Title Sequence Analysis: SNATCH.

Title Sequence Analysis: SNATCH.

 

 

The cold open of Guy Ritchie’s hard-nosed crime comedy Snatch is slightly misleading.
A smooth-talking narrator (Jason Statham) quickly convinces viewers that this is a movie about a bloke named after a plane crash and a lad who claims to be the namesake of one of history’s greatest firearms — modest boxing promoters simply trying to stay out of trouble. But as the opening jewel heist-cum-title sequence gets underway, the audience learns that Turkish and Tommy are but minor players in a topsy-turvy tale of the criminal underworld, a microcosm of thieves, gangsters, and lowlifes. There’s Sol and Mickey, Vinny and Avi, Franky Four Fingers, Boris the Blade, Bullet-Tooth Tony, and Brick Top. Oh, and a diamond the size of a fist, of course.

Setting the board for an intercontinental con, the title sequence introduces the cast as the unlikeliest of robberies goes down and the characters are presented through a series of rip-roaring vignettes and posturized freeze-frames. If the sequence seems clichéd now, that’s because it was a genre-defining piece of cinema. Cool as hell circa 2000, the opening minutes of Snatch almost single-handedly reinvigorated the British gangster movie.

The title sequence showcases freeze frames that are inspired by some of the old-fashioned boxing posters back in the 20th century, featuring black and white stencils and minimal colour pallets, featuring 2 and maybe 3 different colours. Not only does this give a sort of vintage aura to the beginning of the film, audiences are left to analyse the characters mentioned in the film with the sort of "Posters" they are freeze-framed into. There were initial notions that it would in some way be animated and that The Wild Bunch titles were an influence too.

Another thing that the opening shares is the different lives of crime that the characters share, and how they are linked together. they do this with the use of Cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene. It begins with the diamond that the robbers have snatched from the jeweller, of which it then zooms out to show Cousin Avi, Storing it away into a safe of which the character Sol pulls out from the other end of the wall using the shadows in the safe. The shots continue like this to show all the characters and how they all link together in the story before coming back around in full circle to continue the story.

With this technique the audience can expect the characteristics of different actors in the film and what kind of scenes they'll expect to see from them. A good example of this is Franky Four Fingers, who is freeze-framed with 3 jacks in his hand. The audience can instantly tell that this character is a gambler, with typical Mise-en-scene of the 3 cards, deep sunglasses, stylish suit, etc. And as such, Franky's hand then slams to the table, and as the camera follows, the scene changes and the camera pans up again to see Turkish playing a similar gambling game.

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