Analysis of Face/off

Face/off

The scene starts with the opening credits on a black background with white wording. The sound starts playing. It is very calm and happy music and it makes the audience feel relaxed and as though the start of the film isn’t going to have something bad happen. It then cuts to something spinning extremely fast past the camera and at first the audience doesn’t know what it is. It then slows down gradually and the audience can then see that it is a merry go round and the focus is a long shot of a man and a little boy smiling. The music symbolises the innocence that the man and boy have. The audience are made to assume that this is a father and his son. The music is then inter cut with a small boy giggling, this makes the film seem as though it is something it isn’t. Whilst we hear the small boy laughing the merry go round suddenly spins fast again. The music is still being played in the background whilst all this is happening. You can’t really tell what time of day it is because the lighting is very dim which doesn’t fit the scene people are watching. Whilst the man and the boy are on the merry go round, you also can see other people on it which shows they are not alone.

The shot then changes to a mid shot of the man and a boy on the merry go round and the man is holding the boys back, showing the audience that he is very protective of the boy and doesn’t want him to fall and get hurt. This is ironic because of what actually happens in the scene. The music plays continuously throughout and there is intermittent sounds of a boy giggling. Between each shot the merry go round suddenly spins fast, this time it stops on a close up of the man kissing the little boy on the cheek, which clarifies that it is a father with his son. The picture then fades away blending with the next shot which is a long shot of the merry go round, being framed by trees and a lot of people walking towards and around it. It is as though the audience is standing on a grass bank looking down onto the merry go round. Suddenly something lifts from the bottom of the screen, filling it and it appears to be a blanket. The blanket is then pulled away, revealing a telescopic sight which the audience naturally assumes to be that of a gun. This creates tension for the audience and this is a total contrast to the earlier shots in the scene which was that of total innocence.

The shot then suddenly cuts to a long shot of a man lifting what the audience were assuming was a blanket uncovering the telescopic sight and throwing it away from him. The man is almost a silhouette whilst the rest of the shot is almost has a sepia effect. There is change in the sound and it is now more sinister. The shot continues with the man then kneeling down behind the gun and then fades and blends into an extreme close up of his mouth with a moustache with a straw in his mouth. The camera then gradually moves up to reveal his eye, moving across to view through the telescope. It shows him looking through the telescope, his other eye closed as though he is looking at the audience. His face is in focus, whilst the end of the telescope is not in focus. The shot is a mid shot of the man and the boy on the merry go round, but it is through the telescope which seems as though the audience has changed their character to that of the gunman. The shot then returns to an extreme close up of the face of the gunman but this time he is moving away from the telescope so the audience can see both his eyes. Again, the face is in focus whilst the telescope is yet again out of focus. It zooms out, and shows the man looking down as though he is in deep thought, which gives the audience the impression that perhaps he is having second thoughts on what the audience expects him to do.

The sound becomes the gentle and calm music that it was before. The shot then cuts again to a close up of the man and boy, the man is holding the boy, but the boys mind is elsewhere interested in his balloons. The man then lifts the boy towards him. It then cuts suddenly to a close up of the gunman with a straw in his mouth then back to the man and boy of the merry go round, this time the boy has his back to the audience and the man is smiling whilst looking at him and holding him. It the moves to an over the shoulder shot of the man. It is as though the audience is there also looking at the boy. It then changes to the over the shoulder shot from the man to the boy. And back again, the man then lifts his hand and runs it down the boys face. We assume this is a sign of love, because of the boys big smile once the audience sees his face again. There is then a mid shot from the side, showing the man holding the boys head and kissing his forehead. The boy is cuddling his father. The father pulls his son towards him which shows how much he loves him and wants to protect him.

It then cuts to the gunman once more looking through the telescope as though he is looking at the audience. The audiences character changes once more to that of the gunman and the shot shows, through the telescope, the mans back. The shot then cuts suddenly to an extreme close up of the gun mans finger pulling the trigger. There is faded out bang and then the shot cuts to the end of the barrel of the gun with smoke and a bullet speeding out, straight towards the audience. The bullet comes straight into the camera until that is all the audience can see. It then cuts to the back of the father, with a ripped coat where he has been shot in the back. The colours are sepia like, therefore you cannot see blood but there is a wet effect near the rip in the coat which the audience would assume to be blood. The man jerks and cuts to a side angle of him falling backwards and he falls off the merry go round, whilst still holding his son. As the man falls the music stops and the audience hears what appears to be a horses whinny as if he has been thrown from a real horse. The shot then zooms in to the merry go round horse, sepia in colour, but the blood on the horses neck is deep red. This shows the audience that the bullet went right through both the man and his son. There is then a shot of part of the top of the merry go round and the balloons the boy was holding are floating upwards.

The shot then cuts to the man quivering on the floor looking up and struggling to crawl and then the camera pans to show his son laying on the floor on his back. It appears to the audience that he is dead. Tense music then starts to play when you suddenly realised that the boy has been killed. The shot cuts to a close up of the gunman opening his eye and zooming in. it appears that he is horrified for what he has just done. The shot then cuts to the man almost at his son, and the camera pans round them as he reaches for his son. He lifts his son and holding realising he is dead and cries whilst the merry go round is still spinning in the background.

The shot then seems like the audience is stepping on to the merry go round where all this has just happened. The music has changed yet again and it is now very loud evil sounding music. Everything is now black and white and in slow motion as it then cuts to a black background with white writing saying ‘six years later’.