Genre: How does Oceans Eleven's opening comply with the conventions of crime films?

In the first two minutes of the film oceans eleven we can see that the film does follow the conventions of the crime genre and with the plot, setting , character and mood we can say whether the film does.

The setting for the opening of ocean’s eleven is a prison this is and obvious location for a film which is in the crime genre as the prison symbolises a criminal and with the prison. The prison is very much a conventional part in crime film as the prison is the place where the criminals will go for their crimes. The prison is not very elaborate and is very simple and most of the films will start with a prison so we can a get a back story of the main character as they have come from a prison and we will be able to understand the character more. The prison normally symbolises the end but it has been used to show how the end of this side of the characters life is ending and how they may come out of prison and they carry on with the normality of the crime which the criminal is taking part in.

The plot is very much adhering to the conventions of the crime film as we find out that the back story for the character is told to us and this then leads us to think that the film maybe about the confidence tricks which we hear about the main character doing for going into prison for. The plot also is revealing the main character is leaving prison and this is very much a convention of the crime film because the character is normally a repeat offender and for the audience to learn that the character maybe doing more of the same things is normally in a crime film. The plot isn’t fully shown this is also a convention as the crimes which the character may commit normally takes some planning and we don’t want the whole story in the first two minutes of the film but we do get some small hint of the plot from what the character is saying.

The character is shown to us and he is the first character we seen on screen he is wearing a prison uniform and this sets the character up and this is not really a convention but the audience then understands that he is the main character and that he is a criminal. We also find out that he is a criminal from the dialogue between him and characters which are off screen as they say he is a 'confidence trickster' this is using obvious expositional dialogue which tell us the main character Danny Oceans back story and this is conventional because the audience expected to know a back story if the character is in prison. After the dialogue that he is going to be released and this shows he a character which is needed for the crime which is going to be committed. After the interview which Danny Undertakes he changes into a suit this gives him a 

The start of this film is very much adhering to the conventions of the crime genre because of the way the character is introduced and how the setting is used to show the character. The mood of the films opening is used very effectively to show the character   can be released from prison and the plot isn’t told to the audience in  the first two minutes this is good for the audience as the plot normally starts from the end the two minutes.