Title sequence:Marathon man

My media class studied a number of opening title sequences of thrillers. I will be talking about the opening sequence of the film Marathon Man. Marathon Man is a film that was released in 1976 which stars Dustin Hoffman as the protaganist, Thomas "Babe" Levy.

It starts off with white text of the tittles on a black background while an emerging sound of an audience cheerirng is played which then cuts to a black and white clip of a proffesional runner who seems to be running in the olympics or an important sport event. When this clip has finished,the sound of cheering stops and changes to a diegetic sound of a man breathing heavily which then cuts to a shadow of Thomas running while dramatic non-diegetic music is played aswell as more tittles appear on the screen.

The combination of the sound of the man breathing while music with a dramatic atmosphere is played is a great effect as it creates tension. The camera pans to his feet which then cross-cuts to a man in a suit opening a locker. This then cross-cuts back to a medium shot of Thomas with the city of Manhattan in the background to show the location of the character to the audience. The non-diegetic music changes to a more sinister sound.It changes to more dramtic sound when we cross-cut again to a medium shot of the man taking out an item what seems to be tablets which then changes to a close up of the man putting this item in his pocket to show it's importance.

This then cuts to tracking of Thomas' feet running which then later changes to a medium shot of his face in exhaustion. We cut again to the man in a suit but the audience is able to get more information of this man as he hands over the locker to what seems to be a security guard, there is also a close up of the security guard giving the man the keys that opened the locker to show that he is of high importance.

Overall, the opening sequence of Marathon Man is really good in showing that it's a thriller with tension and suspense from the start througout the use of camera,sound,mise-en-scene and editing.