The Movie Enemy of the State (Tony Scott, 1998, 2h12m; edited by Chris Lebenzon) is a fast paced, action movie. It uses editing in a way to convey to audience differentiate the intensity and calmness within a scene.
Despite majority of the movie having murders, fights and car chases, I want to draw on one scene in particular. Towards to the end of the movie and at the scene where all the action leads to, the scene edited begins with slower cuts of about 3 – 4 seconds, these are the establishing shots, they set up the scene of where everyone is and can allow audiences to presume what is about to go down. In the following shots, tension releases and gun fires are set of, people are getting shot and everything is happening at once. During this time editing shots quicken to about 1/2 a second to a second. Not only does this grips audiences more but it communicates the high intensity and drama of the scene. The graphic relations within this scene and the shots that follow are abrupt in contrast, the space between each shot differs, this sequence shows differing patterns, time of shot, space, shapes and movement. The shots go from still to changing camera movement, and the editor has specifically chosen these varying shots to pair together in a sequence to communicate the clustered and hectic situation. From the use of spatial relations its infer that things all happen through cause and effect and the editing used allows us to understand that when a shot of someone with a gun then cuts to a dead person, the edit allows audiences to connect these two points together to construct the film space.
Lebenzon has edited this film into an action packed intense movie from the beginning. Visually the aerial wide shots of suburbia are edited through rhythmic relations, the flash frames or single shots emphasises the stress of a single moment in this case establishing the intensity of surveillance. Additionally the found footage style thats paired together with other material of varying tones, movements, and space really highlight the broad variety and extent of surveillance which cues viewers from the outset that this is the key theme of this film. This discontinuity editing evident through the opening scene eludes to an unease for audiences.