Snatch Opening Scene Analysis

Snatch Opening Analysis

The scene begins with a fade into the back of a mysterious figures head and pans over the view to a two shot of two individuals named Turkish and Tommy. The room in this shot is made to be dark to represent the type of lives these individuals live and to make the audience feel uncomfortable so that their emotions are aligned with how they are feeling in their situation.

The scene then cuts to a close up shot of Turkish to show that he is one setting the scene and introducing himself and Tommy, the connection is made that these two have known each other for quite a while now as Turkish mentions “Known for as long as I can remember.” The close up is also used to show the characters facial expressions, Turkish is shown to feel quite chilled in the situation whereas Tommy is constantly finding things in his surroundings to distract himself for the situation, it is clear that Turkish is the one with more control than Tommy and that even though he causes him trouble he still cares for his well-being “I try to keep him out of as much trouble as he inflicts on me.”

It is made clear to the audience that they are in a shady place as the sound of a fly shows that place is unkempt and it is used to break the silence as there is no music throughout this scene. They introduce their job profession as a boxing promoter; however, the current room shows the audience that they aren’t promoting legal boxing. The next scene is set as Turkish mentions what little he knows about diamonds and says that they come from Antwerp, although he seems unsure as he questions it himself.

The next scene is faded to black where we are in point-of-view shot of a security guard viewing the cameras to keep an eye on four individuals who are shown to be dressed in clothing that represents Jewish believers entering a high facility building. The audience are put in the perspective of a security guard to feel untrustworthy about them.

An enigma is created as the audience is made to assume that a robbery of a priceless diamond occurred as the use of narrow hallways and the four men standing so close together makes the audience feel uneasy and untrustworthy of these men. The fact that the hallways are black and white make the building feel more prison like than an average bank, making the audience feel more unease.

The following shot is of the men standing in the lift, once again extremely close together to continue to make the audience feel uncomfortable. As the four men make their way towards a locked door the camera pans towards the door the men are standing behind, the tension in the audience is still high as the calm music is dropped; however, it is made apparent that they have been expected as a man screams “Rud! Rud! Let them in please!” most if not all suspicion of these individuals are dropped. The following is a match action shot of the four men entering the room that has not yet been officially identified, leaving only assumptions to the audience.

The scene transitions into a busy office as the POV shot is changed into a medium shot of the security guard , many employees are hard at work and the fact that none seem to care about their presence would make the audience feel as though they weren’t a threat after all and begin to lower their guard as well. Although, the feeling on the audience is short lived as the Jewish men don't even acknowledge the bank manager with a single greeting. A long shot is chosen for the for the following scene as they want the audience to feel a sense of distance between the two characters, and how there should have been no trust placed on these individuals what so ever.

Afterwards, one man reveals a combat vest containing four pistols, one for each man. The moment the guns are revealed the shot immediately zooms into a medium shot of the Jewish men and then the bank manager, this was used to show the audience the feelings of being in that situation as the zoom in is meant to represent the realisation of the heist that is being committed on the bank. The background music begins to play and raises in volume and tempo to show the ever increasing danger of the situation and is used to represent the employees feelings of disorientation. This is played throughout the whole development of the situation, however it the music and fast intervals between shots begin to slow down and cease once the robber asks of the location of 'The Stone' to the manager, the camera angle is positioned over the shoulder of the manager to make the audience feel as though they too are being interrogated by the man as to make the audience feel a sense of fear to be aligned with the emotions of the manager.

The following scene then immediately transitions to the back of a van however it begins the scene with a close up of the diamond which is shown to be the key to the main plot of the film. The four Jewish men then proceed to undress and discard all clothing items that represent the Jewish faith to show the audience that they only wore the clothes as a disguise. The shot in this scene is a medium shot and makes jumps between the time it takes the men to undress. It then does a close up of a robber holding the diamond in his in his hand and inspects the, the title of the film appears on screen and zooms into the diamond to represent that this is what Turkish was talking about earlier on in the opening to the audience. This creates an enigma for the movie as the purpose as to why they wanted the diamond and how Turkish and Tommy are involved, this also brings the question how are two boxing promoters involved with a group criminals that robbed a diamond from a completely different country.

After this the film begins it title sequence which consists of the cast of the characters that are going to be in the film, which is a common thing when it comes to Guy Ritchie films, This can be considered a common convention for this genre as most films that follow generic conventions usually begin a film with a small amount of plot to give the audience an idea of whats going on, introduce some of the characters that will be playing a major part in the film and then have a title sequence either during the opening, before or maybe even after the opening sequence.