In order to achieve a successful thriller film, it is essential to meet all the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. Law abiding citizen is a thriller about a man who is driven to commit multiple murders in attempt to avenge the murders of his wife and daughter and the corrupt justice system. Law abiding citizen was a very successful thriller film. It was nominated for a Saturn Award as the best crime/drama/thriller film of the year 2009.
Opening sequence & Camera work
The opening sequence of law abiding citizen differs from other opening sequences of thrillers films such as memento, seven, etc. It begins with the credits for the production company's. The font that is used is very effective as it looks like a very basic font which has scratches and chunks out of it, hinting some kind of disruption or damage to something that is supposedly normal.
The opening scene seems like a normal day in the house. The sequence is 3 minutes long. The scene begins with Clyde's daughter playing with her beads and making a necklace with the name Heather.T his hints to the audience that the name Heather or the necklace will have significant part in the film. There is a close up shot of Heather's hands, although the audience does not get to see her face, they can tell from her delicate hands that she is a little girl. It is then cut to a close up of Clyde's machine which shows the audience that Clyde is an engineer. Also this is a hint that later in the film Clyde will use his engineering skills. The shots showing that they are both making something tells the audience that they have a close father daughter bond.
A shot reverse shot is used in this scene also shows the father-daughter relationship between Clyde and Heather. These few opening shots set the equilibrium and the normal state.
When there a knock on the door we see a mid-shot of Clyde walking to the door still showing that its is a normal day . The audience gets a glimpse of the house which shows that Clyde has a good paying job as they have quite a big house. A mid shot is again when Clyde opens the door and sees the two burglars. This gives the audience to see both Clydes facial expression and body language as he realises that he just opened the door to burglars. The family atmosphere changes dramatically the shots are quick and continuous the ambient music has turned to a cold sharp sound building suspense. The jump cut from Clyde on the floor to his wife as she walks in her screams give the audience hope. the close ups on the faces of the characters show the des
The sound of this opening sequence is non-diegetic as we here a radio however we do not get to see it. The sound makes the scene feel like a normal day where a father and his daughter are spending quality time together.
Law abiding citizen has clean cuts all the way through.
In terms of mise en scene, the bat and knife that were used when the burglars attacked Cylde and his family are the most important as they are weapons used to harm Clyde and his family. Also every time we see the one of the weapons a close-up is used therefore
To conclude, the opening sequence of law abiding citizen fulfills all the codes and conventions of a thriller film. The fact that the opening sequence does not have any titles and credits, it made law abiding citizen unique and that is something that we admired. We are going use some of the components we found that law abiding citizen has. This opening sequence was highly influential to our opening sequence. Overall we think that this opening sequence is very good simply because of the fact that it is unique and not many other thriller films do not have this type of opening sequence.
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