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8 Sound A Critical Introuduction

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8 Sound A Critical Introuduction

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Chapter Eight Learning Objectives

8.1 Sound has always been a significant aspect

Sound of the cinematic experience. Articulate the

aesthetic and industry implications of the
advent of “talking pictures” in the 1920s.

8.2 Summarize how technology and the

Audiovisual analysis must rely on words, film production process allow filmmakers to
and so we must take words seriously … free sound from the image onscreen.

Why say “a sound” when we can say 8.3 Identify five ways that sound creates
“crackling” or “rumbling” or “tremolo.” contrast with images.

Using more exact words allows us to 8.4 Analyze the four sonic components
of dialogue, which extend the meaning of
confront and compare perceptions words beyond their literal meaning.
and to make progress in pinpointing
8.5 Explain how sound effects contribute to
and defining them. every film, not just effects-driven action movies.
Michel Chion
8.6 Summarize five common functions of
film music, and identify five ways music can
communicate concrete meaning to the listener.

In Terry Jones’s comedic period film Monty Python’s Life of expressive element of film capable of operating indepen-
Brian (1979), Roman soldiers pursue Brian, a woebegone dently from images. Often filmmakers encourage intellec-
sad sack trying to shrug off claims that he’s a messiah. In tual and emotional responses by including sounds that do
an instant of poor judgment, Brian flees up a set of stairs, not logically or literally correspond to the image. In this
which dead-ends at the top of a decrepit tower. Terrified, particular scene, Jones encourages laughter by exploiting
he falls from the top of the tower. As he plunges toward his the discrepancy between what the audience sees and what
seemingly inevitable death, he falls into the seat of the audience hears.
a spaceship, which is being pursued … by another space- But not all sounds differ so dramatically from the image
ship. The chase advances to outer space, and the squeal of being shown; nor do they all stimulate laughter. What
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

tires on pavement rings out as the two ships round sharp emotional response does George Lucas encourage with the
“corners” in the celestial chase scene (fig. 8.1). sound associated with the light sabers in Star Wars (1977)?
This wildly anachronistic, hilarious episode points to how What sound in this context might have produced laughter?
integral sound is to the construction of cinematic imagery. Though many film critics and scholars focus most of
The scene parodies the way the sounds of grinding gears their attention on the narrative and visual elements of
and tires hitting the blacktop are as important in an action films, this chapter explains how sound is an evocative ele-
sequence as the image of automobiles careening around ment in its own right. As the above example suggests,
corners. In this scene rubber does not literally touch asphalt, sound plays a critical role in determining how audiences
but Jones obliges—and ridicules—his audience’s expectation react to images, and so this chapter stresses the impor-
that any good chase sequence will include the sound of tance of learning how to think, talk, and write about
roaring engines and squealing tires. sound, using concrete, analytical language.
The film also illustrates how sound in a film does not The chapter begins with a brief history of the use of
always correspond to what’s happening on screen. It is an sound in films, followed by a discussion of the technical

240 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

aspects of the soundtrack, which is generally created played whatever music they wanted to play, and
completely independently from the visual image. Then “professionalism left much to be desired since, in many
there is an examination of the different relationships that theaters, the orchestra would play through a certain
a filmmaker can create between sound and image. The number of compositions and then simply get up and leave
last section looks at the three components of film sound in the film and the audience” (Prendergast, p. 5).
terms of the way filmmakers manipulate the relationship Nevertheless, music, live narration, and sound effects
between sound and image. devices were all integral parts of the theater experience.
A film soundtrack is composed of three elements: dia- Cinema took a step toward industry-wide synchroniza-
logue, music, and sound effects. These components are tion of sound and image in 1912, when Max Winkler
recorded separately from the images and from one anoth- devised a system of musical cue sheets that was subse-
er. Mixing is the process of combining the three elements quently adopted by the Universal Film Company. These
of film sound into one soundtrack, which is added to the cue sheets provided specific instructions on what musical
image track in post-production. Although the early years pieces should be played during a screening and when. In
of cinema (1896–1927) are referred to as the silent era, the contrast to this method of accompaniment, which was
next section explains that films have always depended based on already existing compositions, big budget films
upon the relationship between image and sound, which such as D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) had
involves aesthetic principles, technological innovations, original scores. Exhibitors could hire entire orchestras for
and commercial considerations. these films and transform screenings into elaborate galas.
But this was not a uniform practice, since smaller theat-
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

ers could not afford the large orchestras needed to per-

Film Sound: A Brief History form such compositions. In the quest to help musicians
coordinate their playing with the image, studios even
Contrary to popular assumption, movies were never briefly experimented with projecting the musical notes
“silent.” In practice, a variety of sounds accompanied the of the score with the film (similar to a subtitle), but audi-
exhibition of early films. A piano accompanied the first ences found this distracting (Prendergast, p. 13). Thus,
public film screenings on December 28, 1885, when the from the earliest days of cinema, movies incorporated
Lumière brothers projected their work at the Grand Café the three elements of film sound: dialogue, sound effects,
in Paris. In 1908 Camille Saint-Saëns composed the first and music.
film score (music specifically composed or arranged to Silent cinema, thus, was never silent. The distinction
accompany a film), but in general the musical between early “silent” cinema and later sound cinema
accompaniment in the early days of the cinema was more actually rests on the difference between live sound and
off the cuff. Most films weren’t scored, so musicians recorded soundtracks that were affixed to the image track.

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Pramaggiora, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film : A Critical Introuduction 4th Edition, Laurence King Publishing, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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The idea of combining pre-recorded sound that could was anything but a deficit. In its infancy, silent film made
be synchronized with images motivated many early rapid advances in visual style, creating visual magic with
experiments with sound, but the process of developing double exposures, tricky camera movement, and visual dis-
a workable system for doing so spanned several decades. tortion. By the time “talking pictures” arrived in 1927, the
An early system capable of synchronizing sound and cinema had become a highly sophisticated visual medium.
image was Vitaphone’s sound-on-disc system, where Given the power of cinema’s visual elements, the shift
sound was recorded and played on separate discs. But it from live to recorded sound was not an unqualified step
wasn’t until 1927 that a group of exhibitors (Loew’s, forward for the art. The need to record dialogue on the set
Universal, First National, Paramount, and Producers affected the mobility of the camera, which, in turn, nega-
Distributing Corporation) signed the “Big Five Agreement,” tively impacted film style. Motion picture cameras had to
which stated that the signatories would jointly agree to be encased in soundproof booths so that microphones
adopt the single film sound system that they decided was would not pick up the sound of their motors (fig. 8.2). But,
the best one for the industry. Realizing that the in the booth, the camera could pan only about 30 degrees
introduction of several incompatible film sound systems to the right or left (Salt, p. 38). Marsha Kinder and Beverle
would limit distribution and, ultimately, studio profits, they Houston write, “the three elements that had been so cru-
wanted to ensure technological standardization (Gomery, cial to the artistic development of the silent cinema—visu-
p. 13). As a result, by 1929, nearly 75 percent of Hollywood al composition, camera movement, and editing—were
films included pre-recorded sound (Cook, p. 249). severely restricted” (p. 52). The fact that early sound films
By 1930 sound-on-film systems replaced sound on disc. were called “talking pictures” is revealing. No longer were
Sound-on-film systems were based on the conversion of they “moving pictures”; they were static images that
sound to electronic signals that were recorded as light “talked.” The new sound technology sacrificed visual
impulses on film stock. These optical soundtracks appear as inventiveness and placed a high value on the novelty of
wavy lines along the edge of the film print. The sound hearing characters talk.
information is read by a photoelectric cell on the projector F.W. Murnau’s first Hollywood film, Sunrise (1927),
as light from an exciter lamp passes through the soundtrack. serves as a model of how cinema might have exploited
sound technology differently, had dialogue not become
Critical Debates over Film Sound the raison d’être. Produced on the cusp of the sound era,
One widely held misperception about early cinema was Sunrise was filmed silent, allowing the camera to perform
that the lack of pre-recorded sound crippled its expressive wildly elaborate movements, including a famous tracking
potential. For filmmakers at the time, the so-called silence shot that follows the main character (George O’Brien)
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.2 Alfred Hitchcock directing Anny

Ondra on the set of an early “talking
picture,” Blackmail (1929). Notice the
camera in the soundproof booth.

