The films Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 - Essay Example

?Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 – Analysis of Scenes Introduction The films Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 were buddy comedies starring Chris Tucker and JackieChan, and directed by Brett Ratner. These two films are also considered to be action comedies. As such, the shots in these movies tend to be quick shots, and the pacing between the shots is often very rapid. The editing uses some jump cuts, although they were used sparingly in the scenes that will be analyzed. In this essay, the scenes that will be explicated will be the scene in Rush Hour when Carter and Lee meet for the first time. In Rush Hour 2, the scene will be the scene in the massage parlor, right before Carter and Lee get into a fight with the Chinese men in the parlor. Rush Hour – The Scene When Carter and Lee Meet for the First Time The first scene that will be examined will be the scene in Rush Hour, where Jackie Chan’s character, Chief Inspector Lee, is getting off the plane to meet Carter, played by Chris Tucker, for the very first time. The scene opens with an overhead shot of Carter sitting on the roof of a black car, with the words “Snake Boss 24” overlaid on the scene in large red letters. The scene then cuts to a medium shot of a plane that is coming in on the runway. Then, a medium shot of Carter, in a full length body shot, as he checks his watch. After this shot is a long shot of the same plane that was shown in the very first shot, but, this time, the plane is shot through a window pane, and the plane is seen down below. The words “is back with” is overlaid on the window pane, in red, in the same writing as “Snake Boss 24” as the plane coming in on a long shot on the other side of the window pane. These three shots are edited and cut so that they are very close together – the original shot of the plane, which was the medium shot, was about seven seconds long, the shot of Carter checking his watch was about three seconds long, and the long shot of the plane was also about seven seconds long. The next shot after the long shot of the plane is a close-up of the same plane, in that it only shows the nose of the plane, and the plane door opens, and the stairs of the plane come down. The plane stairs are foreshortened, so that it appears that the stairs are opening into the lens of the camera. The next shot is a close up of Inspector Lee, as he looks around, with the words “Rush Hour” overlaid on that shot, then a medium shot of Lee as he descends the stairs. When he gets to the bottom of the stairs, the camera cuts immediately to Carter, in a medium shot, as he is walking towards Lee. The shot of Carter walking towards Lee is about three seconds long. The shot after the shot of Carter walking towards Lee, is another medium shot of Lee, who is looking towards Carter, then turns to a woman next to him and speaks Chinese. During this entire sequence, there is no speaking, until Lee greets the Chinese woman next to him – rather, there is music that sounds Chinese. The pacing of this sequence is extremely rapid, as there is cutting away to show different parts of the shot – the plane, Carter, the plane, Carter, and the plane. After Carter reaches Lee, the first dialogue is spoken in the scene, while a bass guitar plays in the background. When Carter first reaches Lee, he is shot from the back, then the camera immediately cuts to a close up of Carter’s face, and now Lee is being shot from the back. This shot alternates between a close up of Carter, as he is talking to Lee, thinking that Lee doesn’t speak English, and a close up of Lee’s face, which first looks perplexed, then he is smiling, then back to Carter close up, then back to Lee closeup, then a medium shot of both of them as Carter is turning towards the camera. The camera is of the two men in a medium shot, from the waist up, as Carter talks about how he can’t believe that he got stuck with this assignment. This shot, where Carter is facing the camera and talking to himself is the slowest shot of the sequence, as this shot is around 12 seconds long. The next shot is Carter walking off-camera, and Lee looking perplexed, then following Carter. These sequence of shots does contain the same amount of cuts as the previous sequence, as the camera focuses mainly on the two men, and does not cut away to another scene. The pacing of this sequence of shots is also somewhat slower than the previous sequence of shots, because there are not the same amount of cutting away to different shots, and there is actually dialogue in these shots. There is then a cutaway, as it shows both men start towards the car, then they arrive at the car, and the camera does not show them actually walking all the way to the car. Therefore, this is a slight jump cut, which means that this is an edit that gives the effect of jumping forwards in time. When the two men arrive at Carter’s car, there is another medium shot of the two men, and the camera shows them from the knees up as they stand behind the car. Then Carter and Lee get in the car. This sequence has fewer shots than the previous sequences, and is slightly longer, temporally, then the other sequences, in that the shots are longer temporally. The pacing is, therefore, slightly slower than the other sequences, in that there are fewer varied shots than the other sequences. Rush Hour 2 – The Scene in the Massage Parlor The next scene that will be analyzed is a scene in Rush Hour 2, and it is the fight scene where Carter and Lee are in the massage parlor in Hong Kong. This scene, overall, has very quick pacing, and it is different from the last scene analyzed, in that all of the shots are in the same location. This is in contrast to the previous scene, where the shots went from the car, to the plane, to the car, to the plane, etc. Moreover, there are no jump cuts in this sequence. All of the scenes flow temporally, one to the other, so the editing is not as obvious in this scene as in the previous scene. The scene begins with a closeup of Carter in a purple robe, and he is getting a massage from a lady in pink. The opening shot shows Carter’s face and part of this torso, but does not show the face of the masseuse, and there is another woman in this shot, and she is shot from the side. This particular shot, with Carter sitting on the chair, getting massaged, lasts for around seven seconds. The next shot is a medium shot of Carter as he is walking through the massage parlor. As he is walking through the parlor, the shot also shows various men in blue who are relaxing in chairs. The camera follows Carter all the way until he gets to his destination, which is a Chinese man by the name of Ricky Tan. The camera then cuts from a medium shot of Carter in his purple robe, showing him from the waist up, to a close up of Ricky Tan in his chair. The camera angle shot Carter at a level angle, and the shot of Ricky Tan was from a slightly overhead angle. In a later shot, which the shot right after Ricky Tan is shot, Carter is shot from an angle that is lower, as the camera is shooting him from a lower level. At this point, Carter takes off his purple robe and throws it aside. Ricky Tan is the next shot, still being shot from overhead. In the next shot of Carter, the camera angle is level again. The alternating shots of Carter and Ricky Tan show Ricky Tan in a close up, and Carter from a medium range shot. Carter then grabs the computer out of Ricky Tan’s hands, and proceeds to stomp on the computer. The pacing of this sequence of shots, between Carter and Ricky Tan is very quick, as Carter is shown for about five seconds, and Ricky Tan an equal amount of time. Right after Carter takes off his robe and proceeds to throw the computer on the ground and stomp on it, Lee is shown from a close up. While Lee is shown, Carter’s voice is heard yelling for Ricky Tan to get out his chair. The shot of Lee is about three seconds, and the shot immediately turns to Carter at a long shot, and he is shot from the back as he stomps on the computer. The shot turns back to Lee, and this shot is the same angle and close up range as the previous shot of him looking at Carter smashing the computer on the ground. The shot then turns back to Ricky, as Carter can be heard smashing the computer and yelling at him to get his ass out of the chair right now! Ricky is shown from the same angle and close up range as his earlier shots. Asian men behind Ricky can be seen moving towards Carter, but Ricky waves them away. The shot then returns to Carter, now shirtless, and shot from a medium angle as he is still smashing the computer and cussing. Then Carter is shot from the back. He is in the foreground of the next shot, while Lee is in the background of the shot. Ricky Tan is also in this shot, still sitting down. Lee is approaching Carter rapidly, and he finally reaches Carter and puts his arm around him in an attempt to stop him from doing anymore damage. The two men are shown together in a shot from a medium range, then there is a very quick close up shot of Lee’s face, then a shot of Ricky sitting in the chair, with Carter’s arm still in the shot. This sequence of shots is very quick paced, as Lee’s close up happens in an instant, then immediately goes to Ricky Tan sitting down, then, just as quickly, Ricky Tan is standing up and confronting Lee. Tan is at first shown from the back, in the same shot as Lee, who is shot at a medium range. Then the camera immediately pans to a close up of Tan’s face. He is Lee speak Chinese to one another, as the camera pans from the close up of Tan, to a medium range of Lee, with Carter still in the background of the shot. Carter, at first, is shown from the front, then he turns around while the two Chinese men continue to confront one another. They are speaking in Chinese, so there are subtitles for what they are saying to one another. Carter turns back around while the two men are speaking. Then the next shot is another close up of Tan’s face, while Lee is shown from the back. Tan speaks in Chinese, with English subtitles, for about five seconds, then the camera immediately pans back to a closeup of Lee’s face, as Tan turns around and faces the camera. In this shot, the two Chinese men are in the shot. There is an extreme closeup of Tan, showing only his eyes, his nose and part of his mouth, and there is a closeup of Lee. As Tan is turning around, and the camera catches him in extreme closeup, Lee is motioning with his face to Carter. It is evident that Carter misunderstands what Lee wants, because Carter confronts Tan by grabbing him. This shot is a medium range shot of Carter and Tan, then, the second that he grabs Tan, there is a long range shot of the room of Chinese men who are instantly in action. During this period of time when Lee and