2. American Sniper
Film Genre: Action
Directed by Clint Eastwood
The film beginning began with an establishing shot of a tank with
the war-infested landscape in the background. This introduces to the
viewer to where they are, and for what purpose they are there. There
are many shots of soldiers working alongside the tanks, moving from
house to house, clearing the inside of any terrorist or civilians.
There is no music in this beginning section, only the ambient sounds
of tanks and mechanical warfare. This is to show that it is a
serious environment and the viewers’ attention needs to be on the
movement and dialogue. The first shot we see of the ‘American
Sniper’, Chris Kyle is of his rifle, which then pans to the actual
person. This could infer that he is not seen as a person but for his
talents with a sniper, how many people he can terminate with it. The
first dialogue in the film is off Chris Kyle and a marine talking
about the negatives of the country they are in which is followed by
some banter between the two, trying to make light of a negative
situation. After this, there is a sighting of a “military aged male”
who is on a cell phone on the rooftops. There is a shot through the
sight of the Sniper rifle with his cross hair on the body of the man
whilst he is trying to distinguish whether he is a threat or not,
this is important as it suggests the men are under constant threat
from locals and need to take precautions to whether or not he is a
terrorist. This is emphasised by the dialogue from the marine “
maybe he’s calling his wife”, which shows how paranoid the men are
forced to be when dealing with civilians as they constantly keep
them in the sights of their rifles. The transition between taking a
shot at the young boy with the bomb, and the deer in the forest is
really good as it transitions between a really intense scenario and
a more relaxed one. This hunting scene gives reason to Chris Kyle’s
upbringing and his father’s tuff parenting attitude.
Editing
The shots used in the introduction are quite long lasting and then
the transitions are very quick between them. This is good as it
symbolises the theme of war as it suggests it is long and slow but
it is very quick finish with death.
I would like to use the lack of music in my film, and the ambient
sounds as it makes the viewer seem like they are here too, creating
a connection with the main character
