The Untouchables

The scene I analysed from was 'The Untouchables'. It was a nine minute long scene.

The scene starts with a long two shot showing two men walking out of the train station. They are quite close in the two shot which suggests that the two men know each other as there are not many other people there. The camera tilts into a low angle showing one of the men as he walks down the stairs gradually going from a long shot to a close up shot of the man who walks out of the camera view to the right so the camera conceals where he is going and what he is doing which makes you think that perhaps he is not a very important character. The splitting of the two characters makes you think that the two were not actually together. I think this is done to try and make you forget about the other man so when the conflict starts and he re-appears you are surprised to see him.

The camera then pans left and tilts up to reveal the second man standing on a balcony looking over the train station. The camera shows point of view shots, showing a birds-eye view of a woman with luggage and a baby in a pram and cuts to a long shot of the doors and the clock. I think this is done to create tension because he is looking down directly above the baby and you feel quite awkward because the woman is clearly struggling with all of her luggage and the baby so you are put in the awkward situation of whether to actually help or not. As the baby is shown, non-diegetic sound begins of a lullaby type music which suggests that the situation is calm as lullabies are played to try and calm a baby down to get it to sleep. I think the lullaby is very ironic because in a very tense situation that is building up to a conflict and there is a baby lullaby is playing suggesting the situation is calm when it really is not. There is also diegetic sound of the baby crying and the mother trying to shush the baby which I think is foreshadowing death because the situation is already quite tense and it doesn't feel quite right, people cry when mourning a dead person so the baby crying could symbolise death in the foreseeable future. There is montage of the setting which continues to show different point of view shots from the man at the train station, this creates a claustrophobic feel to the scene.

There is a cut from a birds-eye view of the baby, to a long shot of the train station doors to a close up shot of the train station clock. This is parallel editing, this makes the scene feel very claustrophobic and the tension continues to build as you wait to see what is going to happen. The close up shots of the clock suggest that the man is supposed to be there and is waiting for something specific to happen at the hour. The speed of the parallel editing also increases the closer you get to the hour which suggests that the man is panicking that the woman with the baby is still there when he would like her to leave. The man pulls out a gun and there is an extra close up shot on the gun which makes you realise that that place is where there is going to be conflict so the man is worrying that the woman is still there where in merely a couple of minutes there is going to be a brawl. I think there is an extra close up on the gun because they want you to clearly see the gun and understand that there is going to be a gun brawl and most likely some deaths in this location. Also to build tension because when you see the gun you feel tense as you know what is going to happen next and you know the smallest thing could be the fuse to start the fire.

The close up shots of the man's face shows his face looking around, then looking in the direction of the door then looking down at the woman. I think this is done to show his inner conflict on whether to go down and help the lady with her baby and luggage or to stay where he is, it hints that he is going to help the lady before he actually does it and it is confirmed when there is a close up shot on the clock that is about to strike the hour which shows that he has ran out of time and has to help the woman now before she is in the conflict zone.