Dirty Harry

We started by just looking at movies and analysing them we decided to look at "Dirty Harry" to start with.......


The opening sequence to Dirty Harry is effective as it covers the aspects of genre, location, characters, our protagonist and antagonist. By doing this the audience are able to understand the basics of what is going on without knowing the actually story. Right at the beginning of the film the audience is able to hear church bells which may symbolize many things such as death or happiness, in the case of the opening sequence to Dirty Harry the church bells symbolize death, as straight after the bells sound the screen shows a list of police officers that have died in the line of duty. The screen then splits into two, overlaying the list of soldiers is the San Francisco Police Badge this happens in a slow dissolve not a quick movement which can give a solemn effect. The screen goes into a very slow dissolve again but this time it shows a man on the screen holding a gun, whilst this is happening the music changes from being bells to high pitched music, this builds suspense and may suggest to the audience that the man is going to do something bad like shot at someone, as well as this the gunman’s face has been covered so it makes him seem more mischievous and interesting. Not only is the gunman’s face hidden but the camera is blurred at a low angle, this could represent that the gunman is very significant to the film and makes the audience think that he is the antagonist. By covering the aspects of the characters the audience are able to understand who is the protagonist and the antagonist in the case of this movie the protagonist is Dirty harry and the antagonist is the person who shoots the girl in the swimming pool.

When the gunman goes to shoot the innocent girl in the swimming pool, the audiences haven’t got any idea why but understand that this is why he is there. The way this is suggested is by the way in the camera is used, instead of just aiming the camera at one and then the other and showing her being shot, the director builds suspense by showing different angels of each character, always having the gunman’s face concealed. One of the most interesting camera shots is when we see the girl through the crosshairs of the gun; this is whilst our antagonist is aiming for a shot. The reason this is interesting is because we now see girl who is swimming as an object and no longer as a human being the audience also pick up on the fact that she hasn’t done anything wrong from what they know. When she gets shot it is very quick you see the gunman pull the trigger but if you look away for a very quick second you would be miss it. Whilst the victim is dying you see it once again through the sniper gun. This suggests to the audience that the gunman is enjoying what he is doing and wants to watch the victim die. Unfortunately all the audience knows about the young girl swimming is that she must be wealthy as she is swimming in a penthouse pool, therefore they do not understand why she has been killed.

When Clint Eastwood enters the film, we automatically know he is the protagonist as he is dressed smart in a full suit when the weather is hot enough to go for a swim, this suggests to the audience that he is not only good at what he does but he is dedicated to his work and helping people. The music also becomes more upbeat when he enters, the camera shot is a close up of him with a very hard and stern face. This could also suggest to the audience that he takes everything seriously when it involves people of San Francisco. By the way in which the camera is used the audience can tell a lot more how good Harry is at his job, when the dead girl is laying on the floor the camera is showing everything from floor level which makes the audience feel as if they were then, whilst this is happening Harry tilts his head up very slightly to a building, the audience may understand straight away that this is the building in which the young girl got shot from. Whilst he makes his way over to the building he walks through the streets and the camera the stops and shows the height of the building by panning up it, This is then when Harry works his way up to the top of the building but going to back way through the industrial ventilation showing the bad side of San Francisco, this reason this he goes up this way is because the gunman would not of got through the building with a gun, These next few shots show how hard it would have been for the gunman to get up to the top of the building. When Harry is finally at the top, you see how big a dived there is between the good and the bad; this is shown by Harry standing on the other side of the wall to the gunman. Whilst our Protagonist is on top of the roof he finds a bullet shell on the floor and puts it into an envelope, when this happens the music turns a lot softer this could suggest that he is able to figure something’s out a little more than before. He then turns around and the camera shows a close up shot of him looking at a note. This is when the first piece of speech is said throughout of the whole of the opening sequence “Jesus” Suggesting that it is something worse that what ha s already happened.

All in all the opening sequence is very effective in many ways, not only does it demonstrate to the audience what may happen throughout the film, but it also covers all the aspects of a great opening sequence by building a lot of suspense and interest into the characters as they all seem mysterious. The way in which the cameras are used displays who is powerful and who is also good and bad.