SSC Film Studies

How are the major themes in both Get Carter and Bullet Boy introduced and reinforces in the opening sequences?

In both Bullet Boy and Get Carter, there s a very strong theme of crime and violence originating mostly from the opening sequence of both movies in very different ways.

One of the similar themes between both of the movies is that the locations in which the characters are located highly influence their behavior for the rest of the film. This idea in Get Carter is reinforced by the train journey of the opening sequence in which Carter spends the entire journey reading novellas, doing drugs and sitting quietly, creating an air of superiority over the rest of the passengers on the train. We know from watching the rest of the film that this superior trait of his doesn’t go away and putting him in situations with people who he would consider as ‘beneath him’ only serves to highlight his vision.  This along side him doing hard drugs unabashedly serves to show his rebellious nature and criminal personality. Its fair to assume that Carter acted this way when he was back at home in London, but even in the very first scene we see that his personality is much more subdued when surrounded by other people on the same social level as him and the passage of time in the train only serves to bring out his more rebellious nature.

One part to the opening sequence of Bullet Boy has a very similar pace to it. When Ricky is on his way back home after being released from prison, its easy to spot the moments that the essence of crime is seeping its way back into Ricky’s life. The first instance is of course when Wisdom and Ricky share a joint in the middle of the countryside whilst Curtis is sitting directly behind them watching and even attempting to imitate his brother using a piece of grass, showing already the influence Ricky’s actions have on his younger brother. The deterioration of whatever good behavior Ricky may have had whilst in jail is evident when he is put back into a environment with people from his past, such as Wisdom, the same way Jack Carters does when he gets closer to Newcastle. As Ricky is slowly reentering his old home town, we get o look at the environment that surrounds him through his perspective and we see that he is ultimately surrounded by tall rundown buildings that give the essence of Prison walls, reinforcing the idea that Ricky is more trapped back in the city than he ever was in jail.