Similarities between movie openings

The similarities between movie openings

The Dark Knight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqvbv-SB4bg

This Dark Knight opening follows a group of bank robbers who rob a bank in the city of Gotham. This robbery is orchestrated by the Joker himself. Unbeknownst to the robbers, the Joker is actually one of the robbers among them and hides his identity (like the other robbers) with a clown mask and operates without speaking. The bank robbery occurs and it is revealed that the Joker has informed each robber to kill each other off to increase the shares for each robber.

The Town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOsJ7jLRQq4

The Town opening is that of a bank robbery in Boston. The first shot is through a CCTV camera and then changes to inside the bank where the robbers wear grim reaper masks. They show evidence of being extremely well prepared as they are aware that the bank's vault unlocks at 8:15 and use this fact to prove that Claire is lying to them which add dominance to their character. The tripping of the silent alarm adds tension to the scene as the audience have to take into account the violence of the bank robbers endangering the hostages lives and the want for the bank robbers to escape in time to get away without being caught by the police. This creates a two sided opinion on viewers as they wish for both the robbers to escape but also for the safety of the hostages.

Lord Of War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHn1zogeyO4

The Lord Of War opening begins with a shot of spent casings on the ground which then pans up to Nicolas Cage talking about how many firearms there are in the world and then finishes by making an unexpected comment about arming the rest of the world. The song "For what it's worth" starts playing to a shot inside a bullet making factory where the life of a bullet is shown as it goes from construction, to being shipped over to Africa and then being loaded into an AK47 to then be fired into a child soldier during a gunfight. The music limits the dialogue used in the opening to only occasional shouts in the factory and non defined words that are only added as filler for the audio to show a human element in the construction of the bullet in the factory.

Conclusion

All these three openings contain violence. The Dark Knight uses this is the carefully planned way the Joker sets each henchman to kill each other off, then by the treatment of the hostages in the bank by both the henchman and the Joker himself. The Joker makes a reveal when he takes his mask off which is shocking to the audience as they are not expecting to see the Joker in the beginning of the film.




The Town presents violence through the way the bank manager is beaten for only speaking which show the irrationality of the bank robbers. The use of profanity also emphasises the violent nature of the opening. The reveal in the opening is that Ben Affleck is one of the bank robbers when he takes his mask off which is  potentially not expected by the audience.




The Dark Knight and The Town are also similar as they contain a bank robbery.




Lord Of War presents violence nearer the end of the opening through the gunfight presented showing the end of the life of a bullet. The war setting also shows violent elements as well as the opening shot of a large collection of casings on the ground which infers a gunfight because of the surrounding war. The reveal in the opening shot presents Nicolas Cage as an arms trader standing over the casings which could be surprising to audiences as he is not shown immediately but the camera pans up to him.





The Dark Knight does not have titles in the opening. This may be to focus the audiences attention to the detailed actions of the bank robbers as they move in to rob the bank. This sets a unsettling tone as very little is given to the audience which makes them be less expecting for the breaking of the window and the zip line that follows the action lacking immediate closing shot on the building.
The Town does not have titles in the opening. This (like the above film) creates an abnormal feeling for the audience as titles are often expected at the start of the film . This attracts the audience's attention as they see that the movie almost sees the opening of the film to be too important to share with the titles. This also allows the audience to be more aware of the planning of the bank robbers when they ask about when the vault opens showing that they have prepared themselves which creates a stronger feeling on intensity for the audience as they are more focused on the events and wanting to see if the robbery is successful or not.




Lord Of War has titles after Nicolas Cage breaks the fourth wall will a small speech and a joke as the opening shot before the music starts and the credits begin. The first title is for Nicolas Cage which is because he is the main character in the film. The accompanying music with the titles makes the scene almost ironic as happy music is played over the creation of bullets that are used to murder people which creates an uneasy tone for the audience.