242 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

through a swamp as he trudges to meet his mistress. director René Clair argued that, with the development of
At one point the camera and the man’s paths diverge, only talkies, “the screen has lost more than it has gained. It has
to reunite when he meets his lover (fig. 8.3). Inventive conquered the world of voices, but it has lost the world of
choreography such as this, wherein the camera and the dreams” (Clair). Soviet filmmakers Sergei Eisenstein, V.I.
actor take separate paths, was not possible in the earliest Pudovkin, and Gregori Alexandrov feared that the use of
talking pictures. sound technology would “proceed along the line of least
But Sunrise did reap the technological benefits of a pre- resistance, i.e. along the line of satisfying simple curiosity”
recorded musical soundtrack that allowed for the syn- (Eisenstein). In their manifesto, these directors warned
chronization of sound and image. Thus, Hugo Riesenfeld that, were filmmakers to rely on sound for conveying
was able to compose his original score for the image. The meaning, the cinema would be robbed of its visual energy
result is a dreamy fusion of sonic and visual expression- and movies would be reduced to a medium for recording
ism. While there is no recorded dialogue, musical instru- “‘highly cultured dramas’ and other photographed perfor-
ments occasionally stand in for the characters’ voices, as mances of a theatrical sort” (Eisenstein). Eventually, Clair,
when a French horn mimics the sound of a husband’s wail Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Alexandrov all embraced sound
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

as he yells out for his wife. Occasionally sound effects technology. Clair and Eisenstein in particular directed
intrude upon the score, as when the blaring sound of films (for example, Under the Roofs of Paris [1930] and
automobile horns disrupts the couple’s romantic swoon. Alexander Nevsky [1938], respectively) that became influ-
In every way, the film is a visual tour de force that uses ential precisely because of their creative use of synchro-
sound as a complementary element, not as a defining one. nized sound. What these directors feared was the prospect
Today it is routinely heralded as one of the master-works of a cinema where sound—specifically talking—impeded
of cinema. But when it was released in 1927, it was over- the visual elements. In retrospect, the success of The Jazz
shadowed by The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927)—the Singer at the apparent expense of Sunrise confirms that, at
first feature-length film to include synchronized dialogue least for a time, these fears were warranted.
and musical numbers, whose success guaranteed the The conversion to sound had more than an aesthetic
industry’s shift to “talking pictures.” impact on the film industry. The high costs of conversion
At the time, not everyone in the industry wholehearted- to sound film hit independent producers particularly hard
ly embraced the new technologies of sound. French because it became more difficult to compete with better-

SOUND 243

Pramaggiora, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film : A Critical Introuduction 4th Edition, Laurence King Publishing, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/suub-shib/detail.action?docID=6006563.
Created from suub-shib on 2023-03-27 08:37:38.
financed, vertically integrated studios. Whereas African- Repeatedly, advances in film sound technology have
American producers George and Noble Johnson of the promised greater fidelity and a heightened sense of audio
Lincoln Motion Picture Company had lost their struggle to realism. In the 1950s (with the advent of magnetic tape
maintain their independence from Hollywood by the mid- recording), films began featuring multi-channel
1920s, Oscar Micheaux managed to continue making films soundtracks, which allowed filmmakers to add layers of
into the 1930s and 1940s. Due in part to the cost of sound sounds. Dolby and wireless eight-track recording contrib-
technology, Micheaux declared bankruptcy in 1928, but uted to the complex sound mixes of the Hollywood
re-emerged with new investors in 1931 to make his first Renaissance filmmakers of the early 1970s. Multi-track
sound film. Jesse Algernon Rhines describes the sound recording and Dolby noise reduction produced sound with
films of Micheaux as “a miracle of entrepreneurial better definition and individuation, permitting a greater
determination” although “they were not successful degree of detail. When Star Wars—one of the first major
competitors with white productions even for an African- releases in Dolby—was in theaters, Dolby-equipped
American audience” (Rhines, p. 31). Thus, while the theaters earned more box office revenue than non-Dolby
advent of “talking pictures” fascinated audiences and theaters (Shreger, p. 353). As a result, the industry
promised to be a lucrative investment for Hollywood, some responded: at the beginning of 1978 there were 700
filmmakers questioned both the aesthetic and the Dolby-equipped theaters, but during that year the number
economic consequences of the transition to sound. grew at a rate of 500 per month (Shreger, p. 354). More
In the late 1930s, the practice of re-recording, or post- recently filmmakers have shifted to digital sound repro-
synchronization, freed sound films from the idea that duction in the form of THX, Dolby Digital, and DTS sys-
“everything seen on the screen must be heard on the tems. This latest sound revolution has extended to include
soundtrack” (Cook, p. 271). The practice of re-recording products for the home theater, complete with sophisticat-
allowed filmmakers to manipulate sound and to experi- ed surround-sound systems.
ment with the relation of sound to image. Now almost all Audiences’ attraction to the recent proliferation of digi-
commercial films, even those whose aim is a realistic tal sound systems, which promise increased fidelity and
depiction of conversation, use dialogue recorded in post- more realistic sound, suggests a lingering, common misper-
production. The freedom engendered by post-synchroni- ception: that film sound should replicate the sounds one
zation has allowed filmmakers to transform film sound would experience in “real life.” But film sound is an
into a vital component of cinematic expression, complete- expressive element, as carefully composed as the image.
ly independent of, and at times more weighty than, Film sounds do not reproduce reality—they provide an aes-
a film’s visual information. thetic experience in conjunction with the images on screen.
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.4 A Foley artist at work.

244 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Sound recording and dubbing in

production and post-production
The sound designer is responsible for planning and effects. The ADR supervisor re-records flawed or
creating a film’s soundscape and oversees the process inadequate lines of dialogue. Meanwhile, the film’s
of creating the soundtrack by combining recordings music supervisor determines how much prerecorded
made on set or location, music tracks, and sound effects and original music the film will be able to include.
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

that are created separately. The composer or arranger scores the film, often
During production, sound recordists use a variety of watching dailies for inspiration. When the score is
microphones to capture sound. A boom operator complete, the composer works with the music editor
extends the microphone at the end of a long pole, or to record the score. Together they determine when
boom, to record dialogue on the set. The cable person the music should enter the soundtrack, and when it
manages the equipment. The location sound engineer, should leave. The re-recording mixer combines and
or mixer, controls the recording and mixing during the mixes all three elements of the film’s soundtrack. The
shoot. The sound designer will combine the tracks supervising sound editor supervises the entire pro-
recorded with music and effects. cess of editing the soundtrack, making sure that the
During post-production, Foley artists and effects dialogue, sound effects, and music are synchronized
editors experiment with making and recording sound with the images.

