Silence of the lambs

Analysis: The opening shot catches the eye because it shows a tree without leaves and looking like dieing, with a foggy background. This immediately put the idea of danger in the audiences mind because you cannot see far, and so you do not know what is out there. Danger is then highlighted again by this woman climbing up a hill, looking around and then running. With this along with very slow music makes it appear as if she is the victim and in grave danger. The camera work helps with this because it tracks her from behind to make the audience believe she is running away, and make the audience intrigued about what she is running from. In films it is a common theme for women to be represented by the victim and men the hero. This means that the audience were already expecting for the women to be the victim.

The opening few shots of the women running would imply that the movie will base around how she got there or more likely her trying to find out who is after her and will get help from a man character (hero) who would end up saving her. However then through the clearing the audience see part of an assault course which the woman climbs and suddenly what the audience was expecting to see gets proven to be very wrong. The assumptions would be that she is training now and is part of the army or something like that. Then it is confirmed that she is not the victim by a man going up to her with a message and wearing a hat saying FBI, and this is made clear to the audience by the camera shot (close up of the face and hat).

The signs shown on a post at the edge of the training camp could be giving hints at the future of the film or it is giving an insight into how the FBI is being run. As she runs past the sign she looks like the signs are describing the FBI because she has the pain from all the hard work but she does love what she is doing and showing that she is a strong protagonist which is unusual for any film.

Her walking down into the elevators is interesting because it shows that she is a liked by her peers, and well respected around the FBI. However it also shows (especially in the elevator) that she is in a very much male dominated job and she is very rare, But it also shows that she is not put off by stereotypes and whole heartedly believes in her own ability to get the job done. Which in a thriller is rare to have female main character that is confident, the protagonist, stands up for herself and does not need saving.