Monday 18 January 2010

man with the golden arm analysis on narrative

the title sequence to The Man With The Golden Arm by Saul Bass gives no clues what so ever to the narrative of the film or to any story. The only part of the sequence that displays anything other than white lines dividing a black background is when the white lines create an arm and a hand. Even still, this does not give away any more of the narrative than the title of the film does. However, as the film is a thriller, this could be seen as quite an effective technique by not giving away any part of the story. The sequence does not follow any classic conventions of a thriller and therefore confuses the viewer and makes them question the film more.

One of the only things that remotely links to the narrative is the music which does follow conventions of thriller/mystery music, leading the viewer to believe that the film could be something to do with a mystery as the main plot as this is the only thing obviously relating to the story during the title sequence. When the white lines join together to create a hand at the end of the sequence it could be hinting that all random parts in the story all add up and make sense at the end. The title sequence is overall very confusing but it think this has been done purposely to make the viewer keep questioning the narrative of the film untill the very end.

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