goodfellas opening

i like the opening 2 minutes because it's a fantastic introduction to the three main characters. it starts off with titles and then your introduced to the characters. the titles fly past the screen. the sound when the titles are flying past livens it up adds to the pase. the sound is traffic and thats what the next shot is so it's a lead up to the film starting.

after the titles theres a shot of a car driving across the highway at night going very fast. the camera starts from behind and works its way to the side of the car and then goes ahead of the car. this is just an introduction to the setting of the film. after that shot, it goes back to a black screen and it says where the film is set and when it's set. the next shot is 30 seconds long and the camera is stationary. its of the interior of the car with the three main characters in. this is an introduction to the characters and because its a longer shot it's more natural and therefore the audience think its realistic and not fiction.

then theres a shot of the guys stopping and opening the boot of the car. we can see that they have knives and guns so they must be criminals in some way. we associate weapons with criminals and violence so it fits perfectly in the film. when the boot opens theres a man wrapped up in table cloth with blood everywhere. one of the guys stabs him some more and then another one shoots him a few times. then the last character closes the boot as if nothings wrong. narrations starts as he's closing the boot and then the titles come back with music that works really well with the film.

the main character who tells the stoy is usually shown on screen alone in a shot. where as the other two characters are shown together. this suggests that he doesn't really belong or fit in with the other two guys. also, the other two guys, tommy and jimmy, stab andshoot the man in the trunk where as henry does nothing. this shows that he's different. the light coming from the car is red and reflects onto the main characters. the colour red suggests death and anger and violence. when the light shines on tommy, all thee of theseattributes are true.