Hutchinson - Fugitive

The opening of The Fugitive sets the audience up for what’s to come in the movie. It is the moment that sets into motion a series of events that forces Harrison Ford’s character, Dr. Richard Kimble, to push the limits of the law, and his own personal boundaries, to find justice. The decision to make the opening scene of the movie in black and white does three main things. The first is that it clearly pays homage to the TV series on which it is based and has the same name. The TV show aired in the 1960’s and the first couple of seasons were in black and white, before the innovative color television. Secondly, the slow-motion black and white adds dramatic effect. In a movie shown entirely in color after that scene, it sets it apart, marking its importance to the film. Lastly, it gives the audience a glimpse, albeit a small one, as to who the killer really is. The killer is wearing a dark wind shirt type thing, not the tan jacket we see Kimble in. It gives the audience a chance to determine if they believe Dr. Richard Kimble is innocent or not.

This is the scene in which Harrison Ford really starts investigating and putting pieces of the one-armed man's involvement. The lighting is high-key over the entire image, signaling enlightenment, kind of like a light bulb going off. All Dr. Richard Kimble could remember was struggling with a one-armed man - a man who's other arm was prosthetic. In the opening scene, if you pay close attention, you can see that the perpetrator only fights with one arm. The flashbacks always sow the same thing: Kimble fighting with the murderer, struggling, and one arm being limp and lifeless, plastic. It's hard to determine the dominant of the picture, clearly the eye is drawn to Kimble, but is it because of what he is holding? It is brighter, and he is staring intently at is. It has significance to him and the film. As Kimble flashes back, the pieces of the puzzle get put together for the audience. His innocence, the truth, rests in the finding of this prosthetic arm, and the man it belongs to.