The original ‘The Italian Job’, directed in 1969 by peter Collinson is a great example of a classic late 60s/ early 70s crime film. The opening sequence starts off with a slow pan from the deep blue sky slowly to the huge vast open stretches of the Italian alp, setting the scene. We hear no sound until the non-diagetic slightly muffle long distance roar of a sports car engine, which builds up and changes to the scene of the car moving across a vast bridge stretching over a large valley, where the sound of the engine turns into a diagetic sound. The shot type changes to a point of view shot, making it seem as if we are now in the car with the driver, and again we are given another non diagetic sound of soft music, slowly replacing the noise of the cars engine. Only after about 45 seconds into the scene are we finally introduced to the character that is driving the car. This technique is used to make it seem as if the rest of the film is based around this character as he is the last apparent person/object we are introduced to.

The whole atmosphere is now very calm and relaxing with the vast stretches of the Italian Alps and the soft music, and now we are shown all of the opening titles of the film. The titles are generally very bold and have a similar colour to the car which he is driving (red) which is a well known colour for fast Italian sports cars, which is possibly used to reinforce that the rest of the film is based in Italy. The fact that the fonts of the titles are also very foreign and glamorous also sets the scene for the rest of the film being in Italy.

As the car enters the tunnel the sound turns again into the diagetic sound of the cars engine, which echo’s again the side of the tunnel. This is very quickly obstructed by the shriek of the cars breaks and the explosion of the car. We then very quickly see the clip of the truck facing into the tunnel and the back view of the man holding the wrath, preparing us for what is about to happen.

we are then confronted with the image of the explosion which is very dramatic and has a strong effect breaking out of the calm relaxing atmosphere which the title sequence has been building up all this time. This gives allot of mystery into what has just happened and makes the audience confused, making them realise that this is the scene that the rest of the film is build around. It also creates suspense in that if this has been intentionally done or if it is an accident.

The long stretching tunnel also makes the audience realise how infinite this landscape is, and how it stretches for miles, even in the small space of a tunnel.

The reversing of the truck takes a long time, creating s suspense, finally revealing to us the true genre of the film being a crime, having just committed a murder. I think the reason why the director (Peter Collinson) has included this is because not only has it revealed the true horror of what has happened, but it also slowly reveals the true intention of the obviously evil man who we have only seen the back side of.
As the car slowly roles down the hill, we are re enforced in what has just happened and that the driver is defiantly dead. As the main bad guy walks over towards the edge, he treads on the glasses, which is a very strong image used in many similar crime movies of its time, used to make it seem as if this has been done out of vengeance.
we are made to think that the bad people are gang members because of there smart suits and dark glasses which they are wearing, apart from the main bad guy who is wearing a different colour suit making us focus on him, rather than the other characters, introducing him, as later in the film he is the ‘big boss’.
The sequence finishes with the main bad guy throwing the wrath into the valley, which then leads into a fast flowing stream. This makes it seem as if it is some kind of Italian respect which is a powerful thing, clarifying to the audience that they are some kind of Italian gang, which we find more about later in the film.