Police Interrogation and Due Process Research Paper

Police Interrogation and Due Process - Research Paper Example The above principles which are contained in the 5th amendment are very important to an individual accused of a crime. Although the amendment is viewed to contain various provisions, four elements widely protects an individual accused of a crime are right of protection against double jeopardy, right to due process, a right to what is known as grand jury and finally, right against self incrimination (Tomkovicz, 2002). Within courts in the United States, whenever questions arise in criminal trials whether a confession is incompetent because it is not viewed to be voluntary; this issue is mainly controlled by the 5th amendment commanding that specific individual shall at any given time be compelled in a criminal case to be a witness against himself. Self incrimination indicates that no person accused of a particular crime may be compelled to be a witness against her/himself. Supreme Court ruled that this specific action is only available not only police interrogation but also the trial. Further, this same rule may only apply to custodial interrogation where police interrogates an individual while in custody. Grand jury is defined as a group of individuals who decide whether there is enough evidence to charge a particular suspect. However, the US Supreme Court has not ruled on this requirement to apply to the states. Double jeopardy implies that individuals may not be punished and tried twice for the same crime. This area is complex such that even Supreme Court struggle with it. Finally, based on the due process, the 5th amendment indicates that no one should at any time be deprived property, life and liberty without due process of the law. The two types of due process are substantive and procedural. Procedural type focuses on fundamental fairness whereas substantive widely extend beyond the context of criminal prosecutions (Sonneborn, 2004). 4th Amendment Clearly, it is the legal responsibility for any government to provide each and every defiant in any criminal ac tion with legal representation which must be viewed to be effective. This is explained by the 6th amendment to the U.S that states â€Å"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦to have the assistance of counsel for his defense†. This clause gives all defendants the right to communicate with an attorney from the specific moment the defendant was taken into police custody. Decision by U.S Supreme Court to have constructed this clause was to ensure that any defiant enjoyed the constitutional right especially during critical stages in a criminal proceeding. These critical stages are namely; preliminary hearings, custodial interrogation, trial, post indictment, first appeal conviction and sentencing (Chemerinsky, 2002). This same clause was mainly to react against English practice where assistant from an attorney was denied even in very serious criminal cases. Here, defendants required

Global warming by human caused Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global warming by human caused - Essay Example In addition to this, several non-human activities, such as variation in the orbit of earth around the sun, rapid changes in atmospheric composition, volcanic eruptions and solar luminosity are also responsible for the global climate change. Global climate change has become one of the most challenging and critical issue that is affecting ecological and environmental balance of the globe. It is difficult to justify the major responsible reasons behind this global warming. Several scientists have argued that human beings’ unethical activities are responsible for this issue. On the other hand, some of the scientists around the globe are trying to illustrate that volatile change in natural and environmental structure is causing rapid global climate change. The essay will provide an argument on the topic i.e. â€Å"Can the humans be held responsible for global warming?† Major Reasons behind Global Warming There are several reasons behind the climate and temperature change in the earth’s surface. The part of the essay will provide an argument about the real causes behind the global warming and rapid global; climate change. Non-Human Reasons The temperature of the earth depends upon the balance between the planet’s system and energy entering. When the energy from sun is absorbed, earth warms. On the other hand, when the energy of the sun is reflected back then the earth generally avoids warming. There are several non-human reasons that are affecting the global temperature. Green house effects, variation in the energy of sun and change in earth’s surface as well as atmospheric reflectivity are the factors responsible for global warming. Several scientists pieced a picture of the climate, dating back thousands of years through the analysis of various indirect measures like tree rings, glacier lengths, ice cores, and ocean sediments, changes in the orbit of earth and pollen remains. The valuable historical record shows that the global cl imate system varies naturally (Lawson 22). The output of the sun shows narrow variations over the course of a particular 11 year time cycle. These cyclic changes effectively correlate with the frequency and number of sun spot. It is known as solar cycle. This solar spot is growing slowly and gradually. However, the rapid increase of solar spot is affecting global climate. The climate is getting hotter and hotter due to this reason. On the other hand, position of the earth with respect to the sun slightly varied over a longer period