Film Title: Road to Perdition
Director: Sam Mendes
DP: Conrad L. Hall
In the film, Road to Perdition, Tom Hanks character, Michael Sullivan, plays an Irish mafia hitman who goes on the run with his son after his wife and younger son are murdered. He discovers that the son of the man who took him in and has been like a father to him, John Rooney (Paul Newman) had killed his family and throughout the film he takes revenge on the various parties who wronged him while protecting his son from becoming the same man he became.
In the scene I've chosen, Sullivan is murdering the protectors Rooney and eventually murders Rooney himself. The scene is set on a rainy street at night.
(1)
In the opening shot of the scene we see figures crowded around the door. They are dressed in black and aren't very well lit. The only source of light is from off screen right and it emanates a golden glow while outside the rain and nighttime make for a grayish color of light.
(2 & 3)
Shots 2 and 3 are a crane shot of the figures leaving the office. They are framed in shot 3 by the two light poles which are the only source of light in the shot. The figures don't have much in the way of definition and seem small in comparison to the lights and the darkness of the night that surrounds them.
(4)
In shot 4, the figures have more definition because of the lighting though the character out front has the most lighting. The street in the background is glistening from the rain and the lamp posts in the right make a diagonal with the characters and are pointing to the car they are headed to.
(5 & 6)
Figures 5 & 6 are of the dead driver in the car from two different angles. In shot 5, we see a figure on the right of the screen peering in the window and in shot 6 the dead man is lit from outside of the car with the majority of the light hitting his neck and his eyes are almost completely hidden from view.
(7)
In shot 7, the character of Rooney continues to peer in the window of the car, yet this time the lamp in the background has lots its white hue and is a shade of brown. The character is framed by the car and the guard holding the umbrella as if is he protected from things to come.
(8)
Shot 8 is a wide shot of the street and all of the characters are barely lit and the light from the lamp posts combined with the wet street reflect light back on them. Its also noteworthy that there are 5 lights in the background, one for each character on the street.
(9 & 10)
In shots 9 and 10, the character of Rooney looks down the street and the eyes is drawn to the center of the frame which is completely black. The lamp on the left, street corner on the right, and the ground below are lit save for the end of the street.
(11 & 12)
In shots 11 and 12, the characters are still hidden in darkness and the main character is framed by the car and a guard while the guard in front of him is being shot.
(13)
The light from the machine gun become visible in shot 13 and this is the only thing visible from the darkness. The person nor the gun are visible and the bullets appear to be coming from nothingness.
(14)
The character, Rooney, turns his back to the ongoing shooting and his face only lit from his left side and his suit is glistening from the rain.
(15 - 17)
Shots 15-17 are a pan of the guards being shot, while Rooney keeps his back turned. The shot focuses on Rooney and his figure stays in the middle of the shot for its duration. His face isn't lit and only the rain on his hat cast any bit of light on him.
(18)
Shot 18 is a wide shot of the dead men that have been killed. Their figures aren't lit and the shadow of Rooney points where the bullets came from though he is facing the opposite direction.
(19 & 20)
In shot 19, we see Sullivan's figure begin to emerge from the dark street. In shot 20, there is a low angle of Sullivan with Rooney framed between Sullivan's leg and the barrel of his machine gun. This angle gives Sullivan the power in the shot. Its of note that there are two street lamps in the background denoting the two surviving characters.
(21 - 24)
In shots 21 - 24, Sullivan emerges from the darkness as the camera zooms in on Rooney, the focus shifts from Rooney to Sullivan in the last shot.
(25 - 33)
Shots 25-33 begin as OTS shots of the actors and then delves into close ups. Each actor only has their face lit. Their clothes are dark, and the background behind them is out of the focus. This is drawing the viewer to the faces of the actors rather than anything else to distract from the gravity of the scene. In shot 32, the gun lights up Sullivan's face and it should be noted that the murder of Rooney is never shown. We only see the angst of Sullivan's face though the darkness of the night surrounds it.
(34 - 36)
Shots 34-36 show Sullivan looking off camera and the subsequent shots reveal that tenants of the apartments have come out to look at the whats taken place. Again, the non-major characters in this scene don't have all of their features in focus. The silhouettes of each individual is the only thing seen. The varying lights from the various apartments are the first change in color the entire scene. The rest of the scene was in various shades of blacks and grays.
(37 - 38)
In the final two shots of the scene Sullivan's character disappears into the night and slowly fades from view in shot 38. The camera is low angle again, to denote the power that Sullivan had. There is a slight glow from the rain bouncing off the pavement in shot 38 as it catches the light from the lamp posts. In the final two shots, there is only one lamp post that is seen, going back to the fact that Sullivan is the lone survivor of the shootout.