Tan are confronting one another, there is music in the background that consists of strings, and the music has a suspenseful feel to it. After the long range shot of the Chinese men in the massage parlor, the camera cuts to a foreground of Carter and Tan, both of them shot mid-range, with a background of Chinese men in blue robes who are standing around looking menacing. Then the shot cuts to a close up of Carter’s face, as Carter attempts to apologize to Tan, and there is Tan being shot from the back. Then there is a close up of Tan’s face. Then back to a closeup of Carter. This sequence of shots between Carter and Tan, while Carter is attempting to apologize, and Tan is appearing to accept the apology, is very quick – Carter is shot close up for around four seconds, Tan is shot for about two seconds, then Carter is shot for about three seconds, then a close up of Tan is about two seconds. In the background are still the Chinese men who are now looking more menacing. Then it turns to another long range shot of all the men in the room, and all the men in the room are shot from the waist up. Tan turns to the men in the room, then exits from the camera. Carter and Lee are then surrounded by the menacing Chinese men, as they both realize that there is going to be a fight. This midrange of the men in the room lasts for about five seconds, then there is a closeup of Carter, as he grabs Lee’s collar to ask him why Lee never told Carter that the men in the massage parlor were working for Tan. In this same shot, Lee is shot from the back. The camera zoomed from the mid range of all the men in the room to the closeup of Carter, but there is not a jump cut of any kind here. There is then a closeup of Lee, alternating with a closeup of Carter, alternating with another closeup of Lee, as the two men confront one another about why Lee didn’t explain to Carter about the men in the room. The closeups alternate quickly, one to the other, for about three seconds each. Then, the camera is on another mid range shot, as the two men start to confront their attackers. Production Teams The production team for Rush Hour was led by director Brett Ratner (IMDB.com). Brett Ratner is known for his Rush Hour movies, which have made him an A-List filmmaker, but he previously directed Chris Tucker in the movie Money Talks. Rush Hour was just his second movie. He also directed a romantic dramedy called The Family Man with Nicholas Cage, and Red Dragon, which was a film based upon the novel by Thomas Harris (NNDB). He also directed X-Men 3: The Last Stand (Yahoo! Movies). His most recent project was being tapped to produce the 2012 Academy Awards, but stepped down after uttering a gay slur (Zakarin, 2013). Rattner directed both of the Rush Hour movies (Box Office Mojo). The producer for Rush Hour was Roger Birnbaum, who also produced the movies Wanted, Unbreakable, Bruce Almighty and GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (IMDB). Birnbaum also produced Rush Hour 2 (IMDB). Budget The budget for the original Rush Hour was $33 million. Its domestic gross was $141,186,864 (Box Office Mojo). The budget for Rush Hour 2 was $90 million. Its domestic gross was $226,164,286 (Box Office Mojo). Conclusion In the movies Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2, the shots that are in the scenes that were explained are probably typical of most action movies. The camera does not last on any one person or frame. Rather, the frames are extremely rapid, as the camera goes from a long shot, to a medium shot, to a close up, to a medium shot, etc., and the shots last five seconds or less. This is a technique that is used by Rattner, and it is an effective one for conveying the sense of urgency that is in these scenes. This is particularly true of the scene in the massage parlor, as this scene has a degree of underlying tension, and there is also a sense that something is about to happen. The quick cutting of the shots in this scene is thus very effective. The quick shots in the original Rush Hour movie, where Carter and Lee meet one another for the first time, is also effective. The shots in this scene, however, are slightly longer than in the masseuse scene, and that is because there is less urgency and tension in this scene. In both of these scenes, however, the focus is on Carter’s antics. The movies are very funny, and, in examining closer two of the scenes, it is evident why this is – the pacing, which is quick, makes for movies that are visually interesting and never boring. References Box Office Mojo. Brett Ratner. Available at: www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?id-brettratner.html Box Office Mojo. Rush Hour. Available at: www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=rushhour.htm Box Office Mojo. Rush Hour 2. Available at: www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=rushhour2.htm IMDB. Rush Hour. Available at: www.imdb.com IMDB. Rush Hour 2. Available at: www.imdb.com NNDB. Brett Ratner. Available at: www.nndb.com/people/448/000110118 Rush Hour, 1998. Film. Directed by Brett Ratner. Hollywood: New Line Cinema. Rush Hour 2, 2001. Film. Directed by Brett Ratner. Hollywood: New Line Cinema. Yahoo! Movies. Brett Ratner – Biography. Available at: movies.yahoo.com/person/brett-ratner/biography.html Zakarin, J. (2013) Brett Ratner accepts GLAAD Award: ‘I learned a valuable lesson,’ The Hollywood Reporter. 17 March. [Online] Read More