SOUND 245

Pramaggiora, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film : A Critical Introuduction 4th Edition, Laurence King Publishing, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/suub-shib/detail.action?docID=6006563.
Created from suub-shib on 2023-03-27 08:37:38.
appears to be speaking onscreen. While David Prowse The Relationship Between
plays Darth Vader onscreen in Star Wars, audiences hear Sound and Image
the voice of James Earl Jones whenever Vader speaks.
Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018) takes the com- Filmmakers often take advantage of the fact that sound and
mon technique of dialogue replacement to the extreme for image are recorded separately. Whenever filmmakers con-
satirical purposes. In the film, down and out Cassius Green struct a soundtrack, they must consider what audiences will
(Lakeith Stanfield) struggles to make ends meet as a tele- hear at any given time and whether dialogue,
marketer. This last-ditch effort at a career seems doomed music, or sound effects should be given the most emphasis.
to failure until a co-worker (Danny Glover) advises Green Because dialogue conveys so much information, speech
to “talk white” when he’s on the phone with customers. gets the greatest emphasis in most mainstream films.
Green heeds the advice and becomes hugely successful. Rarely do sound effects or music overwhelm the dialogue.
But Stanfield’s performance doesn’t depend on the Even in action films such as Captain America: Civil War
actor adjusting how he enunciates vowels and consonants, (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2016; fig. 8.5), which are loaded
as John David Washington does in BlacKkKlansman, play- with explosive pyrotechnics and mechanical mayhem, dia-
ing a real-life black undercover police officer who infil- logue between characters is still clearly audible, even if
trated the KKK via telephone interviews. Instead, Riley they are in the midst of situations where other sounds
replaces Stanfield’s voice with the voice of David Cross, would, in reality, overwhelm the human voice altogether.
a white actor. Of course, some filmmakers have experimented with
The results are intentionally surreal, as most audience intentionally obscuring pivotal lines of dialogue. In
members are probably keenly aware of the contrast Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), injured L.B. Jefferies
between what they are seeing and what they are hearing. spies on his neighbors while he spends his days stuck in
As Peter Bradshaw explains, the effect is “theatrical and his apartment. His neighbors often appear onscreen talk-
almost Brechtian” (see Chapter 5). The device satirizes ing. Audiences can hear their voices, but cannot under-
the way that white speaking voices, while considered nor- stand their words, which compete with other sounds in
mative or accent-free, have their own peculiar character- the neighborhood: cars, music, and barking dogs.
istics—they are nasal, slow, and high pitched, for exam- Hitchcock’s use of sound demands that the audience
ple. This same theme of the white voice informs several share Jefferies’s perspective. The audience can only spec-
documentaries on Indian call centers, such as Nalini by ulate about what the other characters are saying, based on
Day, Nancy by Night (Sonali Gunati, 2006) and John and their tone of voice and their body movements.
Jane Toll Free (Ashim Ahluwalia, 2006), where Indian These two examples illustrate how carefully filmmak-
subjects learn to suppress their accents to be more effec- ers choose which sounds to include on the soundtrack, in
tive telemarketers in North America and Europe. In Sorry order to determine the emotional dynamics of a scene,
to Bother You, Brechtian distanciation encourages audi- and knowing that emphasizing particular sounds helps to
ences to rethink their belief in the neutrality or natural- shape the audience’s perspective.
ness of white voices. In this film, white voices, which are In addition to selecting what sounds an audience will
employed to defuse the threat to whiteness posed by black hear, filmmakers also consider how these sounds will cor-
identities, sound comically bizarre. respond to the imagery. Usually the soundtrack will offer
Finally, the third component of the soundtrack— an acoustic equivalent to the visual effect on the screen.
music—is often quite obviously freed from the image. In For example, when the massive ship hits the iceberg in
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

fact, much film music is non-diegetic, or played outside the Titanic, the soundtrack conveys the sound of ice wrench-
world the characters inhabit. Even when songs are part of ing and tearing the ship’s steel hull. But, as this section
the diegesis, as in musicals, where characters break out will demonstrate, the relationship between sound and
into song and dance routines, audiences hear separately image can be fluid.
recorded orchestrations that transcend the limitations There are five ways that sound may differ from the
imposed by the mechanics of film production. Professional imagery onscreen. Filmmakers can choose to create con-
singers often perform the musical numbers instead of the trasts between:
stars onscreen (whose voices may prove inadequate).
Because filmmakers have the ability to select and • onscreen space and offscreen space
manipulate every sound on the soundtrack—dialogue, • objective images and subjective sounds
sound effects, and music—audiences should be as attentive • diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound
to what they hear as they are to what they see, and consider • image time and sound time
how it contributes to the overall aesthetic impact of the film. • image mood and sound mood

246 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Mother’s voice bleeds into Marion’s room also reaffirms

what the mise en scène has already suggested: that the
eerie house and its inhabitant (Mother) pervade the hotel
below. Crucially, audiences don’t see Mother yelling at
Norman; it’s not the images that suggest her dominance,
but the sound emanating from offscreen space.

Emphasizing the Difference between

Objective Images and Subjective Sounds
Sound gives audiences access to what a character is think-
ing, even while the images continue to show what the char-
acter is doing or experiencing at an objective level. Sound
can depict a character’s subjectivity without the need to

SOUND 247

Pramaggiora, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film : A Critical Introuduction 4th Edition, Laurence King Publishing, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/suub-shib/detail.action?docID=6006563.
Created from suub-shib on 2023-03-27 08:37:38.
film. This use of sound to indicate character subjectivity is Diegetic sounds help define the environments that
a motif running throughout the film, which suggests an characters inhabit. These are the sounds that the charac-
important parallel between Norman and Marion. ters themselves can hear, and, as such, help the audience
Audiences ultimately recognize that both characters act out identify with characters and how they engage with the
their guilt in their minds. As the discussion of Rear Window world around them. The unceasing howl of wind suggests
above makes clear (p. 246), filmmakers can also emphasize how crop failures and the resultant dust storms have
subjective experience by withholding acoustic details. transformed Earth into an inhospitable environment in
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014), while the buzz of
Emphasizing the Difference between crickets that pierces the silence of cotton fields in the
Diegetic and Non-diegetic Sound American South evoke a midday’s oppressive summer
Sound and image can differ in terms of their relationship heat in 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013).
to the story world. Using the terminology set out in Diegetic music quite often reveals important informa-
Chapter 4, anything that the characters involved in the tion about the characters who choose to listen to it, or who
story can experience can be called diegetic sound, while enter spaces, such as bars or restaurants, where that
anything outside the story space can be referred to as music plays. When a character opts to listen to a song on
non-diegetic sound. By far the most common non-diegetic the radio, that music is an outward symbol of her taste or
sound is music, but non-diegetic sound also includes, for emotional state at a given point in time. Immortan Joe
example, sound effects that don’t actually occur within the (Hugh Keays-Byrne) from Mad Max: Fury Road (George
diegesis. In Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, Miller, 2015) is always sure to have an outlandish and
2000), for example, a variety of sound effects simulate the mobile heavy metal band in tow to energize his warriors
experience of using drugs. In one montage sequence, the and strike fear in his enemies (fig. 8.7).
sound of a plane flying overhead accompanies fragmented Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) in Guardians of the Galaxy
images depicting the process of shooting heroin. While (James Gunn, 2014) obsessively listens to pop tunes from
voice-overs are usually diegetic—examples include the 1970s and 80s to remind him of his deceased mother,
Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and David Fincher’s Gone who had given him a vintage mix tape in his childhood;
Girl (2014)—some films include a voice-over narration Quill’s musical preference is a clear indication of the nos-
that is non-diegetic: that is, someone from outside the talgia for lost family that will motivate his decisions
world of the story delivers the voice-over, as in Barry throughout the film. In We Are the Best! (“Vi är bäst”; Lukas
Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) or The Royal Tenenbaums Moodyson, 2013), the teenager Bobo (Mira Barkhammar)
(Wes Anderson, 2001). feels like an outsider because her gamine features don’t
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.7 Diegetic music blasts out of the

speakers visible in the background in
Mad Max: Fury Road.