of time due to the change in orbit of earth. However, this frequent change is termed as Milankovitch cycle (Shrivastava 109). According to the view of several scientists, these changes are major culprits for the global climate change since the Ice Age of earth. These changes have limited impact on the global temperature and climate change for a shorter time cycle. These changes have occurred slowly and gradually. This Milankovitch change has impacted the global climate and earth surface’s temperature. It has resulted in long-term climate and temperature fluctuations. Water vapor is considered as the most abundant green house gas in the atmosphere of earth although the changes in the water vapor’s concentration are generally the result of temperature changes. Consequently, this water vapor can significantly act as the part of feedback loop (Arnold 272). In the feedback loop, the increase in temperature typically triggers an effective increase in the evaporation of the water. The

Walmart Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Walmart - Research Paper Example Sam had a vision, and together with his wife Helen, they used up almost all of their life savings to put up the first Walmart store. During the early part of the 70’s, Walmart was only able to expand to 15 stores because of lack of capital. So in 1972, Walmart stock was offered on the New York Stock Exchange, this gave the company the capital for expansion. By the end of the decade, the company opened 276 new stores in 11 states. The 80’s was also an eventful decade; it was in 1983 that Walmart introduced Sam’s Club members-warehouse store. Its first Supercenter however did not open until 1988 which already features a complete line of merchandise from grocery to assortments of general merchandise. The 80’s was also a decade of growth. The company continues to steadily grow with 1,402 Walmart stores in total and 123 Sam’s Club locations by 1989. Sales have skyrocketed from $1 billion in 1980 to $26 billion by the end of the decade. Currently, there a re 8,986 Walmart stores in 15 countries around the globe. They employ 2.1 people and are estimate to serve on average, 176 million customers per year. Walmart is a retail company that has not lost sight of its purpose, ad it is this purpose, this vision that have guided them towards their success.

Mill Locke on Liberty Essay Example for Free

Mill Locke on Liberty Essay Through out history, many philosophers have discussed the rights of mankind such as existence, liberty and especially property. In the work â€Å"The Second Treatise of Civil Government† written by John Locke, mankind’s natural rights are critically examined one by one. This essay aims to discuss whether John Stuart Mill’s harm principle that he mentions in â€Å"On Liberty† can be exercised while not violating the natural rights of mankind or not. First of all, in order to find out the consistency of Mill’s harm principle with Locke’s natural rights, briefly one should examine Locke’s definitions of state of nature and state of war. For Locke, when men live together reasonably and have right to judge each other, without a common authority such as a government it is called state of nature. For Locke, state of nature is a reasonable state that mankind live peacefully. And when men use force, or assert a design of force over other men and threat their lives, where also no common authority is present it is called state of war. Apart from the state of nature, in the state of war, Locke says that â€Å"every man hath a right to punish the offender, and be executioner of the law of nature† which drags men into continuous and endless wars and quarrels. Consequently, because of living in state of war, men could not make use of their natural rights such as right of existence, liberty, property, health, and punishment and judgment. One may instantly, without giving you a chance of defend, kill you, take away your freedom, seize you property and can do many other evil and unlawful actions. In order to prevent the brutal outcomes of state of war, Locke highlights the need of common legislative authority over the members of the community which will lead men to state of society where possessing natural rights would have a meaning and use. From these points, with a general survey, one can establish relations with Mill’s harm principle in consistency with natural rights. Mill’s harm principle lets government or such common legislative authority use power, force or other instruments over persons against their will in order to prevent someone to harm any other. And what Locke is seeking by introducing common legislative power is not much different with Mill’s presentation of harm principle. Let me support my stance by explaining the close relation between the natural rights of mankind and the principle. Right of existence and right of freedom cannot be secured in the state of war. The stronger members of the community would take hold of the others liberty which naturally have to be free from all superior powers and make them his slaves by at the same time threaten their lives, torturing and killing them. And putting forward that they can do anything they want and live in fully satisfied because of the natural right of liberty. But that is not the liberty of men. In such cases, rights of existence and liberty are attached to the willpower of the strongest although they are natural and given by god. True liberty is as Locke defines the freedom of men to follow their own wills and make their choices under the supervision of common legislative powers. So that for Locke such wills and actions