Odd Man Out Opening Analysis

Odd Man Out Opening Analysis

The film opens with credits rolling over some gloomy stills of Belfast's ports, with moody jazz noir music playing over it. The establishing shots are aerial shots over rural and urban Belfast to set the scene and location of the film to add to the mise-en-scene. The film then cuts to a ground level shot, featuring diegetic sounds of boys playing and non-diegetic sounds of ships and the docks, which then pans to reveal the main character clad in a trench coat and trilby hat smoking a cigar, typical attire and props of a noir film.There is a dissolve transition used, followed by a tracking shot of the protagonist walking down a street and entering the home of his grandmother, before an action cut is used to show him walking up the stairs and into the room upstairs.There are a group of men in this room, with their dialogue indicating that they're planning some sort of mission.A woman walks down the stairs, and engages in dialogue with the old woman, before another woman walks into the house. There is a lot of movement and dialogue within this frame despite the camera being relatively fixed, which adds life to the scene. As the woman returns upstairs, the apparent leader is issuing orders and giving out gear to his men, and there are shot/reverse shots between them as they leave the room.With the man and the protagonist alone in the room, a shot/reverse shot ensues with tense atmosphere between the two men about how the protagonist isn't fit to do the job after being in jail for so long. Soon after the man leaves, and the woman and protagonist are alone. A zoom shot is used to make them both the focus of the frame, while the woman desperately tries to convince the protagonist to forget about the job, while pondering if he'll ever be free.Suspenseful music plays as the protagonist gets up and puts his clothes on, before the shot dissolves into a panning shot of a car driving down a road. This car then collects the protagonist and other men to bring them to their mission.