248 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

conform to conventional standards of femininity. audience to interpret events in specific ways. Because it
Aggressive punk music becomes an outlet that allows Bobo speaks directly to viewers, non-diegetic sound surpasses
to channel her negative energy. Rather than wallow in self- diegetic sound in terms of audience response. For exam-
loathing because she doesn’t fit in, Bobo adopts a punk ple, late in 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel
sensibility that advocates non-conformity (fig. 8.8). Ejiofor)—an enslaved man who was once a professional
Non-diegetic sounds, on the other hand, generally func- musician—is forced to play his violin at an anniversary
tion as a form of direct address, wherein the filmmaker ball. Lines of men in tuxedos and women in elegant hoop
offers explicit commentary on the image. Rather than skirts dance gracefully to the cheerful, mid-tempo waltz
helping to create the environments that characters inhabit, that Northup performs in the diegesis (fig. 8.9). But as the
these sounds enhance the story and may encourage the camera slowly tracks and pans toward Northup bowing his
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.9 The diegetic waltz gives way

to a mournful non-diegetic melody
as the camera moves closer to
Northup in 12 Years a Slave.

SOUND 249

the non-diegetic music reveals to the audience what the ing transitions between scenes. On occasion, the domi-
character himself cannot openly express. nant sound at the end of one scene will carry over into the
next scene, forming the aural equivalent of a dissolve,
Emphasizing the Difference between Image known as a sound bridge. Alternatively, some scenes end
Time and Sound Time with the gradual emergence of the next scene’s dominant
Combining sound and image allows filmmakers to present sound. Such moments suggest the powerful aura of an
two different points in time simultaneously, as when event, as the sound acts as a reminder of its lingering
a voice-over narration describes past events. In Double presence or anticipates an event’s arrival. In Martin
Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944), the voice of Walter Neff Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976), a pimp, Sport (Harvey
(Fred MacMurray), speaking from the present, explains Keitel), seduces Iris, a thirteen-year-old prostitute (Jodie
the visual images and actions of Neff’s past. In The Foster). He puts on soft music and whispers banal expres-
Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987), a grandfather (Peter sions of love, and slowly she succumbs to his overtures
Falk) narrates a story to his young grandson (Fred Savage). (fig. 8.10). Suddenly the audience hears the explosive roar

250 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Pramaggiora, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film : A Critical Introuduction 4th Edition, Laurence King Publishing, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/suub-shib/detail.action?docID=6006563.
Created from suub-shib on 2023-03-27 08:37:38.
of gunfire while Sport and Iris are still embracing destroyed the world, audiences must realize there is no
onscreen. Then the film cuts to the man who will “rescue” possibility of what the song’s lyrics promise: that two lovers
Iris by the end of the film, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), will be able to meet again. The irony is a fitting conclusion
as he shoots in a firing range. The sound of Travis’s gun- to the film’s repeated suggestion that the nuclear arms race
play seeps into the preceding scene, foreshadowing the is an expression of aggressive masculine sexuality.
climactic, bloody shootout between the two rivals for Iris’s Filmmakers can and do exploit all five variants of the
attention. On a thematic level, the fact that audiences hear relationship between sound and image. Sometimes the
a sound commonly associated with male aggression while most creative use of film sound goes beyond simply trying
seeing a distasteful seduction equates Sport’s emotional to mirror the images onscreen or clarifying narrative
manipulation with physical violence. events; the most profound examples of film sound often
With a lightning mix, sound doesn’t overlap from one exploit the soundtrack’s ability to add intellectual or emo-
scene into the next. Instead, filmmakers link scenes tional depth to the visual image. To develop valid inter-
together by joining different sounds that have similar pretations of a film, you must be able first to define the
qualities. In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles, who had worked relationship between sound and image, and then describe
extensively in radio, pioneered the cinematic use of this its effect on the film’s meaning.
technique. In a brief montage sequence depicting Kane’s
illicit affair with Susan Alexander and his short-lived
political career, a lightning mix sonically links Kane’s pri- Components of Film Sound: Dialogue
vate and public lives. At the close of Susan’s private recit-
al for Kane, he claps his hands in appreciation. Several In narrative films, the words a screenwriter puts in her
hands can be heard clapping as the sequence dissolves to character’s mouth, the music that character listens to, and
a small gathering on a city street, where Jed Leland deliv- the sounds in the environment all convey a wealth of
ers a campaign speech for Kane. Leland’s voice grows information. This section of the chapter is designed to
louder and more impassioned until the scene again dis- help readers develop a vocabulary for describing film
solves to a huge political rally while the soundtrack shifts sound accurately and in detail.
seamlessly to Kane’s voice, which seems to take over Dialogue forwards the narrative, gives voice to charac-
where Leland’s left off. Whereas a sound bridge allows ters’ aspirations, thoughts, and emotions, and often makes
a sound to extend beyond a scene, a lightning mix empha- the conflicts among characters evident. A scholar of film
sizes sonic parallels in adjacent scenes. sound doesn’t just quote lines of dialogue. She describes
the sonic aspects of the vocalization and connects the lan-
Emphasizing Differences between Image guage and its delivery to both character development and
Mood and Sound Mood narrative context.
Finally, combining sound and image can produce a jolting
contrast on an emotional level. While typically the Text and Subtext
soundtrack corresponds to the action and accentuates the The primary function of spoken dialogue is to externalize
mood evoked by visual details, sometimes filmmakers will a character’s thoughts and feelings, bringing motivations,
pair an image with a sound that seems wildly inappropri- goals, plans, and conflicts to the surface. Screenwriters
ate, producing a noticeable tension between aural and vis- are careful to avoid dialogue that reiterates information
ual information. Such disjunctures can occur within the already made clear by the image. Clunky exchanges that
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

diegesis, as when Alex (Malcolm McDowell) sings state the obvious are called on-the-nose dialogue.
“Singing In the Rain” while he rapes Mrs. Alexander in The most effective dialogue works on several levels to
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971), or when suggest character motivations, even when characters are
Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) talks about fast food before he not fully aware of those feelings themselves. Dialogue
assassinates a man in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction makes meaning through the text (the words a characters
(1994). In both cases, the conflict between comic or absurd says), the line reading (the way an actor says the line,
sound and a disturbingly violent image suggests the per- including pauses, intonation, and emotion), and the sub-
petrator’s indifference to his victim’s plight. text (the unstated meaning that underlies spoken words).
Filmmakers may also choose non-diegetic sounds to Dialogue often works in a roundabout fashion and depends
work against the imagery. The result may be irony, as in upon audiences to discern the subtext (what isn’t stated
the conclusion of Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick, 1964), when the directly), which eloquently reveals a character’s complexity.
soundtrack plays “We’ll Meet Again,” to images of Although the dominant sound in most narrative films is
nuclear annihilation. Told that a Doomsday device has that of the human voice, most viewers don’t consider in

SOUND 251

Volume and Pitch

It almost goes without saying that volume reflects the lev-
el and the type of a person’s engagement with her sur-
roundings. Generally, the louder a person speaks, the
greater the emotional intensity of her words. Sigourney
Weaver’s vocal performance as Ripley in Alien (Ridley
Scott, 1979) is restrained. Through much of the film, she
delivers her lines softly, conveying her calm, rational
demeanor (fig. 8.11). After the alien has killed the captain,
leaving Ripley in charge, she meets with the remaining
crew members to decide what they should do. Tempers
flare, and for the first time in the film, Ripley raises her
voice to command the others’ attention. Once her authori-
ty is established and the others calm down, she lowers her
voice again, conveying her methodical, carefully consid-
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

ered approach to solving the crew’s dilemma. Only after

the remainder of her crew is killed and she fails to stop
the ship’s self-destruct sequence does Ripley scream out
in frustration, implying a momentary lapse in confidence
and resolve.
Volume suggests the emotional vigor of dialogue.
Loudness usually connotes a character experiencing
intense emotion, such as anger, fear, or passion. Softness,
on the other hand, usually connotes a more timid or care-
fully considered emotional response: tenderness, diffi-
dence, sophistication, fear, or even guile.
A sound’s pitch refers to its frequency, or its position
on a musical scale. In music, the lowest (or deepest) pitch

