Detailed Analysis of Thriller clip analysed in class - Bradley Peppett

We were shown five different openings to Thrillers movies in our lesson. They were the following:




The Shining


Marathon Man


Arlington Road


Dead Calm


Seven





The opening I am going to look in depth to is 'Marathon Man'. Marathon Man is a movie that was created in 1976, starring actors such as Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. It is about a history student who is caught in the middle of an international conspiracy involving stolens diamonds, as exiled Nazi war criminal and a rogue government agent.


During the opening, we see a man who is jogging through the parks and streets. We also see a man with a large box who eventually opens it to put what is inside into his pocket. This seems parallel as they seem to be two completly different storys put into one. Through the editing it has made us wonder how these two storys come together and how are they related to each other, causing us to want to continue watching and find out.


Non-digetic music is played throughout the opening. When we see the man jogging, it is slowed paced and it seems to build up with more tension as he is jogging, adding more wierd noises and creating more suspense. When we switch to the man with the box, the non-digetic music changes to one which leads us to believe that something is up, it is not as slow as before. When we switch back to the man jogging, it is the same non-digetic music leading us again to build more tension. Once again it switches back to the man and the box, with the same type of non-digetic music that leads us to believe that he is up to no good. This is typical in a thriller, instantly seeing who is the good guy and hwo is the bad guy.



Mise en scene is used well. The jogger is dressed in a hoody and jogging bottoms with a cap. He also pulls out a timer/step counter looking at how well he is doing. This gives us the feeling that he is an average guy with no bad intentions. He is also jogging through parks and streets, just like a normal person would do, this creates a normal atmosphere around him. When we see the man with the box, he is well dressed. He looks to be in a secure room with locks and safes. This gives us the feeling that he is in an enviorment which he wants protected, this makes us think immediatly that he is up to no good.


Lots of different camera shots are used. For the jogger, we have tracking shots of his shadow and foot steps. As we get further into the movie we eventually move up to his chest, and then his face. This gives us a long introduction into who he is.