime. He also repeats the phrase 'come on' a lot of times as he is waiting for the boot of the car to be opened, this is to rush the white man, providing a sense of urgency and only adding to the feeling that this is illegal for the audience. The way he uses his dialogue and gestures could be seen as desperation to get this deal over and done with as quickly as possible so as to avoid detection by the wrong people (police) and could be transferred to my opening through the uses of repeating words where a certain act needs to be done quicker or sooner and I could use the fact of the body language being large and intimidating to show who my main character his and display his power.
The next part of significance is when the boot is opened and there is a close-up of its contents, a batch of C4 which is commonly known as explosives. When they are shown there is a change in the non-diegetic sound, a soundtrack is heard which is low and slow, providing suspense to display to the magnitude of the situation. We can confirm with the white mans actions, holding the boot and constantly diverting his gaze from the boot of the car to his surroundings clearly displaying his unease to having this boot open. The black man reacts by complimenting him first, making him feel good about the deal, showing him his acceptance to then spin it on his head and say "oh shit" after being told it is C4. The serious nature on his face at this point eludes to the fact he is nervous to actually obtain this, realising the damage it could do but then quickly reassures the white man by telling him 'you don't now how you make me feel' and saying that another party couldn't get it and then questioning where he got it from. This chain of events convinces the audience that the black man is eager to obtain this, assuming he is up to no good. As he leaves to go get 'the money' a pair of cops confronts the pair.
car. The fact he keeps his backed turned to the officers and his back is turned when the shot is towards the pair, like a POV shot from the officer's perspective which displays the fact that he has something to hide from them. He then quickly takes the black man hostage holding him to gunpoint. The officers immediately draw their weapons and point them at the pair, there are a lot of straight edits at this point to quicken the pace of the film, keeping the audience on their toes as anything could happen at any moment. The black man then try's to convince the officers to leave to keep them out of harms way, trying to convince them that him and the white man were just talking which at this point they clearly were doing more than just talking due to the possession of a gun. Using his quick talking, the white man is focused on the officers and what the black man is saying, not what he is doing and he takes this opportunity to punch the white man and drop him to the ground, all the while keeping his hands out and where the officers can see him as if he were to put them near his pockets, as stereotypes would lead us to assume, the officers may shoot him out of caution. After a brief exchange of phrases between the officers and the black man the music begins to slowly make its way louder and to a higher pitch to display that something is about to happen.
As the music spikes, changing to a different track the white man shoots both officers from the ground and the black man being cautious quickly jumps behind a car. The conventions here are that as the white man shoots the camera is focused on him then cuts to the man being shot, and repeats for the next. The way the black man dives behind a car is over-exaggerated and therefore creates this sense of comedy in the
scene. The white man then quickly gets in his car and rushes to get out the parking lot, seeing his escape and trying to prevent it, the black man pulls out his own gun and begins shooting at the getaway car. The sound of the tires screeching throughout this scene puts emphasis on the constant changes of speeds, going from fast to slow causes the tires to skid and create the noise, making the audience aware of how fast the car is going. He then crashes into the police vehicle displaying his desperation to get away as he does not care for the cars around him as he crashes into many others soon after. A comedic element is seen when the black man runs over to the officers and says 'didn't I tell you to get back in the car?' which in this situation is inappropriate and therefore comedic.
As the scene continues the music often spikes with volume/pitch when the car crashes into something, skids or when a gunshot is fired providing emphasis on the action in the scene. After shots are fired and the car crashes/nearly crashes into many oncoming vehicles the white man says 'Ive got C4 in the trunk!' shouting as if trying to tell the black man to stop which is ironic as not only was it the black man who wanted the C4 in the first place but also because he would never be able to hear the man in the car, the shakiness of the camera in this shot also helps emphasis the action and suspense of the shot
After a shot that breaks the back window of the car, the music begins to fluctuate from high to low, keeping the audience engaged and foreshadowing the soon-to-be explosion of the car. The breaking of the glass also symbolises the breaking of the white man's resolve as he soon after decides to abandon the car and jump out into the road. Then the shot cuts to a mid shot of the black man and his gun as he shoots and then cuts to the car exploding, featuring many angles so that the audience is engaged and that the explosion is always in the centre of the shot. The music here can hardly be heard but has become very loud/high pitched to display the sudden explosion.
