Analysis of 'Rise of the Footsoldier'

‘Rise of the Footsoldier’, Julian Gilbey, 2007

‘Rise of the Footsoldier’ is a British Gangster film that revolves around the bloody violence of gang culture throughout the late 1900s. However, the opening few scenes of this film are not typical of the genre in any sense. They are a number of still shots off snow covered fields with the light reflecting off as the sun rises in the morning. This immediately produces a sense of calm and tranquillity. It is only midway through the opening sequence that the film starts to conform to the typical conventions. The scene jumps from a shot of a quiet, snow covered field, to a shot of a dead man, covered in blood and with half his face blown off, this shocks the viewer, which helps them to get involved in the film as it creates automatic emotions and feelings of sadness that we typically associate with death, but also because the viewer is naturally horrified by what they are seeing on screen. Overall, the opening sequence does conform to the typical conventions of the genre as the over-powering message is of violence and death.The mis-en-scene is extremely effective and helps to get the viewer interested through a number of ways. The first thing we see is a text screen caption which anchors the sequence as a ‘true story’ and conforms to the convention of gangster films, which depict the stories of celebrity criminals. The obvious result of this is that the viewer is interested because these words add more meaning to the film, instead of it just being another thug film that is based on violence and drugs, but has no real point. But a more subtle device used is the font of this writing, it looks as if it has been written on a type writer, this device is used in a lot of British Gangster films, and immediately connotes the writing of old police reports, which connotes that the film is about crime. This is confirmed when we see the dead bodies and the pictures being taken. When pictures are being taken of dead bodies in films it is usually by the police, however, it is already clear that this is murder, partly because there is three dead bodies, but also because of the state that their bodies are in, as parts of their faces are blown off etc. This helps to create and enigma as the viewer immediately starts asking themselves questions such as, who are the people? And what happened to them? There is also a slight blue filter used throughout the sequence, this creates a chilling effect, especially when we see the dead bodies. Within this scene, we are told that this is based in the past, partly because the date is given to us, but also because they style of clothing is different to that of modern day society, and by doing this, we are given a background into the society that this is being set in.The first few shots are extreme long shots of woods, and also a road showing car tracks, this is done, because at first we think it is simply showing some woods, however we later realise in the film that this was the scene of the murder, and we begin to piece together what happened. We then see a birds eye view of the dead bodies, giving us a full view of the bodies, allowing us to see all the damage. This is done to shock us as we see the full extent of their injuries. The camera then pans from left to right and uses the body of the first man as a leading line to draw our focus to one of the other men. The rule of thirds is then used at this point to attract our attention to one of the men, the camera then tracks in on him, letting us know that he is important despite the fact that we don’t know how or why yet. The next shot is an extreme close up on a ringing mobile phone, this indicates that the person on the other end of the line might also be important, and we figure out that him and the owner of the phone are probably mates, firstly, from the manner of which the voice is speaking, but also from the desperation expressed, because it indicates that he probably knows what has happened.The music in this sequence is extremely effective in anchoring the on-screen images. During the first few scenes, everything seems very calm and peaceful, and the music seems to match this mood perfectly as it is slow and steady, and the notes sound very soft. However, there is then a large switch between the mood of these images, as we see pictures of dead people, what is good about the music in this, is that despite the fact that there is such a large change in the pictures on-screen, there is only a vary subtle change in the music, which without pictures would just seem part of the same song, but with pictures is able to create a whole different mood within the scene. Creating a very chilling and eerie end to the opening sequence. This mood is intensified by the diagetic sounds of the camera clicking and the phone ringing, as they too are quite soft but almost cold sounds. However because these sounds match the action in the scene itself, it does not seem like there is too much going on in the non- diagetic sound and makes sure the music in the scene does not have too much going on.The only dialogue in the opening scene is the narration of who we soon find out to be the main character of the film, Carlton Leech, from this we learn a bit about him as he gives us a small amount of background information on himself and the plot, however we still don’t know who the dead people are, and by doing this, it makes sure that there is still an enigma and the viewer does not lose interestThe narrative starts with a flash forward and then the rest of the film is building up to this point, we know this because the voice over says about how it all started with football. This is an effective device because it involves the viewer because they immediately know there is something exciting going to happen, which in this case is the events leading up to the three men’s deaths. The audience is positioned from the point of view of Carlton Leech, the main character as we see how his life builds up to this one event. We are able to identify with the type of people the three dead men were from their clothing. Two of them are wearing big leather jackets, jeans and big boots, this type of clothing is typical of British gangsters in the era this film is set in. This also gives us a hint that their murders may not have been completely unprovoked. The major themes in this narrative are of violence, crime and murder, this is not only clear because in modern day society these things are stereotypically denoted by blood and the colour red, which is a big factor in this scene, but also because we see the three men lying their, dead, and from the state their bodies are in, it is pretty clear to the viewer that they have been murdered. Tension is created in this scene by the corpses that we see, along with the music, these two factors together create a scene that simultaneously shocks the viewer, but also sort of sends shivers down their spines, creating tension. This is then maintained by the phone call, this is because the voice on the other side of the phone sounds desperate and panicky, which translates over to the viewer, making them feel on edge.There is only one social group presented in this opening sequence which is the thug-like British Gangster typical of the 1980s. This is done through the clothes that the three dead men are wearing, but also from the fact that they have been killed in such a brutal way. Although on the surface this just seems like the gruesome death of three thugs, this could be seen to represent the fall of the thug culture that existed throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, as these three men were, at the time some of the most respected villains in the country and their deaths are one of the most infamous slayings in British gangland history. Another ideological discourse of this is that this does not only represent the death of a thug culture and how it constructs an essentialist view of masculinity through many elements of the opening sequence; all the characters in this sequence are male and the costumes they are wearing connotes them as martyrs of gangster life. Furthermore, the voice over connotes how they are living in a male world filled with danger and violence. The death of these men also represents the death of a male culture, one that for decades was a defining difference between men and women, and the social expectations or norms of English society in such a depressed time. In this scene, there are red stains all down there clothing, this is clearly meant to be blood, and this is used to represent the violence and savagery of their deaths as within modern day society we often associate blood with violence, murder and death.The target audience of this film is young males, as a lot of entertainment in modern day society, especially for the younger generation revolves around violence, drugs and sex. The preferred reading is that although the violence may be slightly exaggerated this makes it an entertaining interpretation of what is actually an extremely violent true story. However, the negotiated reading would be that although it is a true story, it is far too exaggerated and simply a reason to put a load of mindless violence in a film. I have a preferred reading of this film, however although I do find it entertaining, I do think it lacks any depth or meaning. I think that my view on this film is affected greatly by my age and gender, because expectations and norms and values of society are constantly changing, and although this sort of thing is acceptable now, thirty years ago, many of the scenes in this film would have been completely new and far more shocking than they are now. I think that background does not affect the way we people my age would read this text, because no matter what you upbringing is, society is the same, and so almost all teenage boys will find these sort of things entertaining because this is what is expected by society.