that threatens others right of existence will not considered as natural right of freedom and not protected by government and vice-versa government will apply sanctions over whom uses right of freedom in bad faith. Then one shall say that Mill’s harm principle is put into practice over Locke’s natural rights of liberty. They joined together in the state of civilized society holding each other. Another very significant natural right that Locke talks about is property right. Firstly, he says that everything which lies on the earth created by god or nature belongs to the mankind in common. But mankind needs to use those unpossessed crops and fruits of earth in order to satisfy their needs and support and comfort of their being. Inevitably, concept of property is needed. Locke, at that point, says that whoever puts his or her labor on something that belongs to nature and community becomes the owner of that thing and constitutes title on it. The apples which in nature and owned by everybody, when gathered from trees by someone by mixing labor into, becomes the apples of the laborer or gatherer. By that way, I mean by mixing labor on something as Locke signifies, natural right of property can be established over something which is before common. However the question is, can one use Mill’s harm principle without violating Locke’s natural property right? The process of mixing effort on something is unclear. One may exert any kind of force and work to get the property of anything and may say â€Å"I have put my work on it† although actions may not legal, unjust, unfair and not protected by government. Another aspect is how someone can know and set apart the common and the owned property? Again he may put his effort on something which is already owned by another. The rule, first come, first served is not so determining and in practice many conflicts may occur. In both cases someone may get hurt by another’s actions. So in a sense, it seems harm principle is needed to be accepted by the government in order to prevent such harmful actions performed by ones who try to own something. In my opinion, in such cases putting into practice the harm principle is not a violation over property right, seems more like a limitation on behalf of mankind. Moreover, as Locke also explains everyone should not labor more than he could make use of, otherwise indirectly others may be affected by scarcity and lack of resources. At that point again harm principle can step in, and in order to prevent someone to acquire more than what he needs, common authority may exercise power on selfish ones. In conclusion, one may say that harm principle generally can be exercised by community while not violating the natural rights but limiting it on behalf of members of the society. Because as I tried to show that without such instruments, I mean harm principle, people who had bad faith in, can use natural rights in evil things.

Comparing Mistaken Identity in Merchant of Venice, Comedy Errors, Twelf

Mistaken Identity in Merchant of Venice, Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night and As You Like It   Ã‚  The ploy of mistaken identity as a plot device in writing comedies dates back at least to the times of the Greeks and Romans in the writings of Menander and Plautus. Shakespeare borrowed the device they introduced and developed it into a fine art as a means of expressing theme as well as furthering comic relief in his works. Shakespeare's artistic development is clearly shown in the four comedies The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Measure for Measure where he manages to take the germinal idea of mistaken identity and expand it to peaks its originators never fathomed.    In Shakespeare's first comedy, The Comedy of Errors, mistaken identity is the sole impetus behind the action, as it had been with its original sources. The germinal idea of asking how one really knows who one is is introduced, but the conflicts that occur between appearance and reality are not totally realized. This will be accomplished by Shakespeare's maturing comic style as he begins to recognize all the varying aspects presented by the ploy of mistaken identity.    In its simplest form, mistaken identity is shown in Twelfth Night where twins are mistaken for each other enhancing the comic confusion of the plot. This basic concept is taken deeper, however, when it is recognized that one twin is actually a girl who would not normally be mistaken for her brother. This only happens because she has resorted to disguise. Viola masquerading as Cessario opens the doors for many double meanings in dialogue through a great deal of playing with words. When her twin brother Sebastian arrives, the comic elements reign as her meek natur... ...re to everyone.    These are only a few of the ways Shakespeare altered mistaken identity by expanding the concept to include disguise, self-delusion, and theme. It is impossible to fully develop all the uses and expansions this basic comic device received in Shakespeare's hands even when dealing with the limited scope of plays we are looking at in this question. It is also impossible to isolate one aspect of this development from the others because Shakespeare intertwined them in such a way that in his growth as a comic writer he took the ploy of mistaken identity and used it in its totality of meaning. Ultimately, mistaken identity is a subtle thread underlying virtually every comic action studied in these four works. Through his development of this simple comic device we clearly see one aspect of the whole that makes up Shakespeare's creative genius.   

