Wallander Opening Scene Analysis

WALLANDER ANALYSIS

The scene is introduced by a faded in helicopter shot of an expanse of water. The shot creates a sense of mystery and alongside the sound of wind it becomes a very wistful shot. It feels very ominous and it tells us as the audience that we are about to experience something uncomfortable. The shot is very long and it leaves us guessing as to what may happen.

Here we can see two people walking away from a car, it gives us the idea they might be walking away from a bad situation because they have left the door open, showing they might have been in a hurry to get away and also they are in the countryside, its rare that people would choose to walk somewhere in the countryside (as it would be very far away) if they have a vehicle available. The sound here is very eerily quiet too which makes the audience worried about what may be happening here, they feel more desperate wanting to find out what has happend. There is a sudden swipe of noise that cuts to the next scene which is reminiscent of a stabbing noise and brings the audience back to reality as up to now its been a very dreamy scene. The lighting is still low key here and this effectively sets the tone for the rest of the scene.

This shot is the first depiction we see of the two suspicious characters. The fact that they are shot from the back adds to the mystery and causes the audience to asks questions such as, who are these girls, are they in trouble or are they the villains in this situation. At first glance, they don't seem to be hurt but often the females in this sort of situation are the ones who are hurt or in trouble so this confuses us. The costume of black jackets; especially the leather jacket giving a tough image, suggest that a death has just occured because black is a colour which we often relate to death. Also, the red streak in the girl's hair denotes blood and this gives us the idea she is an evil character. The digetic sound of footsteps suggest the characters are very calm because they are walking quite slowly, it fools us into thinking that the situation is calm when it becomes clear it isn't very quickly.

This shot is very sudden and shocking, the flash of blood tells us immediately someone has been hurt before we even notice the person in the corner of the shot. The license provides us with the information that the person owning the vehicle is male and he is a taxi driver, he has worked hard to get his license. Knowing that there are two girls walking away from the car, we sense that the man has been the one who has been hurt, prompting the question; why has he been hurt by the two girls? The sound of the radio faltering suggests that the man's life is also fading away. The song on the radio also sounds upbeat which is juxtaposed by the situation creating pathetic fallacy.

This is the first shot of the female characters faces and they don't seem at all shaken by the events that have just happened in the car. On the contrary they look very determined, this suggests that they hurt the man in the taxi purposely, someone who accidentally harmed someone else would be much more panicked. This switches the audiences sympathy from the girls to the man in the car, as we see that they are most probably not victims. There is not much sound other than breathing here, the breathing doesn't sound very fast either so the audience can tell they aren't fazed by what they have done. Also, the lack of conversation here comes across as suspicious because it's as though they have a mutual understanding about what has just happened.

This shot shows the character who has been harmed, it tells us he is middle aged and this leads to the question; how did two young girls overpower him? It seems as thought they took him by surprise. The big close up here is appropriate because we still cannot see his full identity so this is still inkeeping with the sense of mystery that is being evoked throughout the whole sequence. His eye flickers open, as the radio crackles, suggesting to us that there is a chance he may be struggling to stay alive and it reinforces the fact that he is the victim in this situation because he has been so thoroughly hurt.

We can see in the background that both doors are open, telling us they got out from both sides of the car suggesting they were in more of a rush than if they both got out of one door. They seem to have changed theyir expressions and this suggests to us that they are realising what they have done, they are starting to walk faster highlighting they are the guilty ones.

The slight movement of the hand shows us that he is quite a determined person as he is still trying to survive the attack although there isn't much hope. The shot is very simple but it shows us more about the person, from his hands we can see they are not bruised or cut, suggesting that perhaps he didn't try to hurt the girls before they attacked him.

More of a close up on his licence tells us that it is written in another language. This piece of information reveals that perhaps this is in another country or the taxi driver was foreign to this country. This is important because it may become relevant later on in the story as it could be a racist attack.

This shot shows us that the victim was a family man, it makes us empathise with him because we can relate to the feeling of losing a loved one and it also makes us scared that this sort of thing could happen to us as we can see that he is just a regular person like us.

Here we finally see the weapon used to attack the man, it shows that these girls are definitely the criminals if we had any doubts before this. She drops it quite confidently and there is a graphic match in with the shape that appears in the title which carries through the same dangerous atmosphere. Also, the music used in the title sequence is in keeping with the chilling atmosphere created by the rest of the opening.