Royale FilmWorks

                                       

Directed By: John Fortenberry, Amy Heckerling
Written by: Steve Koren, Will Ferell, Chris Kattan
Cast:  Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Racquel Gardner 


For more information:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120770/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_at_the_Roxbury

Opening Analysis

Few movies depart from a essentials of a traditional opening sequence, A Night at Roxbury being just one of them. Ditching the much more well known soft type of music during the opening credits, the movie immediately begins with an upbeat party song. This has a lasting impact in our minds: that this is an easy going popcorn eating movie. Nothing too serious, nothing too intellectual, just easy entertainment.


The screen then cuts to an eagle view of a city, what seems to be a party city at that. With flashing lights and neon's reminiscent of the city that never sleeps. In fact, the city high view makes us instantly think of New York or Las Vegas, coupled with the upbeat, trendy music that is hammering into our ears, and we a perfect setting already. All that's left is too introduce the characters. And introduced they are, with as much style and flair as one could imagine of.


Zeroing in on the front bonnet of a car, the number plate fills up the screen: California plates, and a personalized number "Sweet". The camera cuts to a wider shot and two men get out of the car, wearing flashy clothes, giving the impact of high fliers, they dance their way towards what seems to be a club. We are once again jarred by the camera cutting to a shot of people dancing, with neons and strobe lights abound. Hardly being given any time to get used to a shot before our eyes get bombarded with another; much like the make up of a music video, the director uses a clever technique to grab our attention.


The camera zooms in as the crowd parts, showing us the two excessively dressed young men, mimicking each others dance steps, by now we, the audience, are completely convinced that these two are the main characters of the movie, and also seem to be rather close friends. A subtler under-text is also found here, for those who care to read between the lines: these men aren't polished enough to be used to money, it seems as though it might have been a recent windfall that they've encountered.


As we can see, even without the use of any dialogue, the opening sequence has unfolded in a such a way that we already know quite a bit about our two heroes in the movie: recently wealthy, childish personalities, and cringe worthy lameness that defined the 80s.


The next few scenes consist of the pair dancing horribly, trying to make moves on the plenty abound females in the club, and being rebuked by all of them. It is interesting to note what seems to be their sub conscious determination: they don't even bat an eyelid after being turned down and go on as if everything was perfectly fine. Their shenanigans continue until the club itself is disturbed and they are kicked out by a bouncer.


There is so much detail in this opening sequence it is truly a task to analyse it all, with minimal dialogue and in a very short time span the director as already instilled in our minds the personalities of the main characters, the time setting, the genre of the movie (which is undeniably humor at this point). We can also instantly see that it's a buddy movie, the two almost brothers, who look nothing alike but get along famously.


While not as thought provoking or memorable as some other epics such as Legends of the Fall for example, the opening sequence in A Night at Roxbury is a rather cleverly thought out plan. Witty, charming and humorous, it appeals to the sub conscious part of our minds, and even divulges some pinpoint facts about the characters for those who are willing to pay al little attention and read between the lines, so to speak.