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Docter, 2009), the menace a Doberman is supposed to motivations or in helping a film explore broader themes.
project is subverted by his high-pitched voice. In British films, especially those about the effects of class-
bound culture, such as The Loneliness of the Long Distance
Speech Characteristics Runner (Tony Richardson, 1962), This Sporting Life (Lindsay
The way a character speaks does more to define her indi- Anderson, 1963), and Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972),
vidual persona than perhaps any other characteristic of regional accents are an immediate mark of the urban work-
the human voice. Her cultural background, her class, her ing class and a symbol of the characters’ social and econom-
interests, her aspirations, and even her limitations can all ic entrapment. In Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express
be revealed by subtle qualities of the voice such as accent, (“Chongqing Senlin”; 1994), a lonely, heart-broken cop in
diction, and vocal tics. Hong Kong—Cop 223—tries desperately to start a conversa-
A character’s accent is a powerful indicator of back- tion with a stranger in a bar. When she doesn’t respond to
ground and social status. Through language, audiences his pick-up line, he repeats the same phrase in several dif-
readily recognize a character’s nationality, for example. ferent dialects, drawing attention to Hong Kong’s multicul-
Meryl Streep has earned a reputation for her ability to tural makeup, which Cop 223 must negotiate if he is to es-
adopt the accent of her characters, and the national iden- tablish an emotional connection.
tities of her broad array of roles include Italian American American films frequently use accents to define charac-
(The Bridges of Madison County [Clint Eastwood, 1995]), ters according to regional background. In Finding Nemo
Irish (Dancing at Lughnasa [Pat O’Connor, 1998]), Polish (2003), the sea turtle Crush (voiced by the film’s director,
(Sophie’s Choice [Alan J. Pakula, 1982]), and Danish (Out Andrew Stanton) speaks with a Los Angeles Valley inflec-
of Africa [Sydney Pollack, 1985]). Some audiences may tion that linguists call Valspeak, which links him to the
not initially recognize that, in Dr. Strangelove, Peter surfer lifestyle, contributing to the audience’s perception
Sellers plays three different roles: Mandrake, a British of his laid-back persona (fig. 8.12). The linguistic marker
officer; Muffley, the American president; and the German works as a shorthand device for communicating informa-
scientist Dr. Strangelove. Sellers’s stellar performance in tion that helps audiences sense how and why his character
the film relies on his ability to adopt three distinct accents differs from the uptight Marlin.
so flawlessly. Frequently, actors train with dialect coaches American movies rely on accents to link characters to
to perfect their pronunciation. specific locales across the United States, from the Midwest
But a character’s accent usually contributes more to (Fargo [Joel and Ethan Coen, 1996]) to Louisiana (Eve’s
a film’s storyline than just indicating where a person was Bayou [Kasi Lemmons, 1997]) to Boston (The Departed
raised. Often this background information plays a crucial [Martin Scorsese, 2006]). Accents may also signal that
role in helping audiences to understand a character’s characters hail from locations outside the United States.
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.12 Speech
characteristics establish
Crush’s laidback demeanor
in Finding Nemo.

SOUND 253

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When filmmakers rely on accents to flesh out characters, Crucially, Northup—a free black man living in upstate
they run the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, as when New York before traders abduct him—is educated and
Southern or Midwestern accents are equated with a lack well travelled. He is every bit the intellectual equal of the
of intelligence and sophistication. Voice coaches have white men and women who enslave him; his facility with
been employed in Hollywood since the earliest days of the language undermines the assumptions about racial differ-
sound era, when the goal was to make all screen voices ence undergirding the slavery system. But, in order to sur-
conform to one accent, called the American Theater vive, he learns to hide the fact that he is well educated and
Standard. Now they help actors master distinctive charac- puts on a performance as an intellectually inferior being.
teristics of regional and international accents. Despite The film’s patterned use of diction demonstrates clearly
these efforts, Hollywood is notorious for its poor replica- that the erasure of language is one of the critical compo-
tion of dialects (Dick Van Dyke’s cockney in Mary Poppins nents of the dehumanization process Northup experienc-
is frequently mocked), and challenged for its tendency to es. Early in the film, he speaks in language so flowery and
endow characters living in any foreign country with formal that it sounds as if it is lifted straight out of
a vaguely British accent. a nineteenth-century novel. This heightened language
McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave foregrounds the way dia- underscores Northup’s rare position of privilege during
logue can establish the class and social position of a char- this time period.
acter. The film makes clear that words are powerful, After he is abducted and sold into slavery, Northup’s
whether spoken in conversation or published in print. linguistic dexterity and vocal dynamics gradually dimin-
“Tell no one you can read or write,” another enslaved per- ish. As the film progresses, he abandons his lofty rhetoric
son advises the new captive Solomon Northup. Later, his in favor of contractions, “yessuh’s,” and silence. To the
enslavers repeatedly remind him to keep his mouth shut, slave masters, his diction signals ignorance and subservi-
and Mistress Epps (Sarah Paulson) warns him “Don’t ence. In this way, slavery forces Northup to submit lin-
trouble yourself [with reading]. You’re here to work. guistically as well as physically. Tellingly, the curtailment
Anymore will earn you one hundred lashes.” These admo- of Northup’s speech runs parallel to a central motif driv-
nitions make clear how the Southern slave economy ing the narrative. His freedom hinges on his ability to get
demanded strict control over words, because language a letter to his former benefactors in the North. But
itself was a signifier of a slave’s humanity. To be able to because his captors prohibit him from writing, he must
read and write demonstrated intellectual equality with the steal paper, use berry juice for ink, and find a trustworthy
slave owner, and, therefore, was a threatening assertion person to deliver his letter (fig. 8.13). In short, 12 Years
of resistance. a Slave highlights how the social and economic system of
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.13 Depicting the struggle for

language in 12 Years A Slave.

254 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

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slavery restricted the practice of written and verbal lan- or atmosphere of a place—its ambience. The quality of
guage among African Americans in order to reinforce a sound’s movement through a particular space—what
white supremacist ideology. might be called a sound’s acoustic properties—can help
Finally, the human voice can be characterized by vocal determine whether that space feels cozy and intimate, or
tics particular to specific individuals. Marilyn Monroe, for sterile and alienating.
example, is famous for her high, breathy voice, which Sound engineers can toy with the acoustic qualities of
audiences have associated with sensual fragility. In con- voices by adjusting microphones (for example, placing
trast, Katharine Hepburn, in films such as Holiday them away from an actress to suggest distance), and by
(George Cukor, 1938), The African Queen (John Huston, making adjustments during mixing after the primary
1951), Rooster Cogburn (Stuart Millar, 1975), and On shooting is completed. At this point, the sound editor can
Golden Pond (Mark Rydell, 1981), has a gravelly, quaver- freely manipulate the volume, balance (the relative vol-
ing voice that helps to connote her characters’ independ- ume coming from each speaker), and other acoustic prop-
ence and strength. erties of each sound, including the dialogue. When mixing
Jimmy Stewart’s voice is recognizable for its slow drawl, the sound, the sound editor may add reverb (an echo) to
and its propensity to get higher in pitch as his characters the voices in a scene. This effect usually encourages audi-
become agitated. Stewart’s unique voice complements his ences to imagine that the setting is expansive, and that the
tendency to play characters notable for their humility and sounds are reverberating from some distant walls.
honor, as in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, In The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974),
1939), in which Stewart is an idealistic but naive politician Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) and Meredith (Elizabeth
who combats corruption when he arrives in Washington. MacRae) retreat from a group of revelers to have a one-on-
The contrast between Stewart’s “aw-shucks” delivery and one conversation. They wander into the middle of Caul’s
Grace Kelly’s more crisp and refined voice helps suggest mammoth workshop—a large, vacant warehouse. At first
the class differences that divide the couple when they Caul is unable to overcome his reclusive tendencies, and
appear together in Rear Window. he responds to Meredith’s questions perfunctorily. The
In contrast, Humphrey Bogart tends to speak through camera films them in a long shot. Their voices echo,
his teeth and pursed lips without much modulation in his emphasizing the vast emptiness of the setting and the
voice, contributing to the macho image that he projects in loneliness of Caul’s self-imposed isolation. Soon Caul be-
films such as The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), gins to open up to Meredith, and the scene cuts to a series
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), The Treasure of the of medium close-up tracking shots. As the scene becomes
Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948), and The African Queen. more intimate, sound engineer Walter Murch reduces the
Some actors’ voices are immediately recognizable for reverberation considerably, using the acoustic qualities of
their rhythm. Jack Nicholson (The Shining [Stanley their voices to draw attention to the couple’s temporary
Kubrick, 1980], The Departed) and Owen Wilson (Meet the sense of physical and emotional closeness. When drunken
Parents [Jay Roach, 2000], The Royal Tenenbaums) speak revelers interrupt their conversation by revving a motor
in slow, fluid phrases. The carefully paced rhythm of their scooter, the scene cuts to a reverse tracking shot that ends
delivery often suggests quirkiness or lackadaisical menace. on an extreme long shot of the couple and the circling
In contrast, Woody Allen (Manhattan [Woody Allen, 1979]) scooter, suggesting the sudden loss of intimacy. As the
and Ben Stiller (Meet the Parents, The Royal Tenenbaums) camera moves away, the reverberation returns.
speak in quick bursts, suggesting their characters’ hysteri- Through the mixing process, sound editors are able to
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

