Textual Analysis 2 - Scarface

Scarface
The introduction to this film begins in a realm of the unknown with a pitch black background and some ominous non-diegetic music; this builds a hugely tense atmosphere for the audience but does not yet clue them in on what is going to happen. By doing so from the get-go it immediately encapsulates the reoccurring themes of a thriller film which gives the audience some idea of what to expect. We are shortly exposed to plain white text detailing the historic events in Cuba in 1980, giving the audience some insight into the prior events relating to the plot. The lack of style to the text allows our attention to be captured by what it has to say instead of the text itself. It then leads into footage from a Fidel Castro speech being given to the Cuban people and focuses on the repeated phrase “We don’t want them!” which shows the audience what kind of people were being taken over to America and their own people’s opinions of them.
The tone of the film is then flipped on it’s head and begins to play some non-diegetic upbeat 80’s funk music coupled with a mixture of historic footage and studio filmed shots of immigrants entering into Florida by boat. It makes sure to show the variety of people who were emigrating from Cuba – old, young, male and female alike. One of the ways it does this is showing a close up of an old woman leaving one of the boats. It can also be noted that the shots used display how bad living conditions on these boats were and by doing so displaying the ideology of what these people were willing to go through to get away from Cuba and the revolution. A protrusive shot used is that of a medium close up of a man holding his crying child and beckoning it to look at something off camera he is pointing at followed up by a close up shot of an American flag waving in the wave which fills the entire screen. This shows the audience that the Cubans are looking to America hopefully, their heads full of ideas of living the ‘American Dream’. These messages are reinforced by a medium shot taken from the viewpoint of one of the boats looking to the pier surrounding by the cheering people as they arrive in their new home. Another prominent shot used is that of an old woman being carried off the boat by stretcher, this goes against the usual connotations of this shot of sadness and loss as she has a smile on her face which connotes that the gruelling journey was worth their eventual arrival. This is at once contracted by a shot of two young men being searched by military police upon their arrivals; this reaffirms the ideoloy of what the Cuban immigrants are like. The introduction to the film ends with bird’s eye shots of the living conditions of the immigrants and close up shots of their faces, their expressions showing that their arrivals in America have not lived up to their expectations of a better quality of life. If they want a better quality of life in this country then they must take it for themselves, and one man is willing to do so...