Film Analysis

Every movie beginning needs to be intriguing. In order to catch the audience attention in any aspect, you need to start really well. That will automatically bring certain attention to the viewers so that they follow the story to the end. Otherwise, if the attention hasn't been caught, there is a risk of losing

potential audience. This is true in most of the cases when speaking about representing something, or creating a fascinating story.

Director Dominic Sena, famous already for his production Gone in 60 seconds, seems to know how to catch someone's awareness. In his 2001 release "Swordfish", he implies that idea. The movie begins at a climax point, in the middle of the whole story with a totally misunderstood statement. However the main motifs of the film are implemented there somehow. That's how most of the movies are created. On the basis of these details, there will be further development of the plot and should explain the whole story. That's what should keep the audience on its seats and watch till the end.

The main theme that the director puts as a base for his production is the distinction between our normal real world and another artificial world. This leads to some normal perceiving and abnormal. At the same time, the motives about a normal guy feeling love to his family are present. This makes the relation between those sorts of worlds. It emphasizes on the humane feelings amid a father and his child. In our situation, as soon the film starts, through a flashback we're going back in the story and we find out that a father has been left without his kid and there isn't to much to be done. Immediately we can notice the protagonist in our story. That is Stanley Jobson, who is ready to do whatever it takes to bring his own daughter back. Even though if that requires going in different dimension and exploring another world.

The director develops those motifs and delivers the main theme through several basic elements. That should be production design, cinematography, editing, directing or sound and music. A complete film requires a lot of efforts and all of those basics well implied. And the most important part is the opening sequence. Pretty much the whole theme and the main motives are there. In our case, in Swordfish, the story starts with that blurring understanding about what's our present world and what's beyond it. There is some sort of mystery and unclearness. However a few shots later we see the main motives there. Through some close shots, lots of non-diegetic sounds, we get the seriousness of a father left separate from his own blood - his daughter. That makes the movie open and ready for further development with the help of those filming elements.

Film has a visual perceptive first, which is accompanied by sound and music, not on the last place. Therefore the physical details, the things the eye sees first are the most significant details, or in other words, "the Mise-en-scene" and the production design. We can easily make the distinction and catch the author's stress about the physical arrangement in our case. The setting in our opening scene is a normal place, even if it's rural. We have the existence of clear sky, daylight which brings some sort of peace and quiet atmosphere. While later on, when we see the world our antagonist exists in, we can notice a contrast. The setting is really different. We're in sort of a club without presence of light, lots of smoke and darkness. This illustrates what the two personages look like. John Travolta is a dark person and Hugh Jackman is more simple and peaceful. Even Holly Berry, she's from the bad guys, wears a contrast colored clothes when she meets Hugh for the first time. Thus we can conclude that she belongs to a different dimension. Furthermore in our plot, we can see more scenes where the stress is on the main characters in the film. When Stan (Hugh Jackman) goes to see his daughter, we have the kindergarten, flowers, sunshine. These things show us the peaceful and calm nature our good guys come from. On the other hand, Travolta is surrounded by weapons, war and disharmony. The contrast in their clothing, their homes, the people around them contribute to the whole point of the difference between them. In this way, the spectator can easily catch the mood of the production. For example, at the end of the plot or the whole movie, we can notice the turn over point. The antagonist is no longer dressed in those dark colored suits. He's for the first time on a boat, there's sunshine, sea, clear sky. At the same time, the story has come to an end, the protagonist has accomplished his goal, and his daughter is with him. There is a sense of a common peace and good. Everyone is happy and we can say that the movie is complete.

Another technique is editing. It is considered to be the key to a good cinema. A good editor can pretty much manipulate the whole perception of a movie. He can create sort of a rhythm and make the screenplay alive and exciting. For instance, the beginning of Swordfish starts with a well done explosion. However it's not just a brief blast. We have a presence of all those slow motion shots, rotating of the camera; slow bullet timing (which is comparatively new to the editing techniques). This method stresses more on the event occurring in the story. It gives it more power and significance in the plot of the story. On the contrary, at the end, there is that same explosion. However, there is an elliptical editing which gives kind of graphical discontinuity for the audience. Thus, we can just recall what has happened before in the plot or connect the parts in the story, since the order of the plot is not straight, but random. Another editing technique which allows the editor to manipulate