LF:Genre Research: Raging Bull opening scene: Sport

In my opinion the opening to Raging Bull is one of the most inspiring openings in the sport genre. Raging Bull was first screened in 1980 and had Robert De Nero playing the main character.

Firstly I feel as thought eh music used throughout the opening scene really emphasizes the beauty of boxing, and portrays the sport as an art not a war, the music has quite a slow tempo and a major key. The music is very soothing but at the same time still entices the viewer to concentrate on the hooded figure in the centre of the ring. Furthermore the font and colour of the text are simple but effective. The bright red provides subtle clues to boxing is a brutal sport and is not for the feint hearted however as this coincides with the music I feel as though the beauty outweighs the violence.

In addition seen as we are thinking of making a thriller/sport genre film I love the way costume is used throughout the clip to maintain a sense of curiosity about the character. The audience is clearly positioned with the protagonist in the clip however his face is never on show, you can draw clear parallels between this technique and the joker’s makeup in The Dark Knight, I feel is we can use a similar method it could be very successful.

Furthermore the opening to Raging Bull has given me the idea of shooting the opening scene through the ropes as it brings in certain aspects of iconography but at the same time is very simplistic and we could easy adopt a similar style. Thus the use of black and white and flashing camera lights are superb. I feel it provides a real insight into the world of professional boxing and would provide us with a really unusual virtuous shot.