Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 5.16. (above) His long-lostlove Iris comes to a game. Roy seemsto sense her presence, but as heturns to look for her, he is blindedby the glare of the photographer’sflashes.Figure 5.17. (right, top) As Roy’s successon the field promises to rescuethe team and spoil the Judge’s plans,he watches from his shadowy lair.Figure 5.18. (right) As Roy is falteringon the field, near defeat, Irisstands up, and a single beam of lightilluminates her so that she is visiblein the crowd. It gives Roy the powerto hit a home run and win the game.The angelic glow makes her hat ahalo to supplement the white dressand the standing pose. To reinforcethe lighting effect, she is surroundedby men, all in dark clothes and hats.Figure 5.19. (below) As a reportercomes close to uncovering Roy’sdark secret, he sneaks onto thefield to photograph him at battingpractice. To stop him, Roy hits a ballwith perfect aim that breaks thereporter’s camera; the flashbulb firesas it falls to the ground: the glare ofdisclosure, of secrets being broughtto light, is prevented by Roy’s sheertalent with the bat.Figure 5.20. (right) As Roy lays ill inthe hospital before the playoffs, theJudge comes to offer him a bribe.Rather than rendering the Judgein shadow as might be the obviouschoice, Deschanel arranges for thewarm glow of the otherwise benevolenthospital lamps to glare on theJudge’s glasses — thus the lightitself manages to obscure his eyesand partly disguise his evil. This isappropriate as he appears here notas the intimidating force of evil butas a silky-voiced cajoler.Against doctor’s orders, he tries to practice in secret, but the reporterattempts to take a picture of him. Roy hits a ball that smashes hiscamera, which falls to the ground, and the flashbulb fires as it breaks:he is striking back at the glare of publicity that has nearly destroyedhim (Figure 5.19).The final climactic game is at night, and the stadium tower lightsburn brightly. The Judge and the bookie watch the game from hisskybox, which we see from below as just a pale yellow glow on thepartially closed blinds: an image of evil and corruption hoveringover the game (Figure 5.17). Roy is struggling as his injury plagueshim, and it all comes down to one final pitch that will win or losethe pennant. Having it all rest on the final pitch is, of course, a givenin any baseball movie, but the cinematography and the metaphor oflighting and lightning together with the mystical glow of the dyingsparks, strongly reminiscent of triumphal fireworks, gives this scenea magical quality that makes it one of the most memorable finalscenes in American cinema and visually one of the most moving.cinematography74