Monday 23 February 2015

Opening scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy2-abqR8B4


The opening scene of the film although short, does show many things that have become famously identified as western. It starts with a shot of a woman opening the door to her house, you see a lovely shot of a landscape that can be instantly identified as being the American west.

She leaves the house and starts to look into the distance. we are then get a shot that is from her point of view where we can see nothing but land from the foreground to the horizon yet. all we can see is a single horse slowly coming towards her.

The next image is one of the classic Lone cowboy, looking run down. It is clear that this man will be the main character of the film. In one shot you can see that he is going to be the flawed hero figure that most westerns have. He is alone and looks run down. Possibly hinting at he is an outcasted man who has a past that is covered in both mystery and is black.


As she leaves the house we find out that she and her daughter were inside while the husband and son were outside working the land. This would have been something that was very true of the west. The women would stay in the house, preparing food, repairing clothes and being the overall homemaker while the men would be out in the fields making fences, looking after livestock.

Although the opening sequence is short. I do feel it in captures a vast amount of the Western myth within it.

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