After the explosion is finished it cuts to a semi-long shot of the black man as the music cuts to a light-hearted musical track, similar to that of a dancing track. The funniest part of the opening is here, after having blown up a car, the black man believes it is the best idea to then do a 'victory dance' looking around as he does, displaying his want to show off and for people to see and give him their attention. After this he rushes over to
The film
starts with a still of a black title card with the words 'Boston' and 'Some
years ago'. Having this be the first scene we see is effective as not only does
it create mystery and confusion in the audience but it clearly displays where
the movie is set, Boston as well as telling us the scenes to follow were in the
past and have already happened. It then straight edits into a fight between two
men, during this scene the camera is extremely shaky which does 2 things; it
tells the audience that the person recording is 
an amateur and
due to the context of it being a fight in the streets it allows us to presume
the person recording is a bystander who has decided to record the fight. It
also emphasises on the action, as this is a convention in most action films, to
make the camera unstable and shaky to display action and emphasize it. In the
shot we can see two grown men with old fashioned clothing and big hair
which tells us this is most likely real footage of a fight in the past, most
likely shown on a documentary or other educational movie/tv program. The
mise-en-scene in terms of clothing and hair style help emphasize the time period
this shot is in. With slight research I believe the audience is lead to believe
this shot is in the late 1980's with the clothing and big hair have being
typical of the time, this is also when camcorders were commercially available
and a bystander would be able to record a fight. Around this time, and it was
reported on so the older audience may know but there was a few gangs around
Boston during the 1980's and onwards and fact the narration is saying 'I don't
want to be a product of my environment' can mean that he doesn't want to be a
part of the gang violence and that he wants to change his area. So the audience
can assume that this fight is gang-related and quickly turns from a 1v1 fight
to a bunch of guys beating up a single person.
The next shot
of importance is right after the fight, as the narrator is saying his first
line it cuts to a shot of police officers looking after the transport of some
American school buses, eluding to the fact that the area is unsafe and the
buses could be attacked or in danger. Then as soon as the narrator says 'I want
my environment to be a product of me' it cuts to the fight, potentially showing
a link between the phrase and the big fight maybe being the fact that the
narrator wants to cause similar fights like this, maybe the narrator is the
leader of a gang and he wants violence like this.
It then cuts
to a shot of a mail box painted with the word 'No' and immediately after a bus
full of black children is shown as well as a shot of a black child looking out
of a smashed bus window. The significance of this order of events, the 'No' and
then the black children shows that the setting of the film is a racist setting,
the white 'No' symbolizing the white community's lack of 
acceptance of
the black community as after the smashed window a large crowd of loud white
people is shown to have been blocked from a street from police. Due to the
choice of editing the audience can assume that they are blocking them from a
street that maybe has a black school on it or houses within which black people
live. The scene also has a narration which says 'years ago we had the church,
that was only a way of 
saying we had
each other' eluding to the fact that maybe the church is no longer operating
due to certain situations between the black and white communities or maybe it
means that the church no longer acts as a way of uniting the community as
it previously did, as it previously made everyone feel as if they had 'each
other' to rely on and these recent events causing tension between communities
mean the church is now dominated by one community and intimidates the other
from going. It then cuts from a large gathering of some sort, most likely a violent
one due to the context to a black man saying 'Now, I don't know, they put
hate in your heart' and the editing of this makes it seem as if it is the
narrator continuing to talk, now saying the church puts hate in people's hearts
which could elude to the fact that it is the church that caused the conflict. When the voice over says 'we had each other' the crowd in the scene cheers, simulating the fact they are cheering for the non-diegetic voice over.
At this point
the soundtrack starts, cutting to an establishing shot which we have identified
as a convention within this genre. The narrator continues to talk about 'The
Knights of Columbus' which is a catholic fraternity who help low-income
families and he describes them as 'head-breakers' which could mean they
manipulate and convince people of their ways in a shady fashion which could be
classed as low-key hypnotism continuing to say how they 'took over' their part
of the city which only enforces this idea.
A tracking
shot is then used to follow a shadowed man left as the narrator continues to
talk, the shadows is clearly a mature man and the focus on him by the camera
leads the audience to believe that the narration is the thoughts of this man.
The narration goes onto talk about the presidency, irrelevant to the plot but
also talks about what he has against the 'black chappies' also referring to
them as niggers which is a highly racist term, telling us that this man is
not a fan of the black community and the fact that he could also be racist.
When talking, the narration says 'is this' and then pauses, this makes the
audience pay attention to the voice-over and pay attention to what he is about
to say which will clearly be of importance. After he finishes that line the
music increases in volume to symbolise the magnitude of the line for the plot.
It then cuts
to a POV shot, moving in a way similar to the way a man would walk, towards a
store. We see that the street sign says don't walk which tells us that the
person we are in the POV of is a rule-breaker and while this is a minor rule
that doesn't affect life much it plants the idea in the audience's head that
this person easily breaks rules meaning he could be capable of a lot more and
could be a criminal. During this scene he goes inside the shop and the shot
transitions from a POV to an over the shoulder shot from the man whose POV we
were in. The man behind the counter, presuming he is the owner when taking
into consideration his age, appearance and the fact he goes into the till to
get money to hand to the blue shirted man, for the purpose of this research we
will call 
him 'Man A'. Man A gets handed some money and tells the owner 'don't
make me come down for this again'. As Man A comes into shot we hear a screech from what we can assume is the car in the background, this simulates the panic and fear from the owner as if he was scared of Man A. We can assume this money is rent and that
Man A owns the building or is using threats to earn money from them, for
example telling them to pay him or he won't stop his gang from attacking them,
we of course do not know this or if he is a leader of a gang but this is only
what the scene suggests. The shot transitions into a two-shot with a girl in
the background being mentioned by Man A and a boy in the foreground symbolising
the importance of this boy because he is in focus unlike the girl and his
mise-en-scene, clothing, is a brighter much more diverse colour than that of
the other people around him, bringing him to the attention of the audience.
