Harry Brown

Harry Brown

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Year: 2010

Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn

Genre: Crime Thriller

Budget: $7 million

total gross: $10 million

The opening of Harry Brown is far different to the glamorous lifestyle of a gangster portrayed in other films I have looked at. The opening sequence is shown through the perspective of a mobile phone giving a very realistic looking insight into the life of modern London gangs. Sound in this sequence is limited to only that of the phone recording giving a very raw feel to the scene and showing the true dark side to modern gang life. The gang members are not dressed in formal clothes which contrasts to previous openings I have looked at. Once again location is not established in the opening sequence and the first scene is shot at night in a desolate alley way. The scene is not well lit so we do not see faces of many members and are only made aware of one face who follows us through the scene, this allows us as a viewer to follow him from initiation to an insight as to what gang life is. The first scene is ended when one of the other gang members hands the newest member his first gun, this foreshadows the events to follow however this sequence also creates a lot of narrative enigma to us as an audience as we wander what the gun will be used for in the film. The promotion of drugs is often a theme in crime films as it is very often either the cause of wealth of the characters or in other films (The Godfather part1)  where drugs are very much frowned upon by the leaders of the families. A solumn simplistic soundtrack compliments the scene creating a sad tone in which we almost feel sorry for the boy being enrolled. Titles on the screen are very poignant and minimalistic linking to titles of other crime films I have looked at however it shows these criminals to be very insignificant and unintelligent in comparison to the bold text used in other gang films, like The Road to Perdition. The following scene also uses a shaky almost mobile phone look to it as the 2 gang members illegally ride through a park on a motorbike. The camera pans up to our previously enrolled character looking up at him, giving him more of a powerful look. The gun is pulled out and we are made aware of the fact the gang member is trying to shoot around the woman with the pram in order to scare her, this shows the criminals as stupid which contrasts to previous openings. The final shot kills the woman shown very graphically with the use of blood and the criminals show no remorse and ride off. The gang members in this opening are shown nothing like the members in any other film I have looked at, they have no intelligence at all and are genuinely just reckless and insignificant. The scene uses very cold blue tones creating a very clinical and raw feel to the image there is no happy emotions connoted throughout the scene and this helps reinforce this. The final shot is of the members being knocked off the bike by a truck at which point as a viewer we do not feel shock we feel relived they have been hurt. This and then a cut to black shows the gang reign as powerless and just a nuisance to the surrounding world.