Genre - Similar Textual Analysis - Anthony

Similar Text Analysis

The opening sequence of Lord of War starts off with a close up pan of millions of dirty used bullets connotating that a war had just happened and already setting the plot that it involves a big war. The camera then pans up to a man with his back to the camera wearing a suit and holding a briefcase suggesting that he is a business man, in the background we can also see burnt smoking cars still on fire suggesting that powerful and devastating weapons were used to be able to create this much damage and that whoever destroyed the cars is very dangerous. The man then turns around and the camera then zooms onto his face where we can see how neat and tidy he is and that even his hair is still combed connoting that no one wants to mess with him and is scared of him or maybe he is a neutral party to the sides who just had the recent conflict. Then in direct address to the audience he says ‘there are over 50 million fire arms in circulation, that’s one fire arm for every 12 people on the planet the only question is (he then brings a lit cigarette to his mouth and breathes it in showing how calm he is even in this war zone) how do we arm the other eleven’ connotating that he sells guns and that is his business.                
                                                                                                                         

The scene then cuts to a high angle shot of a roof and the camera pans down to reveal a dull grey facility with a lot of machines connotating that it’s a factory, the names of the creators and actors then start to slowly fade in and out on screen and it is done in a small text in the centre of the screen so that your attention is kept to the actions going on in the scene but you can still see the people involved in the film such as Nicholas Cage which would make this movie appealing to people who are just fans if him. The camera then zooms onto a machine and phases through the machine into the insides and the title of the film fades in all block capitals which connotates the military and seriousness. The camera then switches to a point of view shot of a bullet while in the background the song ‘for what it’s worth’ is playing which is a song known to be in protest of war which is incidental music and suggests that there will be mixed feelings towards war in this film.    
                                                                                                

There is then an ellipsis of the bullet on its journey and at one point we see a man in uniform and hat with a lot of red on it connotating that he is a high ranking soldier in the Soviet Union army. The next few scenes take us to a sunny and exotic place where we see that all the people are black with very dark skin connotating that this is in Africa we also see that they are holding guns and in particular AK47’s connoting that they are rebels from a resistance group as the AK47 has been noted throughout conflicts in history as a symbol of resistance such as in Cuba, Vietnam and the Taliban, the ellipsis continues until the bullet is spread onto the floor with other bullets and then they are placed into the chamber of a gun. The diegetic sound of gun shots connotate that there is a battle going on and that this movie will contain violence and death, the bullet which we still see in a point of view shot is fired from the gun and we follow it as it heads towards a young boy who does not show any emotions suggesting that it happened so quick that he didn’t even realise what happened and that he was not even involved in the conflict but was caught in the crossfire.                   
                                                                                            

The scene then fades to into shot of the sea from a high angle bird’s eye view. The camera then pans down to an extreme long shot of a man standing in the middle of a dock and then narration follows connotating that the man narrating is the same man in the shot connotating that he is a loner and that he enjoys to be alone as he purposely chose to go to an area where he would be in seclusion. Next the camera cuts to a low angle shot of the back of the man and the camera slowly tracks three hundred and sixty degrees around him to reveal his face and we can see that it’s the same man from before. However unlike the suit he was wearing before he is now wearing a plain shirt and trousers and his hair is scruffy connotating that these events took place before the time where we see him at the beginning and that at the moment he does not have much money.                                                                                                     

The camera then cuts to a shot of a women wearing a crown and wearing a sash that says ‘miss long island’ riding in a car with confetti being rained down on her and a big crowd of people cheering connotating that she is a beauty queen and that she just won the long island beauty pageant. 
                                                                                                                 
They then have a close up shot reverse shot of the beauty queen and the main character to show just how infatuated he is with her however we learn it is only one sided when he says “I’ve worshiped Eva Fontaine since I was ten years old of course she didn’t know I existed” this also connotates that the main character believes that he is no one special and has no attracting qualities. The camera then cuts to a shot of a subway train, the camera then pans across and cranes and tilts to reveal the main character entering a building with foreign text and stars of David on it connoting that the setting is taking place in New York as the subway is associated with New York as it is such an important part of the city, the camera movements from the tack to the building shows us just how close they are to each other and suggests that it is set in a rundown part of the city. The foreign language and the start of David connotes that the character is both foreign and Jewish giving the audience an insight into the beliefs of the character. 

Throughout the whole opening there is continuity editing used throughout and this helps to create a flow and it lets the audience follow the story of the main character as he progresses.                

In conclusion I would say that the first five minutes of Lord of War tells us a lot about the movie in that it involves a man who rises to wealth and power and that he does it through selling guns.