Man A then decides to buy something from the shop but tells the girl to
serve him instead of the man, showing a convention that the men in these films
would rather interact with women than other men, symbolizing their
objectification by a majority of men and this is emphasized when Man A asks the
girl if she has had her period yet, possibly meaning that she has committed a
sexual act with Man A or someone else, most likely for money as she is
reluctant to serve him and frowns when he holds a tight grip on the product.
He then turns towards the boy and references him as 'Jonny Sullivan’s kid'
telling the audience that he is in contact or has been in contact with the
boy's father and therefore knows the boy. When the shot cuts to a close-up of
the boy's face to display his reactions to the conversation he is shown as
being quiet and shy, meaning this is either the boy's personality or Man A has
a reputation of violence or intimidation causing the boy to be afraid of him.
However, when the man 
women in this genre, telling
her what to do to look pretty. He then hands the boy some spare change from
earlier and tells him if he wants more to meet him down Man A's road, this
makes the man seem dodgy, offering a child work as child labor is illegal in
most places in the world. The soundtrack displays the dodgy nature of the conversation as it is much lower and quieter than before. The shot then goes into a shot of the boy walking
home with the groceries and the man watching him, this shows the man's interest
with the boy showing the audience that the man has plans for him. This can be
seen in two ways, devious and ominous causing the audience to see malicious
intent in the man's actions which could corrupt the boy and turn him to a life
of crime or that the man merely wants to help the boy in life, giving him some
key skills and work experience, earning money in the process. The soundtrack picks up where it left off here displaying the situation returning to normal.
The next shot is inside a church which we know because of the clothes the boy and what we can presume is the priest and the surrounding area, focusing on the boy in robes displaying
his innocence and good will, helping lead a funeral service. The focus of white
shows us that currently the boy is pure and innocent. To contrast this, the
next shot is inside a dark garage, with Man A in the shadows and the boy listening
to him, symbolizing the boy listening 
the shadows, to the dark, to what the
church sees as evil temptations. Man A is describing church as telling the boys
that 'church wants you in your place' saying it wants you to 'kneel, stand,
kneel, stand' symbolizing the repetitiveness of the whole idea and the
obedience it wants from its visitors. Man A goes on to say to them if 'that's
what your going for I don't know what to do for you' meaning he isn't going to
be telling the boys exactly what to do, they have to have initiative
and this
is backed up in the repeated phrase from earlier in the opening, 'A man makes
his own way, no one gives it too you, you have to take it' which tells the
audience that Man A must have had a rough experience involving work, a
situation where he realized he would have to do everything himself, the
emphasis on this phrase and it's repetition means it is important top the man
and of importance to him. To display the side of darkness inside Man A as
discussed later, he describes to the boys what happened to the people who last
tried to tell him what to do and immediately cuts to a close up of a gun just
before he shoots a man and woman in the back of the head. The fact that
the same song is playing throughout the past scenes and continues through this
one shows Man A's distance from the reality, he has little to no hesitance
to shooting these two and laughs because the woman fell 'funny'. This gives
insight to the character's behavior so the audience can then justify his actions
and intentions later on in the film.
The next scene starts with a voice-over from the previous seen, Man A
talking about being someone at the end of the shooting scene shows us that this
is who he has decided to be, who he wants to be and that the church did not
help with that decision. This is where the music finally changes to a more
serious tone, slower and more methodical describing the situation, emphasizing
on the fact that he is giving some serious, down to earth advice to the boy,
saying that the church wont let you believe you can be who you want, continuing
to say that the church would tell people they could be either 'cops' the good
people in life, pursuing evil or just not committing it 'or criminals' the
people who sin, the people who brake the laws and dishonor God.
It is important to note that through this entire opening Man A's face has
been shrouded in mystery, the director's use of lighting keeping it in the
shadows, hiding any important features of it from the audience making them wander, who he is, what he looks like and the ways he reacts. He is hidden as it creates a sense of mystery, and causes the audience to not judge him based on what he looks like, keeping his face hidden means that they don't assume anything about the man until the film gives them some information to make these presumptions from. At the end of the opening he walks up to the boy, revealing his face saying how 'when your faced with a loaded gun, what's the difference?". They decided to show his face at this moment because it is a moment of honesty, he is telling the boy exactly how it is and giving him some solid advise, and the reveal of his face means this is the true man, they way he will be throughout the rest of the film. It also displays trust, he has kept his face in the dark to everyone else but reveals it to this boy.