Extended shots; god do I love these. Whether they are used to establish a false sense of security like the tracking car shot in “Children of Men”, the painfully amateurish and delightfully naïve folly of the panic scene from “The Evil Dead”, or the pure distilled mastery of the hospital shoot-out from “Hardboiled” these kind of moments are the ones that make your jaw drop and send yet another pair of pants to the dry cleaners.
For those who have no idea what I’m talking about I’m referring to those moments in film when the camera doesn’t edit or cut away during a scene; rather than frequently shifting focus to allow from smoother transition or exposition the director decides to just do it all in one take and move the camera accordingly. To the uncaring or uninterested this probably means nothing, but to movie lovers this is that rare moment of watching art in motion. To see all the pieces fall neatly together to form one gorgeous image is beyond impressive, it’s the stuff of legends.
Extended shots are even more impressive when they have fighting involved. Take the Korean film “Old Boy” for example. Rather than do a single extended cut of two men trading blows, we are shown an entire legion of thugs swarming together to kill a single man as he defends himself with a hammer. Now, with that description alone, I dare you to tell me that’s not awesome.
Going against the grain, “Old Boy” adopts to abandon fast edits, which are the bread and butter of stitching together most action scenes, in favor of something more visceral. By doing the whole fight in one take we notice all the tiny mistakes that each actor makes. With each nervous step and awkward hesitation, we get the impression that we are watching a real fight play out. Instead of blindly charging in and trying to dispose of Dae-Su, each actor must move around one another and negotiate their movements. Never has there been such realism in a fight and the end result is a major pay off. Despite the caution at play, the realism captured here generates an eerie sense that these people are really trying to kill one another. This single take removes all the synthetic emotion created unintentionally from artificial choreography and instead delivers unsympathetic tenacity. Each actor throws their entire being behind their attacks and it results in a brutally realistic portrayal of a man determined to escape from an inescapable feud.
My favorite portion of this shot arrives at the halfway mark. By allowing for this extended cut, the film makers were also able to drop in a rest period. Few people appreciate what downtime affords for pacing. By doing it the traditional way and incorporating a series of shots edited together, any moment where the action pauses may seem jarring and out of place. In an extended cut it becomes necessary and allows for the audience to let their minds settle down, pacifying them right before things heat up and go over the edge.
More films should try these shots, but honestly I can’t blame directors and cinematographers for not trying. This is tough work and requires a very skilled visionary to pull off. When it works it works, and here it works wonders.
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