Crime Gangster Films

After deciding as a group that we should do some further research, we thought it would be a good idea to looking into previous Crime Gangster films to see what the opening two minutes of the film featured and what were the conventions of it. By looking at Crime Gangster films it would help us as then we should see if we did decide on this genre what the opening two minutes roughly includes.
Below is the film Road to Perdition which was a 2002 film and the classification of a 15.

Road to Perdition 2002.

  

The Plot:

 

Mike Sullivan works as a hit man for crime boss John Rooney. Sullivan views Rooney as a father figure. However after his son is a witness to a killing he has committed Mike Sullivan finds himself on the run trying to save the life of his son and at the same time looking for revenge on those who hated and offended him. Jude Law co stars as a hit man hired to kill Sullivan.

When the title sequence starts to play we see a black back drop. The black back drop is a common theme/ feature in the Crime Thrillers and the Crime Gangster Thrillers. On the top of the black back drop appears the titles. These titles are in the colour of white. Again here this colour has commonly been used. Here we also see that the style of Sans Serif has been used. In typography a sans serif typeface is one that does not have any small projecting features called 'serifs' at the end of strokes. Additionally here we see the same pattern arising of the Sans Serif typeface being used.

Around 15 seconds into the tiles we start to hear a noise as if its the sea and the waves crushing against each other. We continue to hear this as the titles are being played. This sound is calm and peaceful. This sets the atmosphere as being calm and quiet. The black back drop slowly starts to disappear about 41 seconds into the title sequence. This is when we see a man figure looking out towards the sea. This gives us as the audience the impression that he might be reflecting upon something.  When we start to see an image of this man figure we also start to hear some other musical being played softly in the background. The first shot we get of this man figure is a long-shot. The camera then starts to zoom in. This is when we were who we think isa  young boy speaking saying the words of ' There are many stories about Michel Sullivan'. From the who we think is a young boy saying portrays to us that he is going to go back over a story that he believes. The man figure that we get in the establishing shot gives us to possible opinions. One of these is that that could be Michel Sullivan and you are hearing the boys voice over the top of it. Furthermore it could be the boy that we are hearing doing the voiceover, but as we can't see the front of him we do not know if this is true or not. The boy then continues to say 'some say he was a decent man some say there was no good in him at all. But I once spent  sixth weeks on the road with him in the winter of 1931. This is our story.'

By this boy saying ' this is our story' it tells us that he once knew this man and is going to tell us the story of him from his point of view. It also tells us that we are going to be shown a story of events that happened.

From the establishing shot I can tell that the location of this film is set in America. I can also tell this by the voiceover of the boy as he has an American Accent. The setting also helps to establish this as we can see a beautiful sunset.

We then see the man figure stat to fade away quickly and we get a white backdrop appearing. This is when we hear the words 'This is our story.' The white backdrop fades into a hill that is covered in snow.  Here we get a long-shot. At the top of the hill it looks like a boy riding down on his bike. When he gets closer this becomes clearer. This boy is whom we presume is Michel Sullivan. The titles then start playing again and we get an image of Michel riding through the town on his bike. We then get a shot of the back of Michel with the member of the public surrounding him as they walk past not taking a paper of him. When Michel starts riding through the town some upbeat and jolly music starts to play. This sets the scene. This give us the impression that it's going to be very market like when Michel is trying to sell the papers. In the last minute we see the camera zooming in on him.

The opening two minutes of this clip have shown me again some similarities between the titles. For example a black back drop with the white font and the typeface of san serif has been used. We see this in many other Crime Thriller Movies as well. The opening two minutes of the title sequence has helped me to understand how so much detail can be put into the first minute. This will help me and my group when planning our thriller opener as we will be able to consider for example including a voice over, or sound effects instead of just having some music being played in the background.

Below is a clip of Part 1 of this Film: