Lord of war (2005) Analysis.
This action film is about illegal trading. A Non-Diegetic, calm, country song kicks in as soon as we are shown our first shot of an Eastern Europe factory with men at work, this song is the backing track throughout the whole opening two minutes. You can hear Diegetic sounds coming from the work men and drills, over the song. 20 seconds into the shot, the first title comes up in white capital letters, 'Nicolas Cage', this is the only name mentioned before the actual title itself for introducing and emphasizing the main character. The font has been made to look quite hard and icy, by that i mean the audience do not feel relaxed once the title appears, which obviously reflects on the atmosphere in the factory. In the factory scenes a blue filter has been used to create a cold and unwelcoming mood.
The camera then films forward into one of the machines, in the factory and the cameras perspective then changes to one of the bullets being made, inside the machine. As soon as the camera enters the machine you can hear all the sounds of the bullet being made for example the clamps that compress the bullet together. A few seconds being inside the machine, the title comes up, 'LORD of WAR' and in the background is a bullet. The words 'lord' and 'war' are in capital letters, to emphasize the two together and remind the audience that a lord is someone quite high status and important and war is dangerous where many innocent people die. The rest of the titles follow after, spread out during the journey of the bullet.
The bullet is then taken to a different part of the factory where all the bullets get checked and then thrown if they are bad by a few workers. As the bullet is picked up and put back the camera goes with it. The bullet is poured into a box with many others, we are then taken to another part of the factory where a soldier/guard is standing with a gun and uniform looking very serious and work men hammering lids onto wooden boxes full of bullets. The box in front has a label with foreign writing and a date of '1588' on.
Once a lid is put onto the box that the bullet is in, it goes black and the shot changes to (still in a blue filter) three Russian soldiers in smart uniform, two in the background talking and one that opens the lid to the box that the bullet is in, outside the factory, at a dock in Russia, with a stack of boxes being lifted by a crane onto a black boat. You can hear clinks from the bullets being knocked against each other and a man shouting from around the dock, but it is not loud enough to work out what is being said, you get the idea that it would be something like 'load the next lot on'. The Russian soldier shuts the lid again and it goes back to black.
The lid gets taken off the box and the bullets are now in a tribal part of Africa, in a dock, with soldiers in the background and welcomed by a dangerous looking soldier, half dressed, with a red hat and gun, looking at the box on the back of the boat whilst it gets knocked by a metal crane. The bullet then falls out of the box onto the floor and as it rolls towards the water, the camera rolls with it. An orange filter is used for all the shots in africa to give it a warm, relaxed atmosphere even though the environment looks dangerous and the soldiers look like they are up to something illegal and dodgy. The blue filter and white soldiers contrast with the orange filter and black soldiers.
The bullet gets picked up off the ground and put back into the box. The box then gets carried to the back of a truck, the camera goes with the footsteps of the person holding the box. When the box gets put onto the truck, the bullet faces the other bullets in the box so we can't see what is going on outside. When the truck starts moving the bullet is then moved inside the box and faces outside where we can see a forest, loads of other boxes full of bullets and two soldiers sitting at the back of the truck with bullets strapped around them, and weapons, which suggests the truck is entering somewhere possibly dangerous. The camera is not steady and jolts as the truck moves.
Once the car stops, the bullets get poured onto the floored. From the floor the bullet gets loaded into a gun with a few other bullets. When the other bullets get fired you see people fighting through the end of the gun and then eventually the bullet gets fired and the camera follows it through the air into the middle of a young, innocent boy's head. A blood splat and sound ends the opening sequence and one last title.
The bullet is then taken to a different part of the factory where all the bullets get checked and then thrown if they are bad by a few workers. As the bullet is picked up and put back the camera goes with it. The bullet is poured into a box with many others, we are then taken to another part of the factory where a soldier/guard is standing with a gun and uniform looking very serious and work men hammering lids onto wooden boxes full of bullets. The box in front has a label with foreign writing and a date of '1588' on.
Once a lid is put onto the box that the bullet is in, it goes black and the shot changes to (still in a blue filter) three Russian soldiers in smart uniform, two in the background talking and one that opens the lid to the box that the bullet is in, outside the factory, at a dock in Russia, with a stack of boxes being lifted by a crane onto a black boat. You can hear clinks from the bullets being knocked against each other and a man shouting from around the dock, but it is not loud enough to work out what is being said, you get the idea that it would be something like 'load the next lot on'. The Russian soldier shuts the lid again and it goes back to black.
The lid gets taken off the box and the bullets are now in a tribal part of Africa, in a dock, with soldiers in the background and welcomed by a dangerous looking soldier, half dressed, with a red hat and gun, looking at the box on the back of the boat whilst it gets knocked by a metal crane. The bullet then falls out of the box onto the floor and as it rolls towards the water, the camera rolls with it. An orange filter is used for all the shots in africa to give it a warm, relaxed atmosphere even though the environment looks dangerous and the soldiers look like they are up to something illegal and dodgy. The blue filter and white soldiers contrast with the orange filter and black soldiers.
The bullet gets picked up off the ground and put back into the box. The box then gets carried to the back of a truck, the camera goes with the footsteps of the person holding the box. When the box gets put onto the truck, the bullet faces the other bullets in the box so we can't see what is going on outside. When the truck starts moving the bullet is then moved inside the box and faces outside where we can see a forest, loads of other boxes full of bullets and two soldiers sitting at the back of the truck with bullets strapped around them, and weapons, which suggests the truck is entering somewhere possibly dangerous. The camera is not steady and jolts as the truck moves.
Once the car stops, the bullets get poured onto the floored. From the floor the bullet gets loaded into a gun with a few other bullets. When the other bullets get fired you see people fighting through the end of the gun and then eventually the bullet gets fired and the camera follows it through the air into the middle of a young, innocent boy's head. A blood splat and sound ends the opening sequence and one last title.
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