cal anxiety. Bette Davis (Jezebel [William Wyler, 1938], conjure a broad array of audio illusions. By manipulating
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? [Robert Aldrich, 1962]) the acoustic characteristics of voices, a sound editor can
is noted for the staccato or percussive quality of her voice, create the effect of a character speaking from across
which often conveys overwrought emotions or maniacal a great distance, on the telephone, broadcasting via radio,
hostility. Julia Roberts (Eat Pray Love [Ryan Murphy, speaking from behind a wall, and so on.
2010]) is famous for a boisterous laugh that suggests her
characters’ self-confident love of life. Addressing the Audience: The Voice-over
Because of its ability to encourage audience identification
Acoustic Qualities with characters onscreen, the voice-over deserves special
Manipulating the acoustic quality of the human voice can attention. Diegetic voice-overs may function as a charac-
help filmmakers convey perspective and details about the ter’s meditation on past events, as in Billy Wilder’s Sunset
surrounding environment. The way voices sound can sug- Boulevard (1950). Wilder’s film begins with a third-person
gest the distance between characters, or the mood, aura, discussion about a corpse floating in a swimming pool.

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The film then launches into a flashback, at which point one day to a woman’s voice-over narration that describes
the voice-over switches to Joe Gillis’s first-person account his every move and anticipates his thoughts. He consults
of the series of events that led to his own murder. Gillis’s a psychiatrist, who assures him that he is schizophrenic.
voice-over focuses the audience on him as the point of However, a literary scholar who specializes in the phrase
identification during the flashback. The film demonstrates “little did he know” (played by Dustin Hoffman) informs
how voice-overs can guide viewers through a series of him that he is a character in a story being authored by
events they might not otherwise understand. someone else. The latter scenario proves true, and Harold
Voice-overs can also allow audiences access to a char- eventually meets the author Karen Eiffel (Emma
acter’s immediate thoughts, as in Mean Streets (Martin Thompson), who unwittingly controls his fate. The voice-
Scorsese, 1974), when audiences hear Charlie (Harvey over in this film is a metaphorical device that provides
Keitel) praying in several voice-overs throughout the film. both comedy—as Harold bristles under the control of an
Again, such voice-overs allow audiences to experience unseen figure—and tragedy—as Harold learns that, like
a more profound level of engagement with that character. all human beings, he is not fully in control of his destiny,
Voice-overs aren’t necessarily delivered by the central and Karen learns that authors bear some responsibility
character, however. Eddie Dupris (Morgan Freeman) nar- for their literary creations.
rates Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004), even Some filmmakers upset the audience’s expectation that
though the tragic plot focuses on Frankie Dunn’s a voice-over will offer a stable point of identification.
(Eastwood) relationship with boxer Maggie Fitzgerald Terrence Malick’s films, for example, tend to use a voice-
(Hilary Swank). Eddie’s voice-over provides audiences over narration that may not offer the most accurate or per-
with a distanced, yet inexplicably omniscient vantage ceptive account of the events onscreen. In Badlands, Kit
point on the events. (In fact, Eddie confesses he isn’t quite (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek) go on a killing
sure what becomes of Dunn at the end of the film.) The spree across the American Midwest. The film is narrated
voice-over allows audiences to have it both ways: they by Holly after her arrest, and her delivery of the lines is
become intimately involved with Dunn’s emotional col- detached and riddled with romantic clichés. Their killing
lapse, yet in the end he remains the iconic image of the spree begins when Kit kills Holly’s father. Holly expresses
stoic American male, isolated and shrouded in mystery. no real regret over her father’s death. Instead, she tells the
Narrators can be non-diegetic as well, offering what audience in a deadpan, affectless voice how she “sensed
might seem to be an objective point of view. The post- that her destiny now lay with Kit, for better or worse, and
production history of March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, that it was better to spend a week with someone who loved
2005) illustrates the fact that non-diegetic voice-overs [her] for what [she] was than years of loneliness.” Rather
shape the audience’s response. The soundtrack to the than understanding and regretting the violence she has
French release featured voice-over dialogue “spoken” participated in, she sounds numb and ignorant.
by the penguins themselves, accompanied by trendy Voice-over narration, whether diegetic or non-diegetic,
Euro-pop music. Fearing that American audiences might can be unreliable. In Stanley Kubrick’s picaresque Barry
not appreciate such a whimsical approach to a tale about Lyndon, a third-person narrator relates the tale of a way-
life and death in the Antarctic, executives at Warner ward rogue’s travels across Europe as he stumbles on
Brothers (the U.S. distributor) asked screenwriter Jordan adventure, romance, fortune, and, ultimately, a series of
Roberts to rewrite the script with a more conventional tragic reversals. Film scholar Mark Crispin Miller argues
approach to the voice-over. The American version fea- that, although Lyndon is a morally complex figure, the
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

tures an academic voice-over, delivered by Morgan narration—which repeatedly passes judgment on the
Freeman, which “explains” the birds’ behavior, and in- hero—is intentionally superficial. The narrator’s “inter-
cludes an orchestral score by Alex Wurman. Though the pretations of his hero’s motives are simple-minded,
two films contain more or less the same imagery, the and his moral observations often jarringly intolerant,”
French version is more akin to a family-oriented adven- while the intentional discrepancy between sound and
ture film, while the U.S. version is a conventional docu- image contributes to a parallel between the intolerant
mentary that presents the penguins’ story from an overtly narrator and viewers who “fail to watch closely and
educational perspective. sympathetically” (Miller).
In the poignant comedy, Stranger than Fiction (Marc Malick’s and Kubrick’s experiments with sound dem-
Forster, 2006), a voice-over narration is used to satirize onstrate why viewers shouldn’t assume that voice-overs
the way audiences typically respond to this sound device, promise the authoritative interpretation of events unfold-
as we may implicitly trust any offscreen “voice of authori- ing onscreen. Rather, audiences should recognize the
ty.” IRS accountant Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) wakes up often complex interplay between sound and image.

