Action Scene Cinematography
Boat Scenes
The Full Story
Naval battles are hard to get right and there is an obvious progression of style and clarity throughout time. This type of scene posed lots of difficulty for early directors because of the sheer amount of stuff happening. With the technology available at the dawn of the tropes arrival it was hard to give real scale to what was happening. It was also near impossible focus on any given character in the chaos. When directors realized that they needed to focus on specific things to show what was happening, better cinematography followed.
Cabiria (1914)
Cabiria (1914) has one of the earliest naval battle scenes out of any of the movies we watched. The battle involves Archimedes’ massive mirror array which is used to set his Roman enemies’ boats on fire. Throughout the scene we have three angles, a close-up of Archimedes, a wide shot showing the mirrors and part of a Roman boat, and a wide angle of the destruction bestowed upon the Roman fleet. For a regular viewer, not all of that might be clear at first. It is impossible to distinguish if there are any Carthaginians fighting on the Roman boat as there is just a group of people muddling about in the middle of the frame. The wide shot of the burning fleet also does not do justice to the scale of the destruction caused. The boats move like they are being pushed around in a bathtub which is not anyone’s fault at the time, there was no technology to recreate it in a believable way. Overall this scene is not very good and does not show what events are transpiring in a clear way.
Ben-hur (1959)
Ben-Hur (1959) has taken what Cabiria (1914) started and has grown it into something completely new and amazing. This battle is between the Roman fleet and a fleet of pirates who seem to be evenly matched. The scene opens with a wide shot of both sides charging towards each-other at battle speed. We then are clearly shown the Roman soldiers firing ballista’s loaded with flaming arrows and slaves rowing at a horrifying speed. Then we go back out to see the ships launching flaming balls towards their opponents as they close in on their imminent collision. All the while the camera is bobbing up and down giving the audience the feeling that they are out on the ocean watching the battle. The camera shakes when two boats collide, and the slaves fall backwards further immersing us into the battle. Through tiny additions like camera movement and clear shots in which all character's present are identifiable, Ben-Hur (1959) makes a believable and epic naval battle scene.