The Taking of Pelham 123 is a crime/action thriller remake directed by Tony Scott. It has a very different atmosphere from my previously analysed thriller, One Hour Photo. Whilst One Hour Photo slowly builds up tension to create a thrilling tone, Pelham is forceful and direct.
We open to a letter-box style establishing shot of an urban skyline. There is low, suspenseful music playing in the background as the credits come up in a black, bold, typical action font.
All of a sudden, we are nearly given a heart attack as the camera quickly speeds up and zooms down onto a busy, sped up street. This abrupt change in tempo is accompanied by an upbeat rap-rock soundtrack (99 Problems - Jay Z).
In addition to this change, the format of the titles also change from black to an animated, energetic bright blue and white. The atmosphere is fast and adrenaline fueled, expressed by the fast camera movements and the fast motion.
There is a sudden change to slow motion, as John Travolta's character walks past the camera. This tells the audience that he is an important character. In terms of actor and costume, Travolta wears a black beanie, black glasses and has a tattoo on his neck. He is clearly a very thuggish, tough man who is used to action.
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We are then shown what is possibly one of the quickest establishing shots in cinema history: A quick cut to a subway sign, followed by a shot of the man entering the subway. The camera is very purposefully shaky. This is a camera technique, often used to create a sense of aggression and energy (or sometimes panic and lack of control).
In it's title sequence, The Taking of Pelham uses fast camera shots to establish a lot of information in a very limited space of time. Here, we are shown a quick shot of a bag being held by a man and then a badge that he wears, reading: 'MTA' (Metropolitan Transport Authority). In the space of a few seconds, we are aware that this new character is also important and we can start to formulate ideas as to what he is doing.
The climax of all this aggressive energy and information is the movie title which suddenly appear on the screen. As previously, the titles are regularly in time with the music. In this case, the 1, 2 and 3 burst into the shot, synchronous with three bursts of music.
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Also...
I noticed that in this shot, the dark haired guy is not wearing a headset..
But in the shot immediately after, he is...
This is a continuity error. We were taught how to avoid them by Adam in our camera tutorial. I find it interesting and somewhat amusing that even professional film companies sometimes accidentally have continuity errors in their films.
