Pineapple Express- The Opening Scene

Pineapple Express- The Opening Scene

Pineapple Express is a comedy-action film based off two stoner men who some how manage to get themselves involved with a rampant drug war between some of the most powerful and dangerous men and women in the city. The film was realised in 2008 and directed by David Gordon Green. The reason I chose this movie is I watched it over the weekend and for a mainstream comedy film, I thought that the opening sequence connecting to the rest of the movie was quite smart. 

The opening scene of Pineapple Express, although not involving the main characters, establishes the majority of the movies qualities. From the start the dialogue includes ‘druggie’ humour, sexual innuendo, explicit language and down right stupidity which quite frankly is hilarious. The film does does a good job with making you feel amused and engaged through the first scene. It leaves the audience excited about how the rest of the story will unfold.

The film starts in black and white, with a car driving through the desert. The subheadings “1937, The United States Of America” flash on to the screen in typewriter font which seems to be a comedic attempt to fit into the decade. Although this does give the viewer a decent understanding of why the film is in black and white and the vague location of where it is set. Two men get out of the vehicle and already the audience can tell that they are men of authority. This is because of their fancy car, sharp suits and captains hats. The music is heavy and serious, the stereotypical music that is associated with military. There are several shots looking up at the men to confirm their high authority. The scene proceeds into a underground military laboratory. There are scientists running an experiment on a man, Private Millar, having him smoke “Item 9” (implied marijuana). As the captain and scientist speak to the Private asking him several questions about his reaction to the drug, the Private makes a complete joke of it as he is obviously high. As the scene goes on and the Private continues to make a joke of himself and of the captain. The captain begins to get irritated with the Private and as the tension starts rising, the shot begins to slowly zoom in on the Privates face as he speaks more passionately to the captain about Item 9. At the end of the scene the captain gets fed up with the Private and declares Item 9, illegal. 

One of the things I most enjoyed about the scene was the contrasting elements throughout the scene. The whole atmosphere of the scene was supposed to be very serious and having the Private character in that state, which inspired dialogue for that character, juxtaposed the whole situation. This is the reason why the scene was so funny. 

Overall, I think that the scene was a really good way to begin a film, although it didn't include any of the main characters, it opened the doors and prepared the viewers for the kind of humour and storyline that were going to be seen in the rest of the movie.