A Walk Among the Tombstone evaluation

A Walk Among the Tombstone

The film starts with a sound bridge of crime scene noises e.g people crying, sirens, fast cars etc. The screen is black with  the title 'New York City, 1991', this is just general information to help the audience understand the location and situation. The screen changes to two people, sat in the front of a car, the lighting is dark and their face are both covered by shadows, the dialogue between them suggest there is something wrong with the way officer/protagonist is doing his job. The ambient sound suggests that the plot is crime related, which sticks to the conventions of a thriller. The scene then changes to a pub, again, dark lighting, hiding the identity of the characters. There is an insert of what the protagonist purchases at the bar; a hot drink and two shots of whiskey, this may suggest he is a heavy drinker as previously he seemed as if he was working, it also may suggest police corruption as there is also an insert of his badge. The only light source is from the door, in which two men run through and shoot the bartender. This shows the general idea of what the movie is about; a protagonist of a police officer, and the antagonist of the criminals. The police officer chases after the criminals. Shot reverse shot is used when the criminals are trying to shoot the police officer, the criminals all in one shot, and the protagonist in a close up, this demonstrates his authority. The criminals are all shown to be in pain for example they are limping, some are moaning, whereas the officer was being shot at by 3/4 different criminals and he does not show any reaction. This shows he is not nervous and he is used to this type of situation, he know knows how to guard himself. There is sounds of cars, horns and guns, The criminals were wearing rather stereo typical American Gangster clothing; baggy shirts over vest tops, baggy jeans and trainers. The last criminal that is being chased ends up in dark stair way, there is a point of view shot of him struggling to run down the stairs. The protagonist stands at the top, aiming his gun towards him, A crescendo of non-diagetic mysterious music begins as he shoots the last criminal. Then a long distance, low-angle shot takes place whist the officer walks down the down the stairs, the shot highlights his role in the film, he is the powerful character his lots of control. The titles begin in the background. 'Exclusive Media Presents' and then 'Liam Nelson in A Walk Among the Tombstone'. It then fades out from him walking  down the stairs, to a woman's hair. The woman is lying down in a very white, isolated room. The colour white in this sense suggests she is dead, as it is a rather heaven like image that is shown. There is sad, piano music playing at this point. There are fast cuts of different images of this woman such as her hands and her eyes. Eventually it shows people watching over her and lying with there heads in their hands by her side. This may be essential to the plot. This happens alongside the rest of the title sequence: 

Title Evaluation  
''Exclusive Media presents..''
''in associtation with Cross Creek pictures''
''A Jersey films/double feature film productions''
''LIAM NEESON in....''
''A Walk Among the Tombstone'' 

•  Adam David Thompson
• Dan Stevens
• David Labour
• Olafur DarrI Olafuson
• Boyd Holbrok
• Brian Bradley
• Mark Consuelos
• Sebastian Roche
• Laure Birn
• Casting by Auy Kaufran CSA
• Costume by Betsy Heiman
• Music by Carlos Rifael Rilera
• Edited by Jill Savitt A.C.E
• Production Design by David Brisbin
• Director of Photography: Mihai Malaimare JR

Produced by

• Danny Devito
• Michael Stamberg
• Stacey Sher
• Brian Oliver
• Tobin Armbrust 

The first titles fade in and out which fits well with the calm music as he walks down the steps. The first title is at the top of screen, and when the name of film appears, it is larger and in the centre of the screen obviously showing the significance of this title in comparison to the others. The words are positioned in a rather strange way, the words are all placed on top of eachother (image below).  The choice of putting Liam Neeson name in capital letters is also significant as he is a very famous actor for this particular genre so it emphasis it.  After, the shot changes to a woman lying down, the other titles appear during this in different position on the screen, the shots of women are slow and like before the titles fade in and out.