Snatch is a 2000 British gangster comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, and featuring an all star cast. Set in the London criminal underworld, the film deals with two intertwined plots: one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter named Turkish (Jason Statham) who finds himself under the thumb of a ruthless gangster known as Brick Top (Alan Ford).
From the beginning the open title sequence is fast paced. We first meet the main characters sitting in the back of a van wearing what seem to be Jewish outfits which could be a disguise. As they begin to take off their fake facial hair and hats one of the characters brings out what seems to be a rather large diamond. This diamond could be of huge importance as the plot unfolds. The diamond then gets bigger and the camera turns around the name of the film appears on the middle of the diamond in a bold white font which is underlined and has a full stop. At this point we are introduced to some of the character and their names.
The first one is Cousin Avi who is holding a magnifying glass to the diamond we had just seen which makes the audience wonder what the relevance of this diamond is and that cousin Avi is checking to see if its real also it shows a process by which the diamond was possibly stolen in the first scene and then given to cousin Avi (blue background with white stars at the top and bottom of his of name). Cousin Avi places the diamond in the safe and on the other side of the safe we see the next person the diamond changes hands with in this criminal process and its SOL( dark green background with his name in white bold font and underlined) His picture then turns into an animation . When he places his hand in the safe he brings out some money making the audience think that the diamond has been sold for money. As Sol throws the money it lands on the desk of Mickey (dark green background with bold white font and a star at the bottom).
From the beginning the open title sequence is fast paced. We first meet the main characters sitting in the back of a van wearing what seem to be Jewish outfits which could be a disguise. As they begin to take off their fake facial hair and hats one of the characters brings out what seems to be a rather large diamond. This diamond could be of huge importance as the plot unfolds. The diamond then gets bigger and the camera turns around the name of the film appears on the middle of the diamond in a bold white font which is underlined and has a full stop. At this point we are introduced to some of the character and their names.
The first one is Cousin Avi who is holding a magnifying glass to the diamond we had just seen which makes the audience wonder what the relevance of this diamond is and that cousin Avi is checking to see if its real also it shows a process by which the diamond was possibly stolen in the first scene and then given to cousin Avi (blue background with white stars at the top and bottom of his of name). Cousin Avi places the diamond in the safe and on the other side of the safe we see the next person the diamond changes hands with in this criminal process and its SOL( dark green background with his name in white bold font and underlined) His picture then turns into an animation . When he places his hand in the safe he brings out some money making the audience think that the diamond has been sold for money. As Sol throws the money it lands on the desk of Mickey (dark green background with bold white font and a star at the bottom).
Mickey throws a bag full of gold to Vinnie who catches it (Vinnie’s picture is in sepia and we can see him holding the gold and the bag). The camera then flips around and we are introduced to (Franky four fingers. The gold which Vinnie held in his hand becomes a gold watch that ends up on a poker table. The camera freezes on Franky and we see his image in black and white. We can now clearly see why he is called Franky four fingers as he is missing a finger and is also holding up what seems to be a good hand of cards, queen, kings etc. As Franky places his hands of card the shot changes and we meet a character called Turkish who has picked up a hand of cards. The title sequence flows very well and each section helps to introduce us to all the characters and what also tell us what part they may play in the film. The sequence lasts for about 1minute 30 seconds and we are introduced to the main cast. The last character we meet is Brick Top, he seems like a really tough guy who hammers a guy in the face, we see the man’s teeth broken which then turns into the diamond and the original scene the title sequence opened with. It seems as if it is an effective way of storytelling and showing us what will happen rather than what has happened and the audience knows what they are watching but they do not know how it will end up. We can already tell who the villain is Brick Top.
The type of camera work used is medium shot, close up shot and extreme close up shot. All these shots have different meanings and when the audience watches it they are all significant such as the close up of the props, diamonds, jewellery, hammers, the shots where we are introduced to the characters and it’s easy for us to identify the characters.
The medium shot is used to show the character and the location he/she is around. For example at the beginning it shows four men in the back of a van holding a diamond, this gives us an indication to a robbery.
The soundtrack is very jazzy and upbeat it braces the audience for the ride ahead. This type of music is very sharp and fast. The editing is smooth and cuts from one clip to another making a continuous and fluid transition. Editing methods such as cross dissolve helped it make the process smoother. The props used in the sequence are a Diamond, weapons such as a hammer etc, gold, and cards. The costumes the characters wear in the first scene in the van are "Jewish Outfits". The rest wear suits and casual clothing apart from the gym scene where the character is dressed in gym clothes.
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