Analysis : Goodfellas

Henry Hill and his friends work their way up through the mob hierarchy.

From 0:00 - 0:12, Warner Bros Picture (WBP) appear by a shot of a studio land and it having a ripple effect until the outer circle of the WBP comes across of the screen and the logo is shown to us and the background is a bunch of clouds. Then it follows for 2 more seconds until 0:14 which it says Warner Bros Pictures Presents. Then it runs for another 3 seconds saying 'A Irwin Wrinkler Productions'. This leads to another 3 seconds until 0:20 which says 'Martin Productions' in white behind a black screen. This presents the director which most films commonly use. From 0:20 until 0:39 (19 seconds), the cast is presented by their names swiping across the screen in expanded and faded typeface and then in an ordinary bold font the cast name appears. During this (it actually started at 0:12) we can hear multiple vehicles zooming past so they are trying to present each name as a car that zooms past. 'Based on a true story' comes on the screen but not as a swipe across. 
Then at 0:43, visuals present a vehicle driving but the camera starts off as it is follows the car but pans to the side of the car and passes it. This continues until 0:53 which then takes us to a black screen which has the statement 'New York, 1920'. From 0:57 - 1:20, we see a dark setting assuming it is night and we are situated inside a car. There are 3 men in the car, 1 driving and 2 asleep passengers that wake up to a sudden suggested broken tyre and this is presented by a medium close-up. There are sounds of bashes and the car seems to slow down, there are 'New York accents'. At 1:20, all 3 men get out to check the rear tyres and the faces shown by red reflection of the rear lights (mid shot) and there are also sounds of footsteps and car door slamming shut. Between 1:29 - 1:33 (4 secs), quiets bangs from the boot continue and there is a zoom of the boot shaking as if there is someone in there trying to get out. From 1:33 - 1:43 (10 secs), there is a pan of characters getting out their weapons and there is still a quiet bangs from the boot. Then from 1:43 - 1:48 (5 secs), there is a cut-in of hands unlocking the boot and a blood-covered man that can barely move is in there. From 1:48 - 1:52 (4 secs), 1 character stabs the knife into the man several times then there is a rection shot for 2 seconds of the 3rd character which unlocked the boot. After, the 1st character gets his gun and is about to shoot. Then at 1:55 - 1:56, there is a quick reaction shot and the shooting visuals and sounds begin at 1:56 and carries on until 2:00.

The opening was AMAZING, out of the 6 that I analysed this opening kept me on my feet the whole time. The creative idea of the diagetic sounds in the background of the car shooting past is a phenomenal way of setting the 'scene' (in a way). I loved how they made the credits zoom past while the sound of zooming cards were created and then the names stayed - it was very effective. The fact that the film got straight onto it, for example, they started to hear a jolt in the boot and they all got out to torture him. It was all straight to the point and although it was stereotypical mobs, the audience knew what was happening and who these people were without any sense of unknown but it still created enigma.