Analysis of the film man on fire- Cheyenne

Analysis of the film Man on Fire

The film begins with the 20th century fox production which then cuts to a moving animation of painted

images on a black background. The moving painted of a man turns into an eagle which then fades into

‘a Scott free production’ title, playing non-diegetic American Indian soft and peaceful music.

The first shot that we see of the film is an establishing shot of a city. The shot is a high angled shot.

Small text then fades into the shot saying ‘fox 2000 pictures’, this then cut to a black frame. At this

point some more texts fades and whilst it fades in a small non-diegetic sound of thunder is heard.

The montage then cuts to a busy city street which creates fast pace. Continuity is used to show lots of

people walking around creating a busy atmosphere. The are non-diegetic sounds of traffic, beeping

cars, people talking and a church bell ringing, this also adds onto the montage and the busy

atmosphere. ‘A Tony Scott film’ fades on to the left at a fast pace. The end of this shot had a non-

diegetic sound of a young child laughing; this also sounds like an eco.

There is then another fade out which ‘Denzel Washington’ fades in then quickly fades out to a high

angled shot of the city along with the non-diegetic sounds of cars in the mix and the sound of thunder

is heard along with a continuous church bell ringing which illustrates that this could be an important

aspect of the film. Midshots of people and cars are shown adding more and to the fast pace. This shot

then cuts back to a high angled shot of the city, which indicates that the film is set in a city, and

sounds of children’s laughter and church bells are heard once again. A piece of text which shows a fact

appears on screen saying ‘ there is one kidnapping every 60minutes in Latin America’, this piece of

information is important as it gives the film a main theme and interests the viewer. The shot fades into

a shot of a young child laughing, whilst the fact is still appearing on screen. This shot fades to another

piece of information, a statistic ‘70% of the victims do not survive’. The high angled shot of the city

then turns to black and white.

A cut moves us to a mid shot of a man in a suit exiting a car whilst non-diegetic and fast pace piece of

music is heard. The music builds up. The music is mixed with traditional Mexican music, which also

establishes where the film is set. There are also more non-diegetic sounds of cars and church bells. We

then see a midshot of a young teenage boy being kidnapped which cuts to another shot of a different

kidnapping. Fading in are flashing images changing from coloured to black and white, leading into a

mid shot of a young woman with a terrified facial expression. The name of the film ‘Man of fire’ then

fades in whilst the shot cuts to a black frame and the title is moving forward getting larger.