sSHOOTER
INTRODUCTION
Shooter is one of my favorite thriller movie's as it has a great story and is filled with enigma and action.
The movie was directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by Johnathan Lemkin (screenplay) and based on the novel by Stephen Hunter. It stars Mark Wahlberg as the protagonist and Danny Glover as the antagonist.
TODOROV'S THEORY OF NARRATIVE
The film starts with the protagonist and his partner on a mission, one which shouldn't test the talents that they possess. However what they do not realize is that someone is feeding the targets information, the targets turn on them and fire. This turn of events leads to a shoot out, in this shoot out the protagonist's partner is killed. The films first scene has no sense of equilibrium, yet the following scene does. After failing this mission the protagonist retires, he lives in a forest with no one but his dog. The equilibrium has been restored. Our protagonist is then offered a contract by the US government, the President of the USA wants him as sniper protection, due to an alleged assination being planned . The protagonist turns it down at first, but then re-thinks and accepts due to his patriotic beliefs. He does his work, but the shot is fired and our protagonist is quickly the fall guy: wounded and hunted by thousands, he goes to ground and, aided by two unlikely allies, searches for the truth and for those who double-crossed him.
DERRY'S THEORY
This film is a hybrid, it is both innocent on the run and a political thriller, making the story line interesting as the antagonist is doing the right thing, they are simply mistaken as to who they should be chasing.
Enigma
There are lots of enigma codes throughout this film. On many occasions the protagonist is almost captured, we are left unsure as to whether the protagonist will escape, and whether he will escape with his life.
SOUND
In this movie the sound is used to create suspense. The scenes where are protagonist narrowly escapes are laden with non diegetic sound, loud footsteps are a very common example of this. There are also moments where there is no sound to note, when our protagonist is declared innocent the FBI are so shocked at the mistakes they have made.
TITLE
The title "SHOOTER" clearly indicates the action in the film, when I first read the title I knew what to expect. beacuse the title is just one definitive word it shows the boldnees of the film.
Lighting
The majority of this film is filmed in day light, this high key lighting allows you to clearly view what the snipers see.
However, a few scenes are very low key, one scene has the protagonist breaking into a house in order to inflict revenge on the people that framed him. This scene's lighting is very low key, adding to the suspense along with the eerie score.
Camera work
Throughout this film the camera work is trying to focus on creating suspense or action. The action scenes feature a lot of close up shots, this involves the audience in the action making it more eye popping. Some scenes involve establishing shots, allowing the audience to take in the scenery, displaying everything the protagonist is faced with.
Mise-en-scene
The most important thing about the Mise-en-scene in this film is the costumes. The protagonist is on the run, yet he wears army camouflage, this particular costume establishes that he is a prestigious marksman. In the picture on the right he wears an almost thug-esque black outfit, this gives us the idea that he is about to break in to something or do something which involves espionage.
