Textual
Analysis; Mission Impossible
In this essay I will be
analysing the opening scenes of the blockbuster movie ‘Mission Impossible’. The
film opener starts with a man (the protagonist) climbing on some red coloured
rocks set in what seems a desolate dessert or waste land either in Africa, USA
or Australia. The opening shot is an establishing shot. This is used for the
opening because it sets the scene of where the film may take place. In this
shot we can see the dessert land and rocks so the audience already connects
this with survival and danger with using an extreme setting for the movies
opener. The camera proceeds to use an aerial shot. This could be used to show
the height at where the actor is, as he climbs this large scale rock of some
description. This gives us a sense of danger as an audience and thrown into the
action and tension right from the start of the movie. On the other hand, this
could also symbolise loneliness within the character with it being a large
space and using a wide shot with the actor in sight. Focusing on the rocks, the
rocks appear to be red in colour. We associate this colour with danger or the
emotions of anger in this situation. The red can foreshadow the dangers this
character will face later on in the movie and the red colour is used vastly in
action movies as the red is a form of cliché in this genre of movie.
The movie opens with no
music, but just natural sound. We hear the actor’s gasps as he ascends up the
rock face, adding to this idea of loneliness and isolated surroundings. The
audience’s main focus is the actor as he appears in the middle of the shots used,
and we connect this actor with being the protagonist. The wind adds greatly to
the solitude affect and also adds more danger and risk with being high up off
the ground enough to hear the wind echo throughout the rocks. As the scenes go
on, we hear an eagle, linking to the aerial shot that maybe we are seeing this
event take place from an eagle’s point of view. The eagle could also settle the
location as being in an American area. The eagle is America’s symbol for
freedom and links significantly to the character being displayed. The eagle is
well known as the bird with no fear and the bird of prey, maybe connecting to
the actor as a strong person with little fear and a vast amount of pride. When
the music does start to play, we realise it becomes very contrapuntal. The
‘happy’ folk music doesn’t suit the dangerous conditions the actor is facing
and we maybe connect this to him being like an eagle with no fear to his
current affair. The opening music is non-diegetic as the character cannot hear
the soundtrack being played, and only the audience can.
A few moments later on, we
see the actor go to make a jump across a thin area of rock which plays in slow
motion. They have used slow motion to add tension for the audience and make
them think if the actor will make the jump of not. The angle of the camera
looks down; almost an aerial shot on the actor to give again, the audience the
sense of danger the actor is in, adding more to the danger and tension. The
soundtrack of the happy music stops during this snippet of the scene, kind of
like the time stopping as he jumps, again adding to the dramatic affects.
The next section of the
opening sequence, the character misses his grip of the rock and catches himself
in a crucifix cross position. This biblical imagery is used in many ways. The
character may be in danger of dying later on in the movie, adopting a
‘sacrificial’ position in a hazardous situation.
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