Taken – Film Opening Analysis

The opening titles to Taken consist of white text on a black background. The use of the black background could connote various things; it could represent danger, death and the unknown and this relates to the name of the film “Taken”. The white text could be used to connote innocence and purity. The white stands out on the black but there is more black than white which could suggest that there is more danger, death and then unknown than innocence and purity. This would be expected of an action film.

After this, the screen opens to a low quality video which is obviously the audience watching a homemade video of what the audience can only presume to be the life of the main character(s). The home video is of a young person’s birthday party which shows that whoever is watching the video in the film is reminiscing about his children being young or his own childhood. This makes us feel at ease with whoever the character is as he/she is shown to have feelings, and not just be a cold hearted killer. The use of diegetic sound which consists of a mother and daughter joyfully laughing shows that the people in the home video are happy. The characters facial expressions also show how happy the family is as they are smiling and generally looking pleased. The scenes jump to different things, which again hints at the fact it’s a home video. The video jumps to a scene with someone holding a birthday cake with a number five candle on it, this candle lets the audience know that the young girl is vulnerable and that her parents, especially her father, feel the need to look after her. This care is a foreshadowing of how the father sees her even as a young adult later on in the film. This is further backed up when the home video shows the mother sitting very close to her daughter as she blows the candles out, just as a safety precaution.

The film then cuts to a male character (Liam Neeson who plays Bryan Mills) waking up from what the audience presumes to be a dream. The jumpiness that he wakes up in suggests that he was having a bad dream which juxtaposes the happy, joyful atmosphere that the home video had.

A close up of Bryan’s facial expressions show that he is possibly confused, tired and upset almost with the dream that he just had. The camera then slowly zooms out to reveal that Bryan is alone. The use of low lighting levels could relate to how Bryan is feeling after waking up from his dream. Once a near light is turned on by Bryan, a close up of his face is shown again. Half of his face is literally shadowed which could be suggesting that the character himself is shady or has had a shady past. Most action films do involve some form of shady character, this usually being the fact that that the shady character has killed people.

Bryan is then shown to be slouching in his bed; he is surrounded by some Chinese takeout boxes. These props could suggest that Bryan is single, unhappy and alone. The fact that Bryan is in the living room could suggest that he wants to be close to his family as the living room is the typical place for families to gather. The non-diegetic sound relates to Bryan’s emotions as he wakes up how he did, which could be a regular thing. The character is shown to be holding a picture frame which the audience can presume he fell asleep with, maybe because he was looking at it which could be the origin of his reminiscent dream. After Bryan has looked at the photo, he puts it down and the photo is shown to be of his daughter, and the same girl in the home videos. The sigh that Bryan releases as he puts the photo down shows that he misses his daughter and is fed up with being depressed and alone.

As Bryan gets up the camera slowly zooms to show another picture of his daughter riding a horse. In the home video the daughter is shown to get a horse for a present. This shows that the daughter likes horses; it also shows that her parents are and were caring and as they upped a toy horse to an actual horse.

The title of the film “Taken” is then shown next to a picture of the daughter which foreshadows that the daughter could possibly get taken at some point during the film. The text is in white which connotes the innocence and purity of Bryan’s daughter.