Analysis Of Cobra

The opening sequence on youtube

The Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4rmihj_4YY

The opening sequence of the film Cobra starts of with a black background with red writting on, with the company 'WARNER BROS PRESENTS', the production 'CANNON GROUP, INC GOLAN- GLOBUS PRODUCTION', the directors name 'A GEORGE P COSMATOS FILM' and the main actors name 'Sylvestor Stallone.' The black background is conventional as it is to show the mystery and the hidden twist in the sarkness. The red writting could suggest the blood, the lives lost and the danger of the film- which again is conventional. These four shots take up 30seconds of the film. The camera seems to be moving as to show the unstead film thats about to begin.



After the titles, there is an image of tatoo of a cobra snake zooming out as the snake is shown only the head and fangs. As it zooms out, the main character voice is heard in the background saying statistics abouts the world like : "In America there is a burglary every 11 seconds, an armed robbery every 65seconds, A violent crime every 25seconds, a murder every 24minutes and 250 rapes a day" by the time the speech has ended the snake has gone. The snake is zoomed out to show an arm and then a hand over the snake. The camera follows the arm to reveal a gun, where then the gun is moving towards the screen and is pointing directly at the audince. The gun looks quite threatening and seems to be showing the audince that they are in danger as the gun is going to be pulled by the main character who though still is annomous. By this time this scene is finished it has taken up 57seconds. Then the gun is fired though the sound has been muffled. The gun fires and the audience sees the bullet come out of the gun and the blast from the gun as the specs of power flies out quickly. The bullet comes towards the screen by the time of 1m and after the bullets hits the screen the title of the film comes up in capital letters. The title Cobra is in black writting and is on a red background. Therefore the colours of the background and writting has changed to show the sudden change in the mood of the film.



Then out of the red background, the title fades away as a man on a motobike comes into the picture. The sounds turns to a drum beat with an echo was the scene of the biker is cute to and fro to a dark room with black shaddows on the door and on the floor. The shots of the biker coming forward contrasted with the drak room with someone walking through it (with the water on the floor) shows that something is about to happen. With the eerie sound also adds to the effect of the film. The music gets louder as it becomes clearer that the person in the dark room is holding two long axes in both hands. As the person walks closer it becomes apparent that it is a man, and behind the man there is a red X with a skull in the middle of it. Then there is a close up shot of a mans face though it is shadowed out and you can only see the outline of the figure of the man. The shots switching, shows the man on the motobike coming increasingly close as you can make out his figure. There are still titles coming up over the images in red of the actors and actresses. Next the sound becomes more ambient as the sound of the motobike is heard.

The next sequences of shots are quite disturbing as they involve a group of men clashing together two axes as some sort of group.



The audience is lead to beleive anything at the end of the opening to the film. As the audience is left to wonder Who they are? What Are they doing? Who was the voice? Etc.

Background information

Cobra

Cobra is the oldest film in the collection I have chosen. The film was directed in 1986 by the director George P Cosmatos. The film was released in the UK on the 1^st of August 1986. The well known tagline is ‘Crime is the disease. Meet the Cure.’ The film is about Lt. Marion Cobretti, nicknamed Cobra, is a sunglass wearing, tooth pick chewing cop who is all about getting the criminal and breaking the rules. Cobra is set a real challenge when a killer cult is spreading rapidly in the city. The cult kills innocent people, seeming to pick random victims and slaying them with jagged knifes and getting off on the hunted’s fear. But they make a huge mistake when they kill a woman at an bus stop and a young model sees them. She doesn't exactly know that they've killed someone, but is extremely scared when one of the killers, a muscle bound and rather deformed looking man, gives her a spine chilling look. Soon the killers are after her. Cobra is soon on the seen, with his partner the junk food loving, Sergeant Gonzales. They ask the young model, whose name turns out to be Ingrid, if she saw the killers. She says she only saw some people at the bus stop acting very odd and a man who scared her badly. Cobra soon connects a supermarket killing, that involved a psycho who claimed that he was part of "the new order" who would wipe out the weak and make the strong survive, to the mass murders ripping at the soft under belly of the capital. They end up in a chemical factory and finally Night Slasher and Cobra come face to face. In a very psychotic speech Night Slasher says that Cobra's law is weak and that their cult will always survive. This sends Cobra off the deep end and Slasher onto a huge metal hook that rips through his back and sends him off into a molten vat of metal. Nancy however is still alive and tries to kill Cobra, but she is also killed. After all the bloodshed, Cobra and Ingrid emerged slightly bruised and dirty, from the factory. The Captain congratulates Cobra, but Monte is too proud to actually admit that Cobra one the fight. He picks up his bit about too much excessive force, but earns himself a good punch from Cobra, sending him to the ground stone cold. Ingrid and Cobra ride off on a motorbike into the sunset to Kiss singing "Can you get enough me baby, I can't get enough of you." In true Stallone/ Cobra style, the day is saved and the conveniently pretty chic is too.The film was nominated for six awards. The film Cobra stars Sylvester Stallone as Cobra, Brigitte Nielsen as Ingrid, Reni Santoni and Sergeant Gonzales, Andrew Robinson as Dective Monte and Brian Thompson as the Night Slasher. This film is based on a book written by Paula Gosling.

The film Cobra also portrays a conventional red background to suggest blood, danger or both. The main character is in the background who is taking up most of the space on the DVD cover. The cover has the main character in the background wearing black to stand out; the character is holding a gun and is wearing sun glasses to suggest danger and action. The writing again is conventional as there is red and white writing to suggest blood and innocents.