‘Ronin’, Film Opening Analysis.

‘Ronin’, Film Opening Analysis.

(Rated 15, 1997)
This film opens with the producer – Metro Goldwym Mayer (MGM) – rolling in as calm music is played over the top. Another company ‘United Artists’ comes up; this is an MGM company so it is still linked with them. This shows the audience that it a recognised film and has had a lot of money spent on it because they are well known and it’s also what the audience expect. After this some writing appears on the screen and it tells a story of how the Samurai are no longer referred to as the Samurai because of something that happened. They are now known as Ronin. This is an unusual beginning of the film because it gives the audience a bit of background knowledge on what the film is about. It might not be clear what this has to do with the film but it might in due course. This bit finishes with the word Ronin in big black letters on a red background. As the rest of the writing was smaller and just black and white it shows certain significance to this word. It then fades out into an establishing shot of a castle/palace. It pans down to some streets and the word ‘Paris’ comes onto the screen. Again the use of text over the film is useful because we as an audience wouldn’t have known this unless we recognised the landmark. Also because this is a film where the dialogue is in a different language (presumably French)
The next shot is of a man (Robert De Niro) hiding behind a wall, he watches as a woman gets out of a car and enters a café. The camera cuts to a man as he watches the woman. We only know this because the camera focuses on his eyes looking at something, the next shot is of the woman, this is eye line match and is a useful convention when using it at the start of the film because it tell the audience a small part without any dialogue. A point of view shot is next as De Niro’s character looks through the window at the woman. At this point as an audience you can tell that there are several characters interested in the woman. This is done simply by the camera angles, shot types and obviously the acting.
The next bit that stuck out for me was the introduction of the gun. Baring in mind this is still in the first five minutes it’s quite soon for action. The gun is introduced into the film by De Niro as he crouches down. The camera passes over the top of his back as he pulls away some crates and hides it behind them. The camera is relatively close so you can only see this bit. During this bit the music is used to build a bit of tension, it builds up as soon as he pulls out the gun and then goes back to how it was as he walks away.
Although not much is established in the first five minutes you can tell the genre is going to be an action film because of the gun and the two men that were looking at the woman. Something is obviously being planned and if it involves weapons then it’s not going to be comedy is it? One generic convention I also spotted was the use of an “attractive” woman. This would automatically interest the majority of the male population and would make them watch the film. Having Robert De Niro starring as a main character may also attract a wider audience. In the first five minutes we as an audience know the genre, main character(s), location/setting and can begin to understand part of the plot.