Steve Zissou? I hear he's incredible.

For my film analysis post, I decided to look at Wes Anderson's film "The Life Aquatic" more specifically the scene with the pirates. What more could you ask for than a pretentious art film with pirates and a great fight scene? I really enjoy deconstructing film techniques that are used. It helps me understand my affective response to films. Who-hoo.
In the scene I picked, we start on the deck of the Belafonte with everyone praying for their lives. The shot is dark, there is a filter on the lens. Music enters: an anticipatory march feel, though very faint. As the music grows, so does the speed of the edits: face to face to face. We finally reach a climax with a split second shot of Steve's crazy eyes, and the action takes off. Off comes the filter, on goes the super loud ass-kicking music and Steve's endless 6 round clip.
By starting with the dark filter, the scene appears much less hopeful than the rest of the film, shot with an almost glaringly bright lens. The music and quick jump cuts help build anticipation before we are caught off guard with a shot that is indestiguishable in real time. From there the fight scene (over the top, of course) takes over... I don't feel like I need to speak of that.
The thing that I like about Wes Anderson's films is his use of all these techniques in an obvious, over-the-top way. He exploits the techniques as an artisitic expression. More than anything... it ends up being a lot of fun.