Snatch

Snatch is a film made in 2000, by Britsh writer-director Guy Ritchie,. Set in the criminal life of london , the movie consists of two compatible one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter named Turkish (Jason Statham ) who finds himself getting invlolbed with a gangster named Brick Top (Alan Ford). Just from the opening sequence of the film, it Is quite evident that the films genre is British gangster. There are numerous conventions of a British gangster film, such as the accents and the designer clothes that the actors are dressed in, this contrast of South East London (quite a poor part of the country) and money, causes the audience to wonder where the money has come from, and they automatically refer to organised crime.

The mise-en-scene in the opening sequence is very meaningful. We are not well informed of the situation at hand and so we make assumptions of the storyline or outcome of the film throughout. There is a lot of iconography used in the opening of the film, for example, the jeweller informs the audience straight away, of where the scene is taking place. And again, when there are shots of the security monitors, we are informed that they are in a building where there is something worth protecting. Also the MCU’s of the very first scene, are used to portray Turkish’s thought, for instance when the voice over talks about Tommy, there is a MCU of Tommy. There is varied camera movement in the sequence, and each type is used to portray different meaning, for example, in the Jewellers steadicam is used to inform the audience that the character that the camera is focused on, is in deep thought. Although the camera doesn’t pay much attention to the clothes that Turkish or Tommy is wearing but we see from the chest up. They are dressed very formally, smart shirts and expensive looking, long coats, from this we can tell that they are very fashionable, and can afford expensive clothing, and therefore are quite wealthy.

In the Raid scene, canted angles and handicam are used, to give a more drastic and unfamiliar feeling to the shots. I think these techniques, bring more action to the scene, they are fast changing shots which keep the audience interested and focused on the action. The handicam is very effective, the movement of the camera, is some what similar to the relaistic movement of human focus, and so it creates tension for the audience, as the filming helps the audience to feel like they are acrually there, and involved in the action. Because the criminals in this scene are disguised we cannot gather an idea of their personality from their clothing, we can only gather that they are roofless criminals through their violent movement and actions, and also their raised, aggressive voices.

At the beginning of the first scene there is no music, because of Turkish’s introduction and dialogue. But the music used in the raid scene starts off slow, and sounds very Jewish, to agree with the characters that are in the shot because they are all Jews. But when it is revealed that they are not Jews, and in fact criminals, the music becomes very upbeat, to tie in with the action. This is effective because the slow music, in a way sets the scene as a very laid back, inactive scene, but then the music kicks in and completely distorts the idea of peace and tranquillity. it suits the situation and builds up tension for the audience, furthermore, gets the audience involved with the action, possibly pumping adrenaline. And so this use of sound is very effective.

In the opening scene, there is the dialogue of Turkish, who introduces himself, and Tommy to the audience, and without giving the plot away, says a little bit about what he does, and what is happening in the scene. ‘‘I was a happy boxing promoter until a week ago, and now, what do I know about diamonds?’’ we are now informed of the type of person that Turkish is, because of his profession, and that there is going to be diamonds and money involved in the plot. And when he talks about Tommy, ‘‘He says that he was named after a gun, but really I know he was named after a 19th century ballet dancer’’. This informs the audience that maybe Tommy is not what he tries to make himself out to be and from that we can gather a bit about his character.
In the raid scene the dialogue is quite difficult to understand, because they are speaking in Dutch accents. But if you listen carefully the conversation is about the truthfulness of the story of Adam and Eve. In a way this could be humorous, Jews talking about the creation story, and somebody contradicting it. But when the action kicks in the dialogue completely changes, and now they have threatening raised voices, and it changes the perspective of the jews, to the audience completely. this contrast is very effective, the way that the males appear calm, and then kick into violent malevolent behaviour, in a way is exciting to the audience, and creates a cliff hanger type situation. and an enigma for the rest of the film. the audience may start to question ''are these characters really jewish, or are they disguised?''.

There is one main representation of a social group in this sequence. And it is that of young to middle aged men who are all conveyed as criminals in one way or another. But whereas Turkish and Tommy are portrayed as cockney men evidently from London, the criminals in the raid scene are clearly foreign from there accents. This begs the audience to wonder whether the film includes other countries as settings, or other groups of people from different nations, possibly immigrants getting involved in the action of the london Crime scene. Furthermore, women are not used at all in the opening sequence, this would suggest that the director has purposely left them out to identify his target audience, as mostly males.

The semiotics in the opening sequence help us to understand the representation of the characters so far, for example the diamond that the jeweller is examining is obviously worth a lot of money because of the sheer size of it, as a symbol this represents the fact that some how, Tommy and Turkish have become in possession of this diamond, and straight away the audience know that money is going to be an issue with these two characters.
The main genre of the film is British Gangster, and so I believe the film is targeted primarily at any aged males, as this film would, in a way relate to them as a group because everyone in this opening scene is male, and in fact white.
One possible reading of this text is that there are numerous men, trying to make a lot of money, because in the first scene, we see the diamond, and the introductions, where as in the second scene, we see an armed robbery taking place for the diamond. However another reading of the text is that they are just mindless criminal thugs getting kicks out of causing havoc and despair.

I think the main ideological discourse used in the sequence is trying to portray the fact that most people from london or around london, are involved in crime, the majority of people in the film, are criminals, and all have a plot to have money and be sucessful. Also i believethat throughout the film, the typical perception of travellers being dodgey characters, is reinforced. this does not become evident through the dialogue, but more through the plot of the film. There are only two women in the whole of the film, and none in the opening sequence, i believe this backs up the belief that mostly males are members of organised crime gangs, or commit phelonies. And so i believe that women are in a way portrayed as the innocent and behaved.