1. Body of Lies – Codes and Conventions opening scene
I watched the opening sequence, which was just less than 3 minutes long. The titled
opened with the quote ‘I and the public know what schoolchildren leans, those to
whom evil is done do evil in return.’ This at the beginning of the film doesn’t begin to
make much sense however later on in the movie we may see why this quote has any
significance to the movie.
The movie then sharply begins with a very fast beating soundtrack that sets a fast
pace to the movie and is very similar to other action and crime soundtracks such as
Bourne trilogy and so it creates a similar feel to this by using similar music, this is a
convention of this genre of movie. Soon after the introduction to the backing track
we see what the audience would perceive as the location at which the first
scenes/scene is set in and as it states in the movie is ‘Manchester, England’ however
there is an Arabic voice speaking in the background and he fades in, this is not what
you would expect from Manchester and isn’t a stereotype that most would imagine,
which within the first 40 seconds of the movie beginning has the director already
put the viewer in a confusion.
In the movie the first person pictured (see figure 1) is in a very dimly lit
scene where you are unable to make out his face or view any
distinguishable features from the video, often this effect can be found in
many thriller films and used for effect and to represent the ‘bag guy’
(Using the manipulation of light and dark), in this movie not only by the
subtitles can you tell that the video is addressing terrorist attackers in
the UK but also by their appearance. This goes with many Muslims
stereotypes and unfortunately this group has suffered terribly at the hands of
scapegoating. A very good example of a stereotyping of Muslim terrorists in film is
the Four Lions movie. Soon they state their intentions in the movie, which in Body of
Lies is to ‘avenge the American wars on the Muslim world’ and this is extremely
typical of thriller movies.
In the following scenes after we see the link between the initial video that the
viewer got to see a clip from and also the audience of the clip. This soon brings the
audience to raise suspicions to whether they too are terrorists. Visually they make
up the appearance of a Muslim however this is going by stereotypes. The scene in
the house is very poorly lit, all the curtains are closed and very little light is coming
through from outdoors, this is typical of movies where the villain
is in hide out.
Soon to follow is a visually contrasting view; it is taken from
outside and judging from the mis en scene the viewer would often
agree with the opening title stating that it is Manchester. There is
Fig. 1
Fig. 2

2. a member of possibly a SWAT team holding a gun on the rooftop (See Figure 2) and
this gives a very intimidating view and obviously is often used in Crime movies such
as this genre so it conforms to that. The camera angle at which the officer is at is a
low angle shot which is often used on Police Officers in movies to show power and
authority so again it conforms to the convention.
The movie then suddenly bursts as the train passes by and of course the officers
take their move to get in a swiftly as possible. Once again they are sticking with the
low angle shots to the officers and then enter the house. Their sound effects that
they use are very traditional to other crime movies and the running sound effect in
their uniform has been one used in many movies to add tension and dramatize the
scene.
As soon as the explosion happens, it has a very stereotypical Point of View camera
angle with the ‘shaky’ effect which attempts to put you in the seat of the person
viewing the action first hand and this often works well to add more dramatic
emphasis to the scene.
Clip can be extracted from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRz3ABq-nJA