Right from the opening, we're immediately drawn into the mind of the assassin and his lonely and dark world. His entire world is his body and mind, and a soul if there's one — as quoted by the killer. The movie is one long inner monologue, with scarce dialogue between characters, plenty of silence, and all we experience is the isolated, silent, patient, and persistent world of the killer. He lives by certain self-defined principles of morality and does not believe in anything else. His self-talk is what keeps the narrative moving forward.
This film is a great example for film students who might want to learn in depth about a subjective point-of-view. The audience is deeply drawn into the killer's head and you constantly see, hear, and feel his experience. The intercuts between the objective point-of-view and subjective point-of-view shots replicate the character's visual and aural experience for the audience. You can hear the diegetic sound of music playing on his earphones, the recurring inner monologue, and what he sees and feels through the gun's telescopic sight.
The movie is narrated in chapters and the opening chapter is another classic example of taking the time in establishing a character's character and setting the pace for the film. We see the meticulous planning, the patience required to do this job, and how the killer never takes his eyes off the prize, other than when he is resting. The same patience is expected from the audience to experience the movie, as it's the killer's world that we're drawn into. The protagonist is into yoga, probably to be in union with body and mind. (Well, as far as I could understand based on the sunrise postures, it looked like Surya Namaskar.)
This story is about a job that goes wrong and the repercussions of what happens when you miss the mark. What happens when perfection and control are taken from you? I don't want to talk much about the plot, as this is not your typical movie review. My focus is observing the direction and other filmmaking techniques. My greatest learning from this film is how to pace a film through direction and editing. After the inciting incident, all we see is jump cuts, however they are not jarring in nature and very well aligned with the overall narrative. We follow the killer's journey around various parts of the world, and jump cuts play a significant role in keeping things simple, relevant, and telling us the story in an interesting way.
Watching this film was a great experience, however there's one thing that put me off for a moment. A continuity mistake when the killer drives by at one of the airports in Dominican Republic.(He drives by the airport twice, and when he arrives the second time, we see lot of mud on the windshield and the A-pillar of the jeep, which isn't visible in the earlier shots.) Another little disturbance was moving away from realism by showing an app's view on the screen as a pasted image. I think an insert shot of the phone screen does a better job in conveying information as well as maintaining the realistic style of the film and narrative intensity.
I lost count of how many times the killer changes identities, impersonates people to advance his cause and I think this was great writing, direction, and editing. We come to terms that the killer himself doesn't have an identity anymore and is just this lonely, cold and dark person. Michael Fassbender justified the role by bringing in the right depth into the character. The film's colour is devoid of anything vibrant and inline with the dark, gloomy, and isolated world of the killer. It's tough to watch at times; however it does evoke the right effect on the viewer as this film relies heavily on subjectivity in both colour and sound.
Another classic from David Fincher.
Originally published on LinkedIn on December 3, 2025
The movie is narrated in chapters and the opening chapter is another classic example of taking the time in establishing a character's character and setting the pace for the film. We see the meticulous planning, the patience required to do this job, and how the killer never takes his eyes off the prize, other than when he is resting. The same patience is expected from the audience to experience the movie, as it's the killer's world that we're drawn into. The protagonist is into yoga, probably to be in union with body and mind. (Well, as far as I could understand based on the sunrise postures, it looked like Surya Namaskar.)
This story is about a job that goes wrong and the repercussions of what happens when you miss the mark. What happens when perfection and control are taken from you? I don't want to talk much about the plot, as this is not your typical movie review. My focus is observing the direction and other filmmaking techniques. My greatest learning from this film is how to pace a film through direction and editing. After the inciting incident, all we see is jump cuts, however they are not jarring in nature and very well aligned with the overall narrative. We follow the killer's journey around various parts of the world, and jump cuts play a significant role in keeping things simple, relevant, and telling us the story in an interesting way.
Watching this film was a great experience, however there's one thing that put me off for a moment. A continuity mistake when the killer drives by at one of the airports in Dominican Republic.(He drives by the airport twice, and when he arrives the second time, we see lot of mud on the windshield and the A-pillar of the jeep, which isn't visible in the earlier shots.) Another little disturbance was moving away from realism by showing an app's view on the screen as a pasted image. I think an insert shot of the phone screen does a better job in conveying information as well as maintaining the realistic style of the film and narrative intensity.
I lost count of how many times the killer changes identities, impersonates people to advance his cause and I think this was great writing, direction, and editing. We come to terms that the killer himself doesn't have an identity anymore and is just this lonely, cold and dark person. Michael Fassbender justified the role by bringing in the right depth into the character. The film's colour is devoid of anything vibrant and inline with the dark, gloomy, and isolated world of the killer. It's tough to watch at times; however it does evoke the right effect on the viewer as this film relies heavily on subjectivity in both colour and sound.
Another classic from David Fincher.
Originally published on LinkedIn on December 3, 2025