Face Off Thriller Opening Analysis (1997, John Woo, Touchstone Productions)

Faceoff Thriller Opening Analysis

Faceoff is a thriller which was set in 1997 Los Angeles, the first few opening minutes of the film is very confusing and mysterious as you would expect to see in a thriller genre, for example the opening credits begin with serif writing which connotes the sharp and cunning aspect that you would expect to find in most thrillers.

At first the camera lens is out of focus and fast paced tracking through horses on the carousel towards the carousel with a blue lens and a slight black and white tone, pulling out the blue highlights in the bright and colourful fairground ride yet also hiding the natural greens and portraying them as grey dark tones, then the lens slowly tracks and focuses on john Travolta and his child meanwhile there is a background non diagetic tune which is slowly foregrounded as the tracking shot speeds and then is back grounded as the pace slows again.

There is then a fade to a long shot of the carousel with children playing and having fun, whilst the sepia tone is still fading the green fields to a grey tone, there is then a swooshing sound and the camera jump cuts to an extreme close up of the scope of a sniper rifle then another jump cut to Nicolas cage throwing the cover which has been hiding the sniper in to the bushes, then there is a fade to an extreme close up of Nicolas taking a drink through a straw which shows the viewer that he is not under any pressure or in a rush to shoot his victim.

The tune then becomes foregrounded and the camera tracks upwards to show a shot of Nicolas looking through the lens of the rifle aiming for his victim, then there is a reverse shot showing john Travolta in the cross hairs of his scope, Nicolas then hesitates and there is another shot of Nicolas looking distraught, which is followed by a shot of john lifting his son up in the air and hugging him, then Nicolas has another sip of his drink almost having second thoughts whilst he sees john and his son, then the camera tracks down and shows Nicolas put his hand on the trigger and shoot john as he is sat on the carousel with his son falling to the floor, then there is a upwards tracking shot showing three balloons floating up into the air, which strongly suggests the representations of the souls of john and his son, then there is a shot of john holding his dead son in his arms, which is followed by a shot of Nicolas cage in disbelief. Then there is another sepia toned fast paced shot of the horses spinning on the carousel.

Throughout the opening there is a role of credits which are shown as motion overlays, for example when the credit of john travoltas name is shown at first john is foregrounded and Travolta is back grounded then they slowly switch roles and john is then back grounded and much smaller as Travolta is foregrounded and much bigger.

Then there is an orchestral tune slowly being foregrounded whilst the camera tracks down john travoltas wall of his skyline office showing all of his awards, then there is a focus switch blurring the background and focusing on the gun on his table. Then there is a montage of clips from the head office showing people busy taking calls and walking back and forth as the camera is switching back and forth to see him taking his gun and putting it into his holster like he is preparing to hunt down the killer, then there are some digital information about Nicolas cage and two close ups of his head side and face on to show his profile and familiarise us with what he looks like.

To conclude the thriller opening for face off is similar to any thriller opening we have watched, it is very tense and mysterious fitting its genre.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdblink/vi553059609/