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Textual Analysis 2 – The Town1. (Introduction)

The Town was directed in 2010. It is a crime/romantic thriller film starring, co-written and directed by Ben Affleck adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves. I have chosen to analyse the opening of this film because it shows a group of men who have struggled their whole life and gives the perception from the stereotypical ‘bad guys’ and makes the audience on their side, although they are actually doing the wrong things it shows us the reason why and also represents why they do it. This is a quality only some thriller films portray to their audience as it not what we are usually shown. I will analyse the first 7 minutes of the film’s opening.

2. (Narrative Context)

The Town follows the life of 4 lifelong friends who are also criminals. Ben Affleck who plays Douglas "Doug" MacRay finds out one of the assistant managers they took as hostage but released unharmed from a previous heist lives in the area he starts form a relationship with her and has to balance his life of crime and hide his romance with Claire Keesey but also deal with the psychological damage he impacted on Claire.

3. (Enigma Codes)

The first enigma we are questioned with why does this Boston neighbourhood produce more bank related crimes than anywhere in the world? The second enigma we have from the opening is where are the four men in this dark room and what are they there for. Another enigma we are left with is if this town is known for its bank robberies then why are people not as prepared for any situation as if they are making it easy for the criminals which is why they still commit the robberies. The last enigma we are shown in the opening is what do

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the four men want with the girl they used to get into the vault and are they going to kill her?

4. (How are the characters establishes and represented?)

The first characters we are introduced to is two bank security men who are delivering something to the bank. This is an important job that would be expected to be taken seriously and with care and the van itself claims its ‘armoured’ however, the two men both look uninterested in their job. We know this by one reading a newspaper whilst on the job and the other not really paying much attention to what he is doing.

The next characters we are introduced to are the four men in a dark room. We are first shown ‘Doug’ who gives very clear instructions on any scenario that could happen. This shows his leadership skills and we know that he will be the main character of the film and his traits of being nice when he says ‘no one

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needs to get hurt’ shows he also has a soft side. He is also portrayed as very smart as he is voicing over the first scenes of the opening which shows he has an understanding of the situation and is prepared for anything. The next two characters we see are ‘Gloansy’ and ‘Dez’ these are the background characters as they say no words but they fellow everything Doug says clearly. From this we can assume we will not see much of them in the film and they could potentially die. The last character from the crew is ‘jem’ he is the loud and aggressive one. We know this from when he interrupts when Doug is talking. This shows character traits of being impatient with anything. This links back to the later film when Jem wants to do the last job when Doug doesn’t want to be involved. All the characters are introduced through close-ups; this shows the intensity and seriousness on their faces.

5. (Locations)

The locations we are shown in the film are charlestown, which is near boston. We are shown this from an establashing shot and this is a stereotypical thriller location because it is an urban city where crime is expected. The other locations in the opening is in the van and also the bank.

6. (Camera and Editing techniques)

Throughout the opening a variety of different camera shots are used. At the beginning the editing is more slow and calm but as soon as the heist begins the

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editing starts to get faster and more cuts between shots and the shots are also shorter. A mix of different shots are used for example a camera angle from the view of CCTV.

7. (Use of sound)

Through the first scenes of the opening Doug voices over what is happening whilst it is happening this is diagetic because it then shows Doug speaking because he knows what is happening without even looking. Not much non-diagetic music is used however all of the diagetic sounds are over exaggerated.

8. (Titles)

The title ‘The Town’ is shown at the end of the opening, this can suggest that this is just another day for the men and that it isnt that big of a deal for them. The text being white can show innocence but also

9. (Intended Target Audience)

The target for a usual crime/romance thriller movie will be males aged 14-32, this is shown by the fact a beautiful lady is used to open the vault and is then taken as the hostage which she will later be linked in the opening of the film to attract the attention of people who may not have been paying attention before. Also, we can tell it is aimed for men are that the events of crime and shootings are more targetted at men whereas women prefer straight romance films without the crime.

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10. (Creation of suspense)

Throughout the opening there are many teased false peaks of suspension. It is first teased when you are not sure when the men are going to attack the security guard but it does happen straight away so now it is already entising to audiences and is climaxing. We are also teased by the thought that someone is going to walk in when they are in the middle of the heist however one of the men planned for this and blocked the entrace