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Techniques in Practice
The Human Voice as Aural Object
Some film theorists have argued that cinemagoers fail sound is rarely appreciated for itself alone but func-
to recognize sound as a unique cinematic element tions largely as an enhancement of the visuals”
distinct from the visual image, with physical proper- (“Stretching Sound”).
ties and aesthetic possibilities of its own. Sound The human voice is one example of Metz’s aural
waves do not seem to occupy a fixed location; they are object; the voice is typically understood as a second-
not anchored by a screen the way visual images are. ary attribute of the visual image, in large part because
They move through space and enter the human body it is perceived in relation to a human body. Doane
by causing vibrations in the tiny bones of the ear; contends that voices in films are nearly always linked
thus they can envelop listeners with a greater degree to bodies and that this is one way that the medium
of intimacy than visual images and, perhaps, elicit appears to offer unity, completeness, and realism,
a different form of perceptual attention than the despite the fact that images, voices, and music are
image demands. “The voice has greater command typically recorded at separate places and times. The
over space than the look,” writes theorist Mary Ann primary purpose of the voice in film is to convey
Doane, “one can hear around corners, through walls” a character’s attitudes and emotions through dia-
(Doane, p. 44). Doane argues for the primacy of aural logue. Yet a voice can also assert its distinctiveness by
over visual processing by taking note of the fact that, contradicting the body it accompanies; a discrepancy
in humans, hearing develops prior to vision. “Space, between viewer expectations and the reality of
for the child, is defined initially in terms of the audi- a character’s voice may produce incongruity, and per-
ble, not the visible” (Doane, p. 44). haps even comedy. In the Hollywood musical Singin’
Despite the fact that sound possesses physical in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952),
qualities and perceptual characteristics that are vastly popular silent film star Lina Lamont fails to make the
different from those associated with the visual image, transition to talking pictures because of her comically
sound is frequently understood as a secondary fea- improper grammar and high-pitched, accented voice.
ture of film, important only because it enhances or (This very problem troubled the careers of silent stars
helps to make sense of the images onscreen. In the such as Harold Lloyd and Norma Talmadge—one
words of French film theorist Christian Metz, “the real-world inspiration for Lamont).
recognition of a sound leads directly to the question: In contrast to Doane, French film scholar Michel
a sound of what?” (Metz, p. 25). Metz argues that Chion is particularly interested in the disembodied
cinephiles and film scholars alike have ignored the voice—that is, the human voice that is not attached to
unique properties of sound, which he terms “the a visible character. He defines the acousmetre as the
aural object”; one piece of evidence is that they disembodied voice whose source is withheld from
describe sound using the attributes of visual images. spectator completely, or until late in the film (exam-
“Sounds are more often classified according to the ples include Mother in Hitchcock’s Psycho, the
objects which transmit them than by their own char- Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, and the master criminal
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

acteristics,” Metz writes (p. 25). One example that he Dr. Mabuse in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse [Fritz
cites is the familiar concept of offscreen sound: Lang, 1933]). According to Chion, withholding the
he points out that, while the source of a sound may be source grants the voice a sense of mystery and power
offscreen, the sound is continuing to issue forth from that is dispelled when the source becomes visible.
the soundtrack in the usual manner. The only differ- Embodied and disembodied voices serve as the
ence is that the diegetic object that is ostensibly pro- focal point of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1981 cult classic,
ducing the sound is not made visible. Diva. Several subplots revolve around the intrigue of
Filmmakers have also taken note of these dis- the human voice in this offbeat film: in one, a moped-
placements: respected sound designer and film editor riding postman Jules (Frédéric Andréi) is a passionate
Walter Murch (The Conversation; Apocalypse Now; fan of renowned opera singer Cynthia Hawkins
Jarhead) concurs with Metz’s view, stating “film (played by soprano Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez).

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He makes a high-quality recording of an aria she aria is not performed within the context of the full
sings, steals her dress after the performance, and then opera at this performance).
fears the police are pursuing him because of his theft Diva traces the idea of pure voice through an aural
of her garment. In a related plot, Taiwanese business- and visual motif: Cynthia’s aria is replayed at several
men seek to acquire and circulate Jules’s pirated points in the film and each time, the camera rises from
recording in order to pressure Hawkins into making the apparent source of the sound and rotates freely in
a commercial recording, which she has never done. space, repeating the camera movement in the first
Hawkins has attempted to preserve her status as scene and mimicking the spatial expansiveness of
a vocal artist through live performances for devoted Cynthia’s voice. In one scene, Jules and his friend Alba
fans; she resists the pressure to record her voice and listen to the La Wally recording through headphones,
turn it into a purchasable commodity. yet we hear Cynthia’s voice on the soundtrack as it if
In yet another plotline, two police detectives were occupying the space of Jules’s loft (fig. 8.15). The
attempt to identify and bring to justice the Antillais, camera enhances this effect as it winds a circular path
a shadowy leader of an international drug and prosti- upward, as if imagining the meandering movement of
tution ring. This plotline revolves around another Cynthia’s voice, even though that sound is being
voice recording; that of Nadia, a dead prostitute and transmitted through headphones. The expressionist
former girlfriend of the Antillais whose testimony has
been recorded on a valuable but elusive cassette tape.
8.14 In Diva, camera movement suggests the way Cynthia’s
These diverse plotlines share a focus on the way voice fills the space during her live performance.
that the human voice can be experienced live, as an
attribute of the body that produces it, and also as an 8.15 While Jules and Alba listen to La Wally on their
object that exists in its own right, detached from the headphones, Cynthia’s voice fills the soundtrack to the scene.
body. Once recorded, Cynthia and Nadia’s voices lose
their connection to the singer or speaker that pro-
duced them. These voices are objects that can be pos-
sessed and replayed whenever the “owner” of the
recording desires.
Diva’s narrative forces viewers to pay attention to
sound; yet director Beineix also uses the film’s visual
system to show that the human voice can move
beyond its narrative function as a secondary attribute
of character (in this case, Cynthia and Nadia). Beineix
and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot use framing
and camera movement to suggest the ways that
Hawkins’s aria (and to a lesser extent, Nadia’s testi-
mony) take on lives of their own, and serve a purpose
that sometimes rivals and overwhelms the images
they “accompany.”
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

In the film’s opening scene, which depicts

Cynthia’s virtuoso performance of an aria from the
opera La Wally, the camera cranes above the stage,
eventually moving into the auditorium seats to adopt
the perspective of her audience, while also tracking
around the oval amphitheater. This circular, floating
camera movement visually characterizes the way that
Cynthia’s voice fills the space (fig. 8.14). The camera
recognizes Cynthia’s aria as a moment of “pure voice,”
asking viewers to revel in its beauty and power rather
than its connection to a character or narrative (the

258 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Components of Film Sound: the howl of a coyote to connote the lonely, arid plains
Sound Effects where the action will unfold.
In some films, however, sound effects define the setting
Because dialogue is the element of film sound that usually more specifically, alluding to particular places at specific
receives the most emphasis onscreen (and in spectators’ points in time. In Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980), the
minds), some viewers may be tempted to think that sound pop of flashbulbs dominates the soundtrack, evoking an
effects are a minor, cosmetic component of a film’s era when sports coverage was largely limited to newspa-
soundtrack. However, sound effects play an important pers rather than television. The sound of whirling heli-
role in shaping the audience’s understanding of space. As copter rotors plays a crucial role in depicting the
Michel Chion’s epigraph at the beginning of this chapter American conflict in Vietnam (The Deer Hunter [Michael
makes clear, film scholars should take care to describe in Cimino, 1978], Apocalypse Now [Francis Ford Coppola,
detail the noises they hear and how these sounds function 1979], Platoon [Oliver Stone, 1986]) because the war
in a film’s overall narrative system. marked the first time that helicopters were used exten-
sively in combat.
Functions of Sound Effects Sound effects can also evoke the vast emptiness of
Sound effects can contribute to the emotional and intel- a setting. Silent moments in films are almost never silent;
lectual depth of a scene in three ways: they can define even when a character experiences solitude, audio details
a scene’s location; they can lend a mood to the scene; and proliferate. Early in There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas
they can suggest the environment’s impact on characters. Anderson, 2007), prospector (and soon to be oil baron)
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

Daniel Plainview sits alone on the western plains, listen-

Defining Location ing only to the hiss of the bitter wind. Over the course of
Sound effects play an important role in helping audiences the film’s long, expository sequence there is very little to
understand the nature of the environment that surrounds hear except the sound effects of a man toiling and then
the characters. From the beeping car horns of an urban waiting in the elements. For several minutes, we learn
thoroughfare in Manhattan to the swirling wind of a North nothing about Plainview, and this nothingness is all we
African sandstorm in The English Patient (Anthony need to know about him: he is an empty man driven more
Minghella, 1996), sound effects can suggest a wide array by the desire to find riches buried in the land than to
of environments. develop relationships with other people.
Usually, sound effects define location rather generical- These examples of sound effects do not have an imme-
ly. Urban films rely on the constant buzz of traffic in the diate bearing on the plot. They do, however, give audienc-
background to evoke the hustle and bustle of the city, for es a greater sense of the physical environment and histor-
example, while Westerns rely on the jangle of spurs and ical circumstances that surround the characters.

