Dante's Peak opening scene analysis

The opening scene tells us that this is a disaster film. We can tell this as they are running away from a volcanic eruption. The opening scene does not tell the main plot of the film, this is because it is a flashback of the main character. This tells the audience how he lost his wife. This scene tells the audience that the main character is a geologist, that was monitoring this volcano before it erupted. This tells the audience that this is going to be about a volcano erupting. They used a close up shot to show Marianne's head covered in blood after the rock killed her. This is effective as it shows the audience that she is dead, causing feelings of pity in the audience for the main character who just lost his wife. Both diegectic and non-diegetic is used to make the scene come across as chaotic. It does this a the music is loud and aggressive while the people are shouting at each other over other very loud diegetic sound like rain and falling rocks. This creates confusion as no one knows what is going on. The music also tells the audience that the are in danger. This is because is is loud and aggressive. the editing is a constantly changing pace. This is to add to the confusion of the scene as it is changing between fast pace, which connotes action and slow pace which is used in less action orientated scenes.