The opening of this film begins with a fade in to an image of a rainforest and the song 'The End' by The Doors which could be symbolic for the end of something. This give an ominous feel. This choice of song also contrasts with the fact that this is the beginning of the film, not the end. It also casts a reflective feel over the audience and causes them to be curious about what's going on. As the opening progresses we see the rainforest burning and we now learn that the song choice is very appropriate for what we are seeing on the screen.
We then see a montage of dissolve and fade transitions used and a mans face overlaps the image of the forest fire. This introduces the protagonist to the audience. We see a combination of the man smoking a cigarette, helicopters flying around and the fire for a prolonged period of time, with the song still playing. These visuals then slowly fade out and we see the man laying on a bed, smoking and with an alcoholic drink next to him, the camera travels over him and we see a gun underneath his pillow. This triggers curiosity amongst the audience. By this point the music has stopped and all that can be heard is the sound of the cieling fan. The room he is in is very dark and the only light is that which comes through the cracks in the blinds. From what we have seen so far on the screen the audience would assume that the man is not happy and perhaps going through a rought time in his life. When I first watched this opening some questions that arised were, who is this man? What has happened to him? And what is his relation to the rainforest that we have just seen burn?
A voice over begins and the protagonist says "everytime I think I'm going to wake up back in the jungle" this tells us that he has obviously been there for a long time and by the tone of his voice his memories are perhaps not good ones. Perhaps he is an old veteran who has returned home. As he lays back down on the bed he looks at a photograph of a woman who we learn is his ex wife, in his voice over he reveals that he had not spoken to her apart from to say yes to a divorce. This information links to seeing him laying in a dark room on his bed miserably, with the aid of alchohol.
After this another montage begins of images of him in his room combined with more images of the burning rainforest and the music is playing again throughout this. He punches a mirror, breaks it and his hand bleeds. He then wipes the blood all over his face and he drinks another drink and then breaks down. His behaviour presents that he is in despair and is suffering greatly. The opening sequence ends with a fade out of him crying on his floor. This is a powerful opening and triggers many emotions within the audience before having learnt much about what is actually going on. This opening is very different to the others I have looked at as it uses many more transitions such as dissolve, overlap and fade, there is also a lot of use of montages to show a series of things going on.
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