Title: ENTER THE DRAGON
Writer: Michael Allin
Director: Robert Clouse
Year: 1973
Actors: Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly
I have chosen “Enter the Dragon.” Bruce Lee is like my martial art hero and favorite actor. I am a proud Filipino American because Bruce Lee had introduced to the mainstream the Filipino martial arts called Escrima. Escrima is the art of stick fighting. In this case, the lighting in the movie “Enter the Dragon” is very important in every scene of this movie. It just made this filmed looked so realistic.
According to Goodykoontz and Jacobs (2014), states that:
A low-key lighting design looks dark overall by comparison. It is marked by extreme use of deep shadows, with very high contrast between the brightest parts of the scene and the darkest parts, which are obscured in shadows. Often there may be only a single source of light, coming from the back or the side of the main characters (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014).
The type of lighting that was used in this part of the movie Enter the Dragon was a low-key lighting. The low-key lighting made you feel that Bruce Lee and his rivals was at an underground place where there is barely any sunlight. The light bulbs on the ceiling provided a little light to even show the shadows of the characters. The benefits of style that of lighting used was it showed the audience an intense feeling of Bruce Lee fighting all these men by himself at the underground place knowing if Bruce Lee will make it out alive or not. The low key lighting made it feel so intense that we do not know what is Bruce Lee’s next move is going to be.
The advantage of the dim lighting they used highlighted the silhouette and shadow effect on the fighting scenes gave it more of a realistic/visual feel. The lighting technique suited to the genre of the film is that it gave it more of a dark suspenseful and an eerie feel to it. If it wasn’t filmed in a low key lighting effect and if every scene was bright, the entire fighting scene would not feel real; it would be easy to see what will happen next. According to Goodykoontz and Jacobs (2014), if it was filmed a high-key lighting, it would also make the fighting scene look like its “comedy and very happy” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014).
References
Daan, E. (2012). Bruce Lee and Filipino Martial Arts. Retrieved from http://www.bakitwhy.com/articles/bruce-lee-and-filipino-martial-arts
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
YouTube. 2011. Master Fighter – Enter the Dragon (2/3) Movie CLIP (1973) HD. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxrmK9esHpc
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