The scene begins with a black screen contrasting with the white letters that say “ The rush of a battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug”. As the black begins to fade away the color of the sandy road arises. The camera continues this journey of a shaky endless road. The camera slowly begins to zoom out of the ground and into the chaos around this street. The audience can hear the sound of the cars honking and civilians yelling but it is through high angle shots that the audience can finally see what is happening. Scenes are constantly switching to keep up with the fast pace of the civilians and soldiers running. It is through the point of view of the robot that the audience can see that the reason there is such chaos is because of bombs positioned in the middle of the street. Through medium close up shots the audience can connect with the American soldiers. The camera captures the movement of the city by using civilians and soldiers point of view shots. As the soldier begins to walk towards the bombsite through high angle shots it gives the audience a civilians prospective. As the soldier is walking back to safety, the other soldiers are attempting to keep themselves safe the movement of the camera begins to slow down. The camera slowly captures the explosion then switches to the rocks lifting off the ground, as well as the sand coming off a near by abandoned car. Compared to the fast pace from the beginning, the explosion almost seems to last forever. It is after this scene that the screen turns black.
There are two predominant explosion scenes in this film. In these two scenes it is always a soldier from the squadron that is at risk of dying. In the opening scene described above, Sergeant Thompson runs away from the explosion and unfortunately never makes it. This frame shot is extremely slow and captures the movements of the different aspects in the film. In the other explosion, Sergeant James attempts to disarm a bomb that is strapped to a civilian’s body. In this scene when the explosion goes off, James looks back at the civilian. The explosion is also not prolonged through slow motion. Contributing to the idea that Sergeant James is more comfortable with the idea of death than the rest of the soldiers. Also in comparison is the fact that when Sergeant James opens his eyes, from his prospective, the camera shows a kite flying up in the sky. The kite in the sky can remind the audience of something joyful or a childhood memory. The form of this film allows the audience to have the opportunity to connect with the characters on a more personal basis than just viewing the movie as another stereotypical war movie.