Recent advances in medical technology

The two articles What is telecasters? And ‘Do we know too much? Illustrate what the evolution of medical technology is and how it improves people's life. Both articles provide medical studies to support the curative effects. Furthermore, although there are still some limitations or negative aspects toward the progressions, It Is believed that those will be solved with time. In the article What Is telecasters? ‘ the author elucidates how its operation differs from traditional surgery.It Is revealed that doctor an give a remote operation by using robotic arms connected to fiber-optic cables without distance and facilities restrictions. However, some people doubts If robots can be relied on; the author also states that It might not function well due to the network access and compatibility of computer. The second article alms to address the question of what happens If we can extract Information from our genes. By genetic tests, we can aware of the genetic disorder that we mig ht suffer from and prevent contracting certain diseases.Currently, large range of disorders can be detected by complex genetic tests such as newborn screening, diagnostic, carrier and predictive testing. By the progression of medical technology, we are able to lead a longer and healthier life, furthermore, tests can be used to blood relationship testing and applied to crack down on crime. However, some people worry about that it might result In some negative impact toward their living. As the remarkable development on therapy introduced in the essays, human beings benefit greatly from telecasters and genetic tests; though they are still some limitations and difficulties need to be coped with.

The musical strategies of some exemplary ‘titles’ sequences in a way that illuminates the function of music in entertainment cinema

In order to view a variety of techniques used, the title sequences of four films will be analysed: from classic Hollywood cinema Casablanca and Psycho, a modern Hollywood film, Edward Scissorhands, and a recent Russian film, Prisoner of the Mountains (Kavkazky Plennik). In non-musical terms Casablanca, Psycho and Edward Scissorhands all present different versions of the classic Hollywood technique of using a closed, self-contained titles sequence. Meanwhile in Prisoner of the Mountains there is an extended sequence before the titles begin, and this sequence includes music. The following points need to be addressed with regard to each film: how the music in the title sequence coincides with the visuals (i. e. how the sequence works on its own); what kind of role the music plays; how this can be interpreted in terms of its effects on audience expectation and manipulation; and finally how the music of the title sequence relates to that which is used later on, and in what context the title music itself is used. In Casablanca the normal Warner Bros fanfare accompanies the studio's logo at the very opening, and drum music links the picture to the visually static title sequence which uses a map of Africa as its background. This develops into ‘oriental' music for the full orchestra, using several clichis developed from the western perception of the ‘orient', such as the persistent use of the melodic progression tonic/leading note/flattened-submediant/dominant (i. e. C, B, A-flat, G) played predominantly by brass and reed instruments. When the credit for the composer Max Steiner appears, the music shifts and plays La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, but this concludes with an interrupted cadence rather than its normal perfect version. We must also examine the next sequence as it forms a unit with the title sequence, using both music and partly-animated visuals. We see another globe, this time used for the mapping of the physical and causal route to Casablanca, from France and other places. Clips of paradigm journeys are superimposed onto the map as the refugees flee Paris and Marseilles. The music accompanying this follows on from the pessimistic nature of the interrupted cadence of La Marseillaise, building down to low, dissonant and lugubrious chords on brass which begins to be accompanied by a romantic high, intense and chromatic melody for strings in octaves. Finally, as the first scene of the film begins in a market square in Casablanca, the music returns to oriental music, this time, supposedly, diegetically. The role of this sequence is manifold: firstly it establishes Casablanca as the physical and spiritual setting for the film, corresponding to the geographically blatant use of maps. It also adds interest to an otherwise static title sequence, and indeed, is a montage of the musical themes that are to be presented in the film. The first two themes (‘Oriental' and Marseillaise) are so explicit that they do not take on much contextual meaning in this original setting, but rather set up purely musical expectation, which can be utilised by transformation or by various possibilities of juxtaposition with visuals. The third ‘suffering, yearning' theme is less familiar and therefore takes meaning from its context and becomes associated