Research Into An Opening War sequence

 Looking into the opening sequence of the War film of Greyhound

Greyhound is an American war film which was released on the 10th of July 2020, and was directed by Aaron Schneider. Greyhound stars the well known, successful actor Tom Hanks.

Within the first few minutes of this scene, parts of the narrative are successfully revealed to the viewer. Greyhound performs this information differently to what we may expect. In order to set the scene while the studio sign and opening occurs there is a voice-over of what appears to be the sound of the news exclaiming 'how world War has come upon us' and talking about how the 'American merchant ships must be free to carry American goods.' There is also mention to how nearly '300 lives have been lost in the unrelating struggles for which goes online day.' All this information confirms to the viewer that the film is about war and the struggles of getting goods to the people. After more text elopes onto the screen, over what is seen to be war on the sea there is a fade to black which then takes us to the rough sea in Liverpool England, where 37 troop and supply ships have been escorted by 4 light warships, then were introduced to the first character whom is praying. From this I believe the rest of the narrative Will be to do with the struggles of war and maybe to do with this ship called the Greyhound, this is connoted due to the title of the film 'Greyhound' being placed over the ship in this opening scene. 

There is not much dialogue among the first scene, we only meet to one character whom we assume is the main character due to being the only person we are introduced too. It is made clear that the character is at war helping his country, and is currently in Liverpool England. We get the impression that he is in some ways scared for his life or for what is to come, this impression is put in place when he vocalises a prayer and prays that 'the evil film will have no power over him.' Then gets up and walks towards the camera until
he is placed centre and close up is seen of him washing his face and then starring straight at the camera with a look of exhaustion creeping over him. This could foreshadow him cleansing himself from the deaths he may have to be apart off in this stream of deadly war. 

Moreover, it is made abundantly clear that the genre is in fact War. There is also a clear intense, worrying, fearful tone. This is clear through the use of  sound, editing and camera. From the moment the film commences we know that that it is definitely about war due to the first line being ' the catastrophe of world war has fallen upon us'. Then visually the film starts in the clouds where the camera zooms in through the clouds ( probably done using a drone ) until passing a smaller war plane - a light aircraft. then a birds eye viewer shot of boats lined up in lines below, this again confirms war has commenced. We then hear the voiceover 'full speed ahead' which is followed with some loud, fierce harsh non diegetic sound track which creates an intense, severe atmosphere. Lastly when the camera is placed on the man there is a non diegetic soundtrack of a more gentle,  yet unsettling and in some way upsetting music whilst the man is praying connoting he's inner emotions. There is also a sound effect of something shaking while the ship moves (metal sounding) may mimic his feelings. When cutting from scene to scene there is a great use of the
sea in order to transition smoothly from one scene to another, this helps mimic the on going fearfulness of war.

Consequently, from watching this opening extract i am convinced it is a 12 + due to the genre being war, it is most definitely to violence for any child of a younger age. I believe its important that nobody of a younger age views the film as it has been proven that if a child views aggressive behaviour they could in-fact copy it. It could be also argued if adhering to the stereotype this film is aimed at and more popular among men due to stereotypically  by containing violence and war this may appear more appealing to them.

I do believe this is an exceptionally creative and successful opening scene due to telling us about the story in a way thats different to the everyday film ( they used both voiceover and text instead of just having character dialogue).  However i do suppose the director could have chosen to tell us a bit more about the character or maybe introduced us to somebody else in order for us to get a clearer idea of what we are in for, and delegating us to understand.