Taken Analsis

In this shot we see Bryan (Liam Neeson’s character) sitting alone in a poorly lit room which suggests that the character is lonely. The audience can also see two Chinese takeaway boxes on the table in front of Bryan. This helps emphasize the loneliness of the scene as in America a meal for one comes in two boxes, one for rice and one for the main meal, as well as the meal not being served up on plates as this implies that the character wasn’t expecting company. The shot before shows that Bryan had just woken up in the chair then turned on the light which suggests he had just sat alone in darkness after his takeaway. Since we couldn’t hear a T.V in the background or see reflected light from a T.V screen we can infer that he was sitting in silence which suggests that he might be sad as well as lonely. His body language in this shot as well as the shadows and poor lighting in the room helps support this idea by showing vulnerability in the pose and the scene. Overall, the lighting, camera angle and the mise-en-scene components makes the audience feel sympathy towards the character.



In this shot we see Bryan and one of Stuart’s security men looking at Lenore, who has a defensive stance. The body language between the three shows that the men are looking to Lenore for information while she is looking at the security guard to try and sort the situation out. We can tell she has more power in this shot by the fact that the men are focused on her. Other details in this shot show that Bryan has a parcel. We can infer this parcel is a present as it is in wrapping paper. We were also told this is a birthday party by the present being in more of a birthday style wrapping and the security guard told us. We can infer that the birthday is most likely his daughters as the wrapping paper would be classed as too young for an adult. The camera is focused on the three actors and the present so that would suggest that they are the key elements in this shot.

In this shot we can see the present is the focus point as the three actors are all looking at it in a circle. It is conformed that it is indeed the daughters birthday, however from the wrapping paper in the previous shot we would have presumed that the daughter was a young child but since the daughter looks like she is a teenager then it would suggest that Bryan still sees her as his little girl. This could be because she hasn’t been in his life that much. From the actors/actress’ faces we can tell that Bryan and his daughter, Kimmy, are happy with the present, Bryan most likely being happy because Kimmy seems to like her present, while Lenore seems more shocked at what has been given to her. This shot is mostly open and light which suggests that the characters are happy and this is a nice occasion from them all. However, they are all in shadow which could be foreshadowing that something bad might happen to them a bit later in the movie.



 In this shot we can see that Bryan is alone again. It is the same room he was in when we first saw Bryan. This suggests that this is his living room and he spends quite a bit of time there. The room is mostly dark with the only light coming from the lamp in the corner which suggests that Bryan is sad as he seems to spend a lot of time in the dark. We could also infer that maybe Bryan has dark parts of his personality that will be shown later on in the movie. The audience are again made to feel sympathy towards Bryan as we see him put the picture he took of his daughter in an earlier shot in a photo album that is probably full of birthday pictures. We can infer that Bryan probably isn’t a part of his daughters’ life for long so he likes to have pictures of her birthdays to remember

This shot is a close-up of the photo album seen in the picture before. The way Bryan’s hand is lingering on the photo of his daughters’ fifth birthday party suggests that he misses his daughter dearly. We can infer that his daughters’ fifth birthday matters to him quite a lot as he stopped at this photo after going through the photo album and he presumably had a dream of this birthday at the start of the movie. The audience can then speculate that this birthday might have been the last birthday they all celebrated as a family before Bryan and Lenore split up. Although this isn’t clarified in the movie as it isn’t mentioned when Bryan and Lenore actually got a divorce.

 

This is some of the main conventions of the thriller genre that this opening has:

 

• Shadows
• Low key lighting
• Protagonist
• A bit of tension music