Background
"Lord of War" released in 2005 is a Thriller/Drama film centered around the concept of gun running, where an individual travels beyond borders in order to illegally conduct the sale of firearms. This film explores the ethics behind this concept such as: whether the dealer is any better than the buyers, whether there is an extent to which family comes first and is a human life truly worth any sum of money and how much? The narrative follows a protagonist of Ukranian origin who became an immigrant to the United States of America in the 70s, posing as a Jewish family for welfare benefits and safety reasons. He discovers a growth in the gun trade as well as his natural fluency in persuasions and decides to take up Gun Running. With his new found talent, he is able to provide for his family including his self-destructive younger brother and strives to win over the girl of his dreams. This leads our protagonist down a dark path, fueled with temptations and riches resulting in his tragic demise. The story takes place throughout the 1970s from the Cold War to the late 1990s, providing the audience with clear visual representations on the gradual change in world events, correlating the the bitter-sweet ending of the story and it's debate on morality.
Opening Sequence: Life of a Bullet
The opening sequence to "Lord of War" presents a innovative way of opening a film. What makes this particular intro cinematic unique is it's focus on the bullet. The sequence begins with a slightly high angle shot, focusing on the colossal amount of bullet casings littered on the ground and then panning up to a single medium shot of the protagonist (Nicholas Cage) as he delivers an expository monologue. The camera then cuts to an arms factory where bullets are being produced. The camera follows the journey of one particular bullet round all the way through the production line from assembly to packaging. The screen then goes dark as all the bullets are sealed up in a wooden crate. We do not see anything for a few seconds as the bullets are being transported to the ports, however we are still able to hear the various sounds of the environment. The crate is then opened for a brief inspection in which we are still viewing events from the bullet's perspective.
The crate is closed once more and re-opened after a few seconds longer, revealing the crate ended up in somewhere in Africa. The crate is transported again by truck to unknown whereabouts and emptied on the ground. Our bullet is picked up by a man who loads it into his rifle where the camera is shown from inside the chamber. Three rounds are fire before our bullet is shot from the rifle and is followed until it shockingly is pierced into a young boy's head, cutting to black. Throughout this sequence the song "For what it's worth" by Buffalo Springfield is played over the duration of the cinematic.
What makes this film opening so effective is it's upbeat, cool tone of the sequence contrasting with the darkness of the explored themes. The chosen song "For what it's worth" is quite a relaxing composition which directly undermines the gravity of the process being described. The chorus: "Stop now..everybody look what's going down", has a double meaning of one hand bringing attention to the issue of international gun violence and on the other glorifying the horrors of war. This dark humor prepared the audience as it sets the tone of the film, sort of like a premonition of what they are getting into while also tapping into their conscience as they realize the casual flair of the seemingly lighthearted journey of the bullet has resulted in the death of an innocent. The question is raised: How many people have lost their lives like this, what is the scale of this industry, and why are these actions being allowed to continue?
The crate is closed once more and re-opened after a few seconds longer, revealing the crate ended up in somewhere in Africa. The crate is transported again by truck to unknown whereabouts and emptied on the ground. Our bullet is picked up by a man who loads it into his rifle where the camera is shown from inside the chamber. Three rounds are fire before our bullet is shot from the rifle and is followed until it shockingly is pierced into a young boy's head, cutting to black. Throughout this sequence the song "For what it's worth" by Buffalo Springfield is played over the duration of the cinematic.
What makes this film opening so effective is it's upbeat, cool tone of the sequence contrasting with the darkness of the explored themes. The chosen song "For what it's worth" is quite a relaxing composition which directly undermines the gravity of the process being described. The chorus: "Stop now..everybody look what's going down", has a double meaning of one hand bringing attention to the issue of international gun violence and on the other glorifying the horrors of war. This dark humor prepared the audience as it sets the tone of the film, sort of like a premonition of what they are getting into while also tapping into their conscience as they realize the casual flair of the seemingly lighthearted journey of the bullet has resulted in the death of an innocent. The question is raised: How many people have lost their lives like this, what is the scale of this industry, and why are these actions being allowed to continue?
There's a lot of description here, which you perhaps don't necessarily need as you've embedded the clip. That said the analysis that is there is interesting and you've identified what can be described as contrapuntal sound in terms of the non-diegetic soundtrack.
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