Face-Off Analysis

The film starts off with the name of the studio that produced Face Off called Touchstone Pictures. Names of the producers and other companies who invested into the film are shown on a black background in white text whilst whooshing noises appear after every transition. The music starts off rather happy and upbeat, creating a sound bridge between the black and the fairground. The music is set at a mid tempo to allow the audience to feel relaxed and not too tense whilst watching it. The music though seems quite ambiguous and doesn’t seem to fit with the genre of the film, perhaps luring you into a false sense of security. The film then starts to show the actors credits with the first name written in white and the second name written in black. This indicates binary opposition such as good vs. evil which thriller conventions tend to circle around. The scene shows Sean Arches (John Travolta) riding a carousel with his son showing they are close. The whole clip is shown in slow motion with lots of close ups and two shots of them which makes you feel as if he is cherishing every moment with him and they are physically and mentally close.

The camera suddenly zooms into an extreme close up of a covered up object which is swiftly unveiled as a rifle with whooshing sound effects foregrounded for dramatic impact. The music quickly changes pace and time with more bass to add more sinister feel adding more atmosphere to the scene. The music highlights the silhouette figure in the background and gives you the impression that it is the villain with the dark, shadowed figure representing evil, fear and darkness. There is then an extreme close up of his face revealing the shrouded figure. The facial expressions from the antagonist connotes confidence and experience as he doesn’t seem to be anxious or worried about what he is doing. He begins to take a drink though and seems rather laid back about all of this, once again showing he is experienced. This seems to show that both good and evil are equally matched.

There is then a POV shot of the crosshairs of the rifle scope aiming on Sean Arches showing that the antagonist is attempting to kill the protagonist. We then see a medium close up of Sean and his son again still going in circles pretty much like lamb for slaughter. But with Sean not knowing any different, he is still showing a lot of love and enjoyment with his son making the moment seem a lot more tragic. There is then an extreme close up of the villain pulling the trigger of the rifle and a cut to the bullet coming out of the barrel acting as a cause and effect edit. The bullet though is shown in slow motion using CGI to allow you to follow the bullet and show how helpless Sean and his son are. The music immediately stops only allowing the effects of the bullet and the impact to be heard.

As the child and Sean fall off the carousel, you can hear the distressed noise of a horse neighing from one of the rides, even though it is an inanimate object, perhaps connoting that this is Sean’s biggest nightmare. Then we see a long shot of balloons floating away, connoting the end of life.

 You see Sean with a bullet wound in his torso but he begins to crawl towards the corpse of his child showing his distress. Whilst this is happening, the villain looks away from the scope and a close up occurs shows him reveal some emotion. Whether it is sympathy for Sean, feeling guilty for hurting a kid or is annoyed that he missed his target and got collateral damage instead. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of people attempting to help Sean in anyway, perhaps in fear of being shot themselves. As the carousel still spins around, it begins to get more fragmented and slightly tenser as parts of it are going at normal pace and then they quickly jolt forward with eerie sounds playing. The scene then ends on a sound sting of the theme with an ellipsis edit.

The edit shows how long it has been since the last shot with text indicating that it has been a while since the incident. There is a long shot from inside a building showing a large urban environment out of the window with high rise buildings. The urban setting is typical for thrillers due to it being like a ‘concrete jungle’. The camera tracks across the window showing a close up of Sean’s face which due to his facial expressions gives the image of him thinking and reminiscing. Music begins to play reflecting his emotions as the camera begins to tilt down along the wall showing all of his accomplishments and shows that he is a detective and has done a great deal for his city. But due to his son’s death, he has become the ‘flawed hero’ which is a common convention of the thriller genre. The tilt ends with selective focus close up of a pistol showing that he is still doing his job and that he has unfinished business as the pistol is more important than his awards.

It then cuts to a shot of a computer and some software which would have been cutting edge technology back then connoting that where he works get funded well and have great resources showing they are an important organisation. The shot turns into a POV shot as it the camera moves and wobbles as if you are seeing it through someone’s eyes. Due to the offices and the fact he is in that building, this organisation seems to be Sean’s work place. The music changes and begins to sound more like a choir as the camera zooms into a computer screen revealing Castor Troy’s face who shot Sean’s son. It then begins to pull up information about his previous assassinations reinforcing that he is experienced and equally matched against Sean.

Then a dissolve edit occurs revealing Castor Troy dressed as a priest. This is quite ironic as Castor is a murderer but yet is wearing clothes of a holy man who is a symbol of purity. A close up of Castors face looking at a box. His facial expressions give the feeling that he isn’t sure what he is looking at or if it is the real thing. It then zooms out to reveal a green skull and cross bones on the box. The skull is symbolic and has connotations of danger and death which could indicate that it is something deadly such as a bomb. The fact it is in green may represent illness, pestilence or radiation which could occur if the bomb went off. It then edits back to Sean who looks rather tired and weary, perhaps due to him having to stay at work all night or that the death of his son is still haunting him. He goes into a room full of other employees and officers and reveals that he is part of a ‘cover anti-terrorist team’ that no one knows about. Due to Sean being part of this, it once again reinforces the binary oppositions and that Sean and Castor are equally matched. A straight cut follows showing castor typing in a code and then arming a bomb. Once the bomb is armed, drums can be heard bellowing connoting danger once again. You also see a clock begin to tick down showing that it has turned into some form of time trial. A cut back to Sean happens with him ranting at his team showing that the death of his son has not only affected himself, but his team as they have to carry some of the burden.

The camera then tilts up revealing Castor arming not one bomb, but multiple bombs all at once. As he seals the bombs away, halleluiah begins to play he stretches his arms out, perhaps symbolising Jesus on the crucifix and then starts dancing perhaps due with excitement and that he has achieved something. The music also fits well with his pope robes as they both have connotations of God and holiness, which isn’t exactly how Castor would be described. It then has a long shot of a church choir singing halleluiah with a large area around them showing that they’re in a large building. Castor then begins to mosh in front of the choir which is usually done to rock and metal music which is known to be the ‘devils’ music. He then begins to talk to one of the choir girls and then begins to grope her, but the girl doesn’t resist nor seem affected by it, perhaps connoting that Castor is a ladies man.

As the song goes to the climax, an extreme longshot occurs showing the building where the bomb is being held and a sound bridge occurs going into Sean’s office where he is having a phone call arguing.

Sean’s secretary then enters his office revealing that his wife is on the phone waiting for him to pick up. A close up of Sean’s face showing his expressions indicate that he isn’t too happy with his wife and that he is expecting her to have a moan at him. This connotes that not only has Sean and his co-workers suffered since the death of his son, it is ripping his family apart and making home life hard, perhaps one of the reasons why he stayed the night at work. One of Sean’s co-workers who helped Sean calm down when he was ranting at his team burst into his office and revealed that they found Castor try. Due to him being more informal with Sean than the others, it gives the feel of friendship between them too. Sean then grabs his coat and begins to leave whilst still having the conversation with his friend. But the camera zooms into the phone on Sean’s desk with a red light still flashing on his phone showing that his wife is still waiting for Sean to pick up the phone but catching Castor seems to be the biggest priority in Sean’s life.

Face-Off Intro from Kieran Brooks on Vimeo.