The Mechanic Opening two minutes

The Mechanic

Opening two minutes

We can guess the genre of the film by watching the opening two minutes, wealth usually arouses competition and death (fits in with the action thriller genre). Aircraft/air hanger associated with wealth and usually is a stereotypical place for a shootout or confrontation between the good and bad side. Action movie is established by a death early on, a man of substantial wealth is killed – you begin to wonder what sort of business he had got himself into.

Sound plays an important part in the opening two minutes and is a key part in getting the viewer hooked, large steel doors begin opening whilst the titles are on screen, this creates suspense as the viewers want to know what's going on. Interesting, South African, foreign music accompanies the wealthy character whilst exiting a plane, which presumably he owns, birds tweeting whilst the sun is shinning could represent happy times (pathetic fallacy) but as they are very short they could show naivety or that the happiness will be short lived. There is silence as he enters the swimming pool; this alerts the audience that something is going to happen, anticipation builds with the lack of music as viewers begin to wonder what on earth is going to happen. Suspenseful music is quietly heard briefly before the action packed murder scene overtakes with fast paced low pitch music to match the action packed scene. The music stops as soon as the character dies and returns to the eerie silence of before; whilst the good guy gets away the music picks up and builds slightly in tempo before chaos breaks out as the dead body is found.

Characters are the main focus of the film as it’s their stories that are being told therefore introducing them well especially right at the beginning of the film when the viewers are finding their footing is key – two main characters are introduced in the first two minutes, the good guy and presumably one of the bad guys (the dead one). The first one is a wealthy business man with a comrade of men who work solely for him and must obey him completely. He shows his wealth through his mode of transport and his house. The ‘good guy’ is introduced although he could be perceived as a bad guy as he just murdered someone but we are lead to believe that mans death was just. He fits the stereotype of an action man as he is muscular and tough and fits the stereotype of a hit man as he is ruthless with the murder, showed no emotion and knew exactly what he was doing.

 

Use of camera is key, especially in the opening two minutes as settings and characters have to be established, the film starts with a wide shot of doors being opened to establish the setting, then there's a low angle shot of a plane pulling up to show the characters dominance, another wide shot of the plane in its surroundings gives the viewer a better idea of the characters lifestyle. A long shot of the character exiting the plane, we don’t get up close to him, we still don’t know that much about him (building suspense) another low angle shot this time of the character himself as he enters a car to show his dominance and power. A shot of expensive cars driving past but the shot focuses on his car to show there will be other stuff but he is an important part of this film. Close up shot of him in the car as we start to find out more about him, sunny, happy town with laughter and chatter is halted by his arrival that brings violence and beatings – shows that he is not a good person and has probably earned his wealth unlawfully. Another close up shot of the character as they want the focus to solely be on his motionless face as these atrocities happen, this confirms the viewers theory that he is a ‘bad guy’. Long shot of his house but high walls hide it from being fully seen, could she a metaphor for him and how that we cant see all his personality and there are parts that are hidden. Low angle shot of the men he is with shows that even they have power over others and shows how powerful he must be, a high angle shot of him walking into his house shows he is not as important, this could be because in a large house he seems to fade, especially with all the people alternatively it could be that at home he isn’t feared as much as when he's outside. Close up shot of some of his possessions, specifically the fact he has 3-4 gold watches all beautifully made and very expensive again highlights his wealth. Low angle shot as he enters the swimming pool could show how powerful he thinks he is, smoke could suggest he is hiding behind something or that there is an element of mystery to him. A high angle shot of him swimming shows him to be very vulnerable and could be attacked at any point, the low angle shot of him swimming leads us to believe he thinks he is fine  and high in power when in actual fact he could be attacked at any moment. Low angle shot of him looking up to the world as he is drowned shows how vulnerable he has become and how now he's at the bottom and his wrong doings have finally caught up with him. You see the world from his point of view and the viewer is supposed to feel empathy for him. Another high angle shot of him shows him to be dead; all the shots after his death are high angle to show he has lost all his power and statues now.