Director's Study

For our Director's Study assignment this year, the director I'll be studying is Guy Ritchie. Of the movies he has directed, the 3 that I have chosen to watch and analyze Lock, Stock and Two smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000), and RocknRolla (2008).

Trade Mark

Frequently uses narration.

Numerous plot threads which intersect and assist in each other's payoffs.

Often works with Jason Statham and Matthew Vaughn .

Often casts musicians.

Frequently employs the use of high speed photography in action sequences.

Frequent use of humor in violent scenes.

Camera Angles

One of the techniques that stood out to me while studying Guy Ritchie's films were the different camera angles that he uses in his films. In both Snatch and RocknRolla, most of the camera angle in the films is eye-level. This shows subjects as we would expect to see them in real life. In both of these films, low angle shots are mostly used on the character(s) who are in control of a situation, whereas high angle shots are mostly used on the character(s) who are the vulnerable ones in a situation. For example, in Snatch, there is a low angle shot on Mickey O'Neil as he steps into his caravan, and a high angle shot on Tommy who is still standing outside. This shows that Mickey is in authority at this point because it is his caravan and Tommy is an 'outsider'. This technique makes it able for the audience to relate to both of these characters as they are able to relate to Mickey who is looking down towards Tommy and also to Tommy who is looking up to Mickey. There are similar shots like this in RocknRolla, like at the beginning of the film, where the real estate agents are speaking to One Two and Mumbles. There is a low angle shot on the real estate agents, and a low angle shot on One Two and Mumbles. This clearly shows that the real estate agents are in charge.

Snatch

RocknRolla

real estate agents - low angle shot

One Two and Mumbles - high angle shot

Many of Guy Ritchie's low angle and high angle shots are also point of view (POV) shots. For example, there is a low angle shot on Turkish and Tommy when they're trying to wake Mickey up while he's passed out on the couch. This shot is taken from Mickey's POV. InRocknRolla, in the scene where One Two is running away from some Russian thugs, there is a high angle shot looking down on the railway tracks. This is also a POV shot, showing the railway tracks through One Two's eyes. These POV shots allow the audience to be drawn into the movie and connect with the character(s).

Snatch - Low angle POV shot

RocknRolla - High angle POV shot

Guy Ritchie also uses Dutch angles in some of his scenes. A lot of these shots are used to emphasize tension or non-reality of the situation. He mostly uses these shots in flashbacks. In Snatch, Guy Ritchie uses a dutch angle when Bullet Tooth Tony is holding a gun to Sol's head. this emphasizes on the tension of the situation as the audience are unsure as to whether he is going to kill Sol or not. In RocknRolla, a dutch angle is used when Johnny has a flashback into his childhood days. A dutch angle is used on the shot of his father, who is unpleased with Johnny. This use of angle also emphasizes on the tension of the situation and it also emphasizes on the dysfunctional relationship between Johnny and his father. This helps the audience to relate to Johnny as a character as most people are involved in dysfunctional relationships of some sort.

Snatch - Dutch angle

RocknRolla - Dutch angle

Parallel Action - Cross-cutting

Another technique that Guy Ritchie uses is cross-cutting, which shows parallel action. One of the best known scenes in which he uses this technique is in his film Snatch. He compares Turkish and Tommy to Tyrone by presenting parallel action, cutting back and forth between the rabbit eluding a pair of hounds and Tyrone eluding a pair of Brick Top’s thugs. While the rabbit escapes, Tyrone is not so lucky. Because Turkish bet that the rabbit would lose its life, he and Tommy owe Mickey in addition to Brick Top. The technique of cross-cutting adds to the suspense of the situations and makes the audience wonder what the outcome of both these situations will be. It also shows the audience how thin the line is between animal and human behaviour. Also in the film Snatch, as three sets of interests converge on their common objective, we see a violently fatal car crash three times, as though we can see all points of view not in parallel, but sequentially. Guy Ritchie knows that the audience know what to expect from parallel action. Thus, he plays with the audience's expectations and manipulates it. As the three cars approach a similar destination, classical parallel action is not used so that it is not just showing what is happening in one spot and mean while what is happening in another spot. Instead one set of characters goes forward to a certain point in time and space, and then the edit jumps back to an earlier time and shows another set of characters on their journey to meet no just in space, but in time. This manipulation makes the audience feel like God. It doesn't just show information the characters wouldn't know about things going on, but also reveals information that the characters could not know about their own actions. This style of parallel action takes the audience outside the story so that they do not feel with any of the characters, instead the audience feels clever, omniscient, just as the director might feel because he, like God, knows more about the story than any of his characters could.

Snatch - Parallel Action (2:30)

Snatch - Parallel Action

In RocknRolla, parallel action is presented in the scene where Johnny is attacking the bouncer of a nightclub. This scene is alternated with the scene of the band playing in the nightclub. The music that the band is playing highly contributes to escalate the violence of the scene, and cutting back and forth between these scenes also makes the audience feel like the situations are more chaotic and violent than it actually is. Another scene where cross-cutting is used to present parallel action is when One-Two, Mumbles and Handsome Bob split up to run away from either Russian thugs or policemen. This technique allows the audience to follow the actions of all 3 of these characters, so that they don't miss out on any of the action. As this scene is also a flashback, the audience already know that the characters were successful in escaping. Therefore, this technique of parallel action again allows the audience to feel like God, clever and omniscient.

RocknRolla - Club Fight Scene

RocknRolla - Chase Sequence

Flashbacks

Another technique that Guy Ritchie frequently uses in his films is flashbacks. He uses flashbacks to develop characters, for example in RocknRolla, there is a scene where Johnny spins some guns around and sings to a song playing on his stereo in his crack den and then has a flashback to when he was a boy blasting the same song in his room and singing along when his stepfather, Lenny walks in and turns it off. When Johnny turns it back on again Lenny returns and proceeds to beat him with his belt. This explains to the audience the dysfunctional relationship that exists between them and clarifies the loathing that Johnny harbors towards Lenny. In Snatch, a flashback is used when Doug the Head is describing Bullet Tooth Tony to Avi. The flashback dramatizes the dialog, adds humor and as well as help the sudience to connect with the movie and it's characters.

Snatch - Flashback

In Snatch, at the climax, we see Brick Top hang up his phone after a gunshot is heard through it with a troubled expression on his face. At this point, the audience feels confused and tensed because we assume that the plan to wipe out the gypsies has been carried out. It's only after a flashback that we realize that his plan has actually gone very wrong because the gypsies had planned an ambush to wipe out the people who were meant to wipe them out. This use of flashback creates more tension to the situation, and at the end of it, there is a sense of relief as the audience find out that the 'good guys' prevail. In RocknRolla, there is scene that shows a battered One Two passing the stolen money to Stella. At this point, the audience feels disappointed and confused because they were not able to see the action in which he acquired the money and have no idea how it came to be that he becomes injured. However, Guy Ritchie uses a flashback at this point to show what had happened beforehand. Alternating between the flashback and the scene in the restaurant with Stella, it makes the scene at the restaurant more interesting than it might have been if it didn't have the flashback inserted into it.

Snatch - Flashback (5:45)