Rush Analysis

Rush Opening Scene

In the first scene of Rush, we see a low angle shot of dark clouds, this connotes mystery and tension which may leave the audience wondering why this may be, the scene then cuts to an extreme close up of someones eye looking up into the sky which shows that we are looking through his eyes of the sky, the shot used in this would be known as a POV shot.

The scene then cuts to a close up shot of a race car with the name 'Niki Lauda', and we see some text on the right hand side saying "German Grand Prix August 1976" which tells us that this is a very big race and that there is a lot of tension building. Niki Lauda is a famous Austrian Formula One race car driver, and we are shown a close up of his face in which we can see he looks focused and confident, this suggests a long with the race car that a race is about to start, but with the continuous camera cuts to the shots of the sky, this may suggest that this is more than a race as the shots are creating a lot of tension.

In the next scene we are shown a long shot of Niki and another racer who is with two women, this shows that maybe he is very confident and somewhat cocky. This racer is James Hunt, who was known as a real womanizer and heavy drinker. we are then cut to a medium-long shot from the front of the two cars, this scene especially shows a clear contrast between to two racers, one looks prepared and focused whereas the other looks a bit too confident and is not as professional, we can also show from this scene that these two may be rivals. Fast pace shots build tension which show that this is a very important race.

We are then cut to a medium-close up of James Hunt with his ladies looking very confident, then the camera cuts to a close up of Niki Lauda who looks very focused and calm, this also makes him look very professional compared to his rival. We then see a medium shot of Hunt who we see kissing one of the women that we was with, we then see the two make eye contact and we are shown the expression on James Hunts face change from smiling to a dead serious and focused face, this tells the audience that maybe Lauda is a threat to him and there is a lot of tension between the two.

I really like this opening because I think it establishes relationships with both of the characters and the acrtion takes placein the useof camera and the editing and mise en scene - so much is communicated to the audience about the characters and their relationship without dialogue and this itself creates suspense.