with the desire for freedom and liberty. In this sense the themes sum up the plot: as captivity in a wild land (oriental), fettered liberty (La Marseillaise and its cadence), and romantic human yearning for freedom. Generically, the nationalistic music also helps establish the film as a ‘serious' war film as well as a melodrama. The main strategies of the musical sequence, then, are clear: to introduce the main musical themes in a way that makes the introduction understandable and establishes its genre. By its nature the music also manipulates the audience into feeling the setting to be removed from their own settings by the fact that the oriental music is exotic in an Romantic orientalist sense rather than in a Moroccan sense, establishing the film as a western work. The manner in which the title music influences the rest of the film is generally easy to detail. Unlike the manner in which As Time Goes By is used in a proliferating way, the occurrences of the title themes are used to remind us of their original or implied contexts and meanings. The Marseillaise theme is used as a symbol of France (for the flashback sequence) but more generally as a marker of the success or failure of idealism and the Allies in its battle against cynicism and Fascism: its overall movement is from the interruption of the titles to the only full cadence in the final scene as Louis finally gives in to patriotism by throwing away the Vichy water. Oriental music is used more scarcely as the setting has been established, but it is used diegetically in the Blue Parrot scenes to distinguish it from the more homely and American Rick's (‘Cafi Americain'). Thus some of the title music was truly introductory and other parts were to be used for future reference. The fact that As Time Goes By was not used indicates that it did not attempt a full musical accumulation of themes but concentrated on those necessary to understand the first scene. The title sequence of Psycho is more closed and self-contained than that of Casablanca due to the manner in which the music of the titles is separated – both by silence and by change of mood – from the opening scene. The sequence is also far more visually captivating due to the thrusting horizontal lines that shoot across the screen and distort the titles themselves, culminating in a vertical meeting of upwards and downwards-moving lines and a release. Unlike Casablanca there is no aspect of narrative or historical context, but rather the establishing of a mood, as the lines suggest frenetic activity, violence, splitting and then final dying union, as the lines meet and fall away. The music, meanwhile, uses three primary textures in succession, all of which are linked by the modernist language and string scoring of Herrmann's score. The first is a driving ‘motor' rhythm of double-stopped dissonances in the tradition of The Rite of Spring, which develops by superimposing variants of a basic cell onto itself and thus expanding in volume and texture. The second is this rhythmic idea as an accompaniment to a soaring violin theme which is still not entirely Romantic in character due its persistent crotchet motion. Ostinati are thus the key to the sequence. The third texture is the ‘sharp' rhythmic idea used by smaller sections of strings in upwards sequences, dying away with the visual lines, and reaching an extremely high tessitura. The music stops and pauses before the opening scene begins with slow weakly-discordant descending chords in the style of Debussy. ‘The real function of a main title, of course, should be to set the pulse of what is to follow†¦ I am convinced, and so is Hitchcock, that after the main titles you know that something terrible must happen. The main title sequence tells you so, and that is its function: to set the drama. You don't need cymbal crashes or records that never sell'. 1 Thus Bernard Herrmann both states the specific strategy of the musical cue that accompanies the title sequence in Psycho and proposes a general theory of the function of titles sequences. He also justifies his choice of a string orchestra for such dramatic music, and in other places likens the string sound to Hitchcock's anachronistic monochrome. The strategy, then, is to sum up the essence of the film. That essence is surely the surprising ‘primitive' (in the primitivist sense of Stravinsky) violence that describes the title word, and in no way sets the scene for that which immediately follows. The music is fiercely modernist for a cinema audience but still within their understanding so that, along with the visuals and the word ‘psycho', the main element of the titles establishes itself as distinctly inhuman and violent. Just as the straight lines penetrating the screen and the titles can be interpreted as predicting the motion of stabbing and also the split character of Bates, the music is ‘stabbing' in its chords and ends ‘screaming' as Marion will do. The horror genre is thereby indicated, but the music's insistent intensity hints at the obsessively psychological nature of Hitchcock's art. The influence of this titles music on the rest of the film is subtle. The