Film Opening Analysis

The fugitive

The Film starts with the Warner Brothers logo and then skips to the producing person. The letters are designed in the colours of the police department (blue) and there is a music building up slowly. On a beat the Name of the main actor Harrison Ford appears. Important to notice is that first of all the Name Harrison and then Ford appear. This was made possible, because the actor was and still is so famous, so that people only need to see “Harrison” and there know which person is meant with that .The main actors are all getting musical beats and then their names appear. It appears as synchronous sound.

The first of the Movie was an establishing shot of a big city, following that minor important Actor Names appear. Then suddenly a black and white flashback tells the story of a woman being murdered. That and the at the beginning appearing police sirens indicates that the genre of the movie is to place in the crime franchise. This is getting intensified due to a focus on the dead woman to really tell the viewer that this person is dead.

Then transition on a crime scene. An incoming ambulance has the name of the location, the city “Chicago”. Now the viewer definitely knows that there are watching a crime movie. Further this is getting emphasised because of many police cars used in that scene and further we are getting the shot of the house where police officers are taking photographs to save evidence.

Then the main actor Harrison ford appears covert in blood and scratches on his back which could tell the viewer that he is the murder of the woman (his wife). Officers in trench coats appear and take him in a detective vehicle for further questioning. (The fact that they are taking him in a detective car is emphasising that the detectives just want to question him, if he was under arrest he would have had handcuffs and would be put in a normal patrol car) Then a reporter provides the viewer with basic information, which the viewer needs to understand for the film.