SOUND 259

8.16 Sound effects add to the eerie atmosphere in Portraying the Environment’s Impact on Characters
Frankenstein. Sound effects can help illustrate how the environment has
a direct impact on characters. Action/adventure films, which
typically feature characters being bombarded by explosions
and gunfire, provide countless fruitful examples.
But this function of sound effects is certainly not
limited to action films. In Michelangelo Antonioni’s
drama Red Desert (1964), the sound of approaching boats
is an important motif. The characters associate the sound
with two potential threats that ocean liners present: dis-
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

ease (which the international ships transport, along with

their cargo) and loneliness (the film implies that the
male characters are frequently absent because of their
business travel) (fig. 8.17). As this motif demonstrates,
sound effects are a powerful and sometimes subtle
device for establishing how surroundings have a direct
impact on people.
To suggest that sound effects have these three func-
tions, however, is, in some cases, to impose an artificial dis-
tinction between the roles sound plays in films.
Particularly expressive sound effects may serve all three
functions simultaneously, defining location, creating mood,
and portraying the environment’s relation to characters.

260 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.18 A door closes on the Death Star

in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
(George Lucas, 1977).

SOUND 261

262 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

American literature and film usually portray the (fig. 8.20). Later, a close-up shot reveals a shovel
plains of the Southwest as a rugged landscape that feeding coal into the engine of the thrasher. This
offers a liberating alternative to the Midwest’s noisy, image mirrors an earlier shot in the foundry, confirm-
claustrophobic, and industrialized urban areas. In ing the parallel between Chicago and Texas.
Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978), lovers Bill By contrast, the unnamed Farmer (Sam Shepard)
(Richard Gere) and Abbey (Brooke Adams), along is associated with tranquillity. His prosperity allows
with Bill’s younger sister (Linda Manz), flee Chicago. him the privilege of avoiding the industrial noise and
The three abandon the crowded city in favor of the spaces, thus establishing the class conflict that pro-
spacious plains of the Texas panhandle, but they pels the film’s main storyline. In one scene, the
soon discover that the lush farmland, too, is industri- Farmer reclines on a divan in the middle of one of his
alized. As in the city, Bill and Abbey find themselves fields while he listens to the foreman (Robert
at the very bottom of the class ladder. Rather than J. Wilke) tally up his profits. The only sound effects in
pastoral escape, the working-class lovers find only the scene are the faint rustle of wind through the
hard labor in the wheat fields of the Southwest. wheat and the “ka-ching” sound of the adding
The film’s portrayal of industrialized spaces as noi- machine. The sound of the machine situates the
some is apparent in the opening scene, in which Bill Farmer as part of the industrial system that engulfs
assaults his foreman at a Chicago foundry. The two Bill and Abbey, but the relative quiet clearly suggests
men argue, but their dispute remains a mystery his comfortable position in the upper class.
because the sound of pounding metal completely Both sound effects and images in Days of Heaven
overwhelms their speech. The volume, acoustic char- suggest that, by the turn of the century, the American
acteristics, and regularity of the sound effects all work West was already an industrialized region. While the
to convey the idea that Bill is consumed by this indus- Farmer can enjoy the privilege of a pastoral experi-
trial space. The metal (an industrial material) clangs ence on his farm, Bill, Abbey, and the Girl remain
loudly and monotonously, evoking the maddening trapped in their industrialized, working-class milieu.
repetition associated with factory work. As the argu-
ment becomes more heated, the noise becomes loud-
er, linking Bill’s anger and frustration with mechani-
zation. The pounding of steel also parallels the 8.20 The industrialization of the pastoral in Days of Heaven.
pounding of men’s bodies in the fight, thus connecting
the brutality of the argument with the brutality of the
work space and the modern, industrialized world.
Later, when the three characters arrive in Texas,
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

they find the migrant lifestyle anything but tranquil.

One sequence depicting a day’s work on the farm
begins with the faint rustle of a breeze and the soft
chirp of crickets. But the sound of a blacksmith bang-
ing a horseshoe soon disrupts the serenity. The
rhythmic noise is a motif that establishes a parallel
between the two spaces. Eventually the sound of the
blacksmith gives way to the louder sound of the
thrasher harvesting the wheat. Once again, the sound
of machinery overwhelms the dialogue, and the char-
acters are swallowed by their work environment

SOUND 263

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The film’s emphasis on time wryly suggests that the The exchange between Hitchcock and Raksin points to
delivery of Satan’s child isn’t supernatural. On the contra- the central challenge film composers face. Most narrative
ry, it is almost routine, and the ticking of the clock casual- films rely on music to engage the audience’s attention, yet
ly counts down the minutes until the end of the world. As the same music threatens to make the artificiality of any
with many sound effects that occur with regularity, the film obvious. The composer’s charge is to add soundtrack
clock’s rhythm emphasizes the contrast between the main music that complements the imagery onscreen without
character’s hardship and the indifferent, business-as- calling attention to itself. In fact, film scholar Claudia
usual mentality of her environment. In other contexts, Gorbman calls this music “unheard melodies” because
however, repetitive sound effects may offer comfort. audiences should not be too aware of the composer’s work
for fear of interfering with the story.
Verisimilitude
Typically Foley artists and sound editors try to produce Functions of Film Music
sounds with a high degree of verisimilitude. That is, audi- In many cases, the only function of a score is to provide
ences assume that the sounds that accompany images are background music, which sustains audience attention and
true to life—that the creaking timbers in Master and lends coherence to a scene as it moves from shot to shot.
Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, 2003) Composer Aaron Copland said that this music “helps to fill
accurately represent the experience of life in the hull of a the empty spots between pauses in a conversation. …
British frigate in the Napoleonic era, for example, or that [It] must weave its way underneath dialogue” (quoted in
the hexapede in Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) sounds Prendergast, p. 218).
how a wild animal would sound in that faraway world. But But, like the other elements of a film, music can develop
on occasion, filmmakers will disregard verisimilitude alto- systematically. It can establish motifs and parallels, and it
gether, and provide instead a sound that strives to be can evolve with narrative context. In The Lord of the Rings:
more expressive than representative. The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001), when
Intentional departures from verisimilitude have the audiences first see Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), the
potential to transcend representations of physical reality. soundtrack plays a faintly Gaelic tune, which represents
They can allude to metaphorical or psychological truth the bucolic life in the Shire where Frodo lives. Later, when
rather than the sounds of everyday experience. In the Frodo and Sam (Sean Astin) leave the Shire, Sam com-
animated film The Triplets of Belleville (Belleville ments on how he will be going farther from home than he
Rendezvous in the U.K.) (Sylvain Chomet, 2003), exhaust- has ever gone before. While he talks, a melancholy French
ed cyclists in the Tour de France whinny like horses. The horn repeats the musical theme (a melody that becomes
joke reaches a gruesome conclusion when one rider, a motif), signaling their departure and Sam’s impending
abducted by gangsters, gets murdered. The gangster pulls homesickