Steal Away

Steal away

Steal away opens with a fast paced soundtrack making you think there’s going to be some sought of heist. The film doesn’t hang about your immediately introduce into the narrative with a gagster character. Which goes hand in hand with the music. The title is shown on a stack of twenty-pound notes. The director like to use point of view shots as it involves the audience and helped signify the location which is London as you see tube stations and telephone boxes.

The audience is introduced quickly to the main characters and sight a tramp stamp tattoo maybe a sign of rebellion or a carefree lifestyle. We hear a diegetic gunshot and have a quick reverse shot to establish a reaction but the sound seems to slow down, as there is a focus pull as well. We easily realise that the two main characters are a couple from expressions and there non stop kissing.

Within the first minute we can see that the male is in charge. He seems much more confidant compared to her. She seems vulnerable and manipulated, she is also needy as she constantly touches him suggest a parent child relationship. In this scene the lighting is also darker and the location is more gritty portraying danger and risk with this there is also a tracking shot adding tension to the scene.

When the money is revealed because of the case being “easily” opened. She seemed rather childish and doesn’t care much about the money being inked; she just gets off from the thrills of crime. The tube pulls up very quietly and they don’t seem to really notice it until the last minute. From the outside the tube looked empty but once they stepped in it clear that it isn’t. We see a priest straight away preaching about sins. I suppose the audience is supposed to realise that that the tube is the transport from earth to heaven or life to death, but I certainly didn’t get that when I was watching it especially at this point. The tubes atmosphere is up tight and has vivid lighting and half spotlights certain characters. From here we see a young man washing feet and say, “money is everything” which goes against what these characters seem all about in some ways.

The tension on the tube is soon broken as some drunken yobs board the tube and accidentally injure the man who’s washing feet. The male protagonist steps forward to stop the situation but is restricted as his selfish girlfriend pulls him back yet again showing naïve childish behaviour. We have a few shot reverse shots to show some emotion and bring the tension back up on the tube.

The genre of the film changes in the tube, it has more of a religious vibe, as there seem to be a lot of biblical references in this scene. The leading male character is offered to have his feet washed but says no and washes the mans feet instead. We imeditally feel differently towards this character in some way his sins have been lifted. The lighting becomes less harsh, his girlfriend is gob smacked which proves she is even more ignagrant than before. From the washing off the feet the money and clothes are ridded of the red ink as of his sins.

At the end of the short film I still found it hard to understand it was all about judgment day, maybe because i'm not religious. It understood once the class spoke about it openly. There were a lot of bright lights in the ending sequence mainly trying to represent passing into heaven. I liked the way this film was shot but the religious part turned me off as that doesn’t really appeal to me.