The Departed is a crime thriller, it follows the lives of criminals. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Kevin Corrigan, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Corrigan and many more top Hollywood stars. I chose this film as it stars Jack Nicholson, who is my favourite actor.
I will analyse the opening 3 minutes.
It starts of with the words 'BOSTON Some years ago'. It shows a clip of riots from the past, the video is grainy and is presumably real footage. Jack Nicholson narrates while clips are shown, he talks about the knights of columbus. 'Gimme shelter by The Rolling Stones' starts to play (non-diegetic). It isn't played very loudly, because then we wouldn't be able to hear Jack Nicholson. The song shows the era. The clip ends and shows Jack Nicholson walking, we know that we are not looking into the past anymore as there are no grainy effects. He is walking in the shadows, very mysterious and cool. His slow walk is shown, the camera takes a POV shot of Nicholson walking into a cafe. By now the audience know that the film is in USA, by the vehicles and buildings. The non-diegitic music becomes louder and shows an over the shoulder shot of Jack being handed money from the shop owner. The amount of money given gives a clue of Nicholson being a gangster/criminal. The customers and workers seem nervous around Nicholson, everything he says is agreed with. Nicholson buys a boy next to him lots of groceries and offers him work so he can earn some extra money. Nicholson knows the child's family, this shows that Jack is a popular figure around town, that he knows everybody and everybody knows him.
From these three minutes I learnt that Jack Nicholson is a rich business man, I'd guess that he is a criminal, but that hasn't been confirmed. The mise en scene and props show that the beginning is set in the 1970s, through music, buildings, fashion and vehicles.
Image sources:
student.gsu.ed
impawards.com
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