first scene is entirely removed from it by mood, if not completely by musical language, a feature that unifies the entire score and film. The first time the titles music is reused is when Marion realises that her boss has seen her driving her car after she had told him that she was going straight home to bed. The fright she suffers, and the effort with which she suppresses it in order to force a smile at her boss, seem to initiate the return of the violent double-stopped ostinati of the titles. Here there is a meaning attached to a mood which we understand to be the essence of the film: the music is in some way linked to the Marion's subjectivity and also the insistent technology of the car. Marion is shown to be a transgressive woman, and this raises the expectation that Marion herself may be the psycho: she has a headache; she hears voices in her head; she has stolen money; she drives – a masculine pastime in most films; and accordingly her fright is expressed not through Romantic scherzo music but by this horror music. This expectation is, of course, entirely false. Meanwhile the explicit violin theme of the titles is used to fill the screen just as Marion's face does as we watch her watching the road, amounting to a nullification of any reluctance we might have towards voyeurism. The most powerful influence the titles music has over the film is its various ways of presenting ostinati. We learn to decode this new musical language in stages, so that the deep ostinati heard as the dying Marion falls to the floor in the shower is distinguished from the niggling four-note repeated figure associated with Marion's decision to run away with the money. They mean different things but are united by technique and by the world they draw for the audience. Edward Scissorhands toys with genre: it is a both a genuine horror film and a parody of one (of the Frankenstein and Beauty and the Beast traditions); it is also a fantasy, a comedy and a melodrama. This is recognised in the titles sequence and the music that accompanies it. The studio logo is accompanied by snow and then there follows a title sequence that is ambiguous as to whether it is animated or real. In fact, it turns out that much of the sequence is real and is taken from later scenes involving Vincent Price that are vital to the plot, such as the brief view we have of him dead and the hands that could have been Edward's. However, this is all crafted with elements of Gothic fantasy, using discrete images from the house/castle, beginning with dark shadows and an old door opening, moving to what we later realise was the inventor's laboratory, and this culminates in the purely fantastic animation of hearts and other ‘shapes' falling like snow, with which the title sequence concludes. Danny Elfman's music for this sequence is remarkable mainly for its orchestration: it begins with solo celesta, then strings are added, accompanying a plaintive cor anglais, and then a full (and massive) orchestra plays the main theme, to which is added a celestial and voiceless choir, which sings to ‘oooh'. The chord sequence that is most prominent is a major tonic triad moving to a minor triad of the submediant. In effect, the sequence is akin to an amalgamation of Casablanca and Psycho, for it uses the technique of joining the titles to a ‘false' first scene, whilst dissociating it from the first ‘real' flashback scene, which begins in prosaic silence. Elfman's music is fairly uniform here but multivalent. The magical nature of the film is set by the celesta and the harp/flute-oriented nature of the full orchestration and finally by the angelic voices. The magical interpretation of this combination of instruments is accepted by way of Chaikovsky, Debussy and John Williams, from whom the harmonic progressions are also borrowed. The element of horror is marginalized but represented by low strings and the melancholy of the cor. The voices add a layer of naive wonder that is rather over the top, something that is a major part of the film. The audience is led to expect a fairy tale with an element of horror to it, but also the clues to the somewhat tongue-in-cheek nature of the film are also present in the music. Importantly, from the very beginning this affective music is associated with the house and Edward. The element of falling in this film is highly significant: many of the moments of greatest significance revolve around the falling of snow, which is finally associated by the old woman of the present with Edward's very existence, and thus the existence of the film and of magical naivety and goodness, with the falling of snow; in the studio's very logo before the titles there had been no fanfare but silence accompanying the falling of snow; in the titles the ‘shapes' are shown to fall like snow: these shapes include hearts, which provide a link to humans and human emotions: the inventor falls when he dies and his fall is emphasised by the way in which we view his face as he realises he is to die. The sequence leading up to the inventor's death is the key to the explanation for Edward's condition, which is half the mystery of the film (the other half is how it will end), and it is drawn out by its progression being interrupted and alternated with scenes of the ‘present' (wi thin the entire flashback of the film). During this we realise the significance of what we had seen in the titles, and to emphasise this the titles music is brought back, and the tragic nature of the story is shown by the fact that we were ignorant of its intended significance until now. The other scenes in which the titles music features prominently are when Edward sees the picture of Peggy's daughter for the first time (choir ‘ooohs') and when snow is falling and Edward magically (for it would not be possible) creates beautiful ice sculptures with the girl as his enraptured audience (full statement of the main theme). Thus the titles music is used to indicate the presence of the picturesque, the naive will to do good and the tragic nature of fate. Those things not privileged by this music are, by implication, marginalized. However, the titles theme also proliferates the film as Elfman develops it by distortion (quarter-tone glissandi in the main theme) during moments of anguish. This is similar to Steiner's use of La Marseillaise in Casablanca. Finally, by way of contrast, we will look at Prisoner of the Mountains, a strong piece of anti-war propaganda made during, and based on, the ongoing Russo-Chechen conflict. The film begins with a long sequence before the titles, showing the recruitment process of a young man drafted in as a reserve soldier into the Russian army. We see him given a medical examination naked, which has an element of humour to it. Then we see an older soldier go to play pool outdoors with a friend and they drink in a relaxed, late-evening atmosphere. The contrast between the young and innocent and the hardened cynic is reinforced as the soldier, Sasha, responds to other soldiers being rowdy by firing off rounds of his machine gun in mock attack. As he shoots we see his tensed, macho face, there is a freeze frame and a song begins, the first music of the film. The song is an old one and is obviously recognisable as a popular song of the type popularised during the Second World War, a period that is a subject of great nostalgia for Russians. We then see a military manoeuvre operated by the Russians with both the old and the young soldier aboard a Russian tank. The song ends and we are brought out of nostalgia for the army to the harsh reality as we hear a solo plucked string instrument play an ‘oriental' snippet of melody. This alerts the audience to the possibility of danger from Russia's ethnic ‘others' and to the placement of the scene in the Caucasus mountain range. Suddenly the tank is ambushed and our two soldiers are severely wounded and left unconscious and seemingly dead by their comrades and are captured by the Chechens. Finally the titles begin with an endless panorama of the mountains and dramatic orchestral music in an orientalist style. Here it is difficult to determine what constitutes the essential title sequence if one accepts Herrmann's definition. The music that accompanies the titles certainly does more to emphasise the setting and the drama of the film, but we cannot forget what has already happened. The freeze-frame on Sasha's face as he fires in connection with the ultra-popular song is so strong a device so difficult to interpret on first viewing that it dominates the opening. Moreover, whilst the opening music is hardly reused before the end of the film, there is another sequence which is crucial to the film's anti-war message: the two Russians are kept hostage, chained together, for a long period and it becomes increasingly likely that they will be killed. As they sit together, back to back, Sasha begins to sing another old WWII song in a triumphant, brave voice, something that is obviously escapist. Suddenly his voice is multiplied and the song is taken over by a huge chorus and the shot moves from the two men to the vast expanse of the mountains, so that he can be seen to become the might of the Russian army. As the song is still being bellowed out, the shot changes back to the men, and Sasha is crying frantically. The false expectation of escape in patriotism that had been set up by the song is revealed, and this makes sense of the opening song in addition. In a sense, then the titles sequence constructs a conventional colonialist Russian audience led to be wary of foreign subjects, whilst its other musical material works against this. It is possible to generalise our observations to note that for every film here the titles operate as a kind of first subject of a sonata-form movement: they establish certain information about the film's essence which can be developed in a linear way, as in the thematic references in Casablanca and the thematic distortions of Edward Scissorhands, or in a more accumulative way, as with the manner in which the music for the titles sequences in Psycho, Edward Scisssorhands and Prisoner of the Mountains gains in meaning as we acquire more information. As an audience we are led to believe that the titles have meaning and, like the subject of a sonata, will be recapitulated.