Highlander
The film begins with opening titles with an introductory narrative from Sean Connery as well as introducing directors, produces and cast. This may be put before the film as to not disturb viewing of the opening shots with text. The title gives us an idea to what genre of film this is , with a bombast of music that gives the film story like appeal ,and music from the rock band Queen give a sense of excitement and adventure.
The first shot is introduced from the aisle of a stadium, the shot is dark, both sides are blanked off by the stands of the stadium making the view even narrower for the audience. This is most likely used as the opening shot as it will not be an abrupt change from the black and red opening titles, and will ease the audience into the film, ready to set the scene. The shot follows the wrestler in front getting closer until the shot changes to another from the front with the wrestlers walking towards the camera, the shot then pans round to the stage.
The next scene shows the wrestlers getting ready to fight ,with a number of cutaways of people clapping their hands,and the audience watching the fight. This stops when the shots change from the audience to a bell being rung, and then it changes again to show a fight starting.
Then a new scene starts, this shot is quite a accomplishment, and is most likely a crane shot.
The scene starts as pan from athe screen at a low angle showing a full view of the stage, crowd and stadium. This gives the audience the overview of the whole event showing it from a larger perspective it continues and gets closer to the stage tracking the fight until it moves off towards one of the stands. This effectively brings in the main character Connor Macleod, with no explanation as to why we are focused on him. Another shot shows the camera focusing on the Macleod who then looks into the camera and then cuts away to what he has been looking at and we see the fight continue Thus giving the audience an answer as to why the film started here.
The next scene shows the fight continuing with a around 11 shots cutting from one to another this is a jump cut showing the different moves of the fight and then focusing on the main character and the a close up of his eyes. This effect makes the fight seem intense and brings the reason for invoking a flashback of Macleod‘s memories that is portrayed in the next scene.
This then changes completely to a long shot of a battle seen though a flashback of Macleod‘s . There is then a montage of shots combining both the wrestling match, the battle and the main character, sometimes blending the shots into one. This is used to represent the symbolism of Macleod’s life and how long he has lived for. The scene also compares both the violence of the wresting match with that of the battle in Scotland. The music also displays this change in emotion with a change from Queen to classical music by Michael Karman when Macleod has the flashbacks. The scene then ends with Macleod unable to watch anymore as he leaves the stadium.
