When researching into aspects of the thriller genre we need to consider five key concepts: institutions, audience, technology, codes and conventions and representation. I will be focusing on part iv, codes and conventions of the thriller genre, including technical aspects such as mise-en-scene, camera angles, lighting, sound effects and so on.
The scene opens with a quote from W.H. Auden: "I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn, those to whom evil is done, do evil in return." To begin with this seems strange, why has this quote been placed here? The audience assumes it must bare some significance later in the film.
A heavy, low-frequency non-diegetic sound takes a hold of the scene, building tension, as the text "Manchester, England" is displayed, obviously detailing the setting to the following scene. This sound is very familiar within the thriller genre and is frequently used in thrillers, such as in Elysium, which I previously wrote about, so the genre is being utilised within the introduction. However, a seemingly Arabic voice begins to speak as the text fades out, which typically the audience would not associate with Manchester, confusing the audience. The first camera angle we see is of a man with a b beard, a stereotypical Arabian appearance. The man is dimly lit, perhaps noting at connotations of evil and wrong-doing. The subtitles inform us that "we" [the man and assumingly his colleagues] 'destroyed a bus last week', further enhancing this connotation; we get the impression that this man is in fact evil. His patriotic speech continues as the scene changes to another dimply lit room, seemingly a chemical lab, as the text reads, "we will strike at random". This causes the audience to question these men of being terrorists. This particular shot [1:03] utilises mise-en-scene very well, we can see the man at his desk with a large array of technical equipment to help him create what he needs- the audience would not be familiar with any of this and therefore would be confused and curious as to what this man is actually doing, and with the soundtrack's timbre heightening it only adds to the suspense built. At 1:12, there is a close up of the man from the labs face as the subtitle reads, "And no... they will bleed" - from his facial expressions shown by the camera angle we can infer that this man is quite afraid of the task at hand, that will result in their enemies bleeding.
The scene changes to that of a more typical Manchester scene, of a street, yet we see police officers and men dressed fully in black carrying guns. Firstly, we immediately associate firearms with violence and death, and so the assault rifle could indicate that some form of fight is to come, either in the scene or throughout the film. However, the man is all in black, and this colour is usually used to portray the villain - we have already seen the terrorists in the film, yet there is now some ambiguity as to who are the "good guys" in this particular film. My interpretation of this is that the terrorists believe what they are doing to be right, hence the men, who seem ordered and structured and are therefore probably of authority in England, are their enemies. Of course, this could just be said to be the team's uniform, yet their faces are totally covered and the audience cannot be certain of their stance. The fact that the policemen, who have greater connotations with protection and so on, are not hostile towards these men would indicate that they are not the enemy of the public, conforming to convention.
The soundtrack continues to grow in loudness, but the audience can clearly make out everything in the scene; i.e. there is a great emphasis on sounds like the milk float and the dogs barking at the men in the street. The camera angles rapidly change too, quickening the pace of the scene and engaging the audience. As the men begin to get into position at around the 1:30 mark, the soundtrack begins to die down, hinting at some form of action to come. Once again this technique has been utilised by many thriller films in the past and so the audience is accustom to it and can almost predict that something important is about to happen - this once again conforms to thriller conventions. We can hear a man whistling "Rule Brittania" at around 1:44, a very patriotic piece, but this confused me when I heard it- why has it been placed here? We hear it as the men, who are assumingly a SWAT team by their structure, take up their stances- it could be used almost ironically to imply that something bad is about to happen for the British.
By 2:00, the sound has softened completely and the scene is almost dominated by diegetic sound, we hear everything that is going on the scene. This could be used to show how the men, who are upstairs when the door opens, can hear what is going on just as the audience can. The lighting is used to effect well as the scene once again darkens as we return into the building where the Muslims are. They realise what is going on, and the urgency and fear in the mans voice at 2:01 suggests just that: fear. The creak of the door opening is very typical of the thriller genre, conforming to conventions, and creates a very tense atmosphere. At 2:13, we hear the men talking in hushed tones, to themselves seemingly, and hear a phrase strongly related to terrorism, "Allahu Akbar", meaning "God is greater" in Arabic. This almost informs the audience what is going to happen before it has even occurred.
Sure enough, mere seconds later, the sound cuts completely, the man at the makeshift lab presses a button and with a clever sound effect that is associated with "powering-on" an electrical device, the screen erupts in a burst of light, and cuts to a large explosion at 2:18 from the view of the street. Special effects are used well here as the explosion is very realistic, we see debris, smoke and flames. The camera shakes to convey the chaos felt by the public on the street at 2:20, and we see the explosion from above before the scene cuts to the title, "Body of Lies" at 2:24, as we hear panicked screams fading from the previous scene. The explosion scene conforms to the thriller genre as the structure of the narrative made the audience predict what was going to happen just before it occurred, like in films such as Bourne.
Overall, the opening scene to "Body of Lies" strongly conforms to the thriller genre as we see a clear portrayal of good and evil as well as effective use of technical aspects to convey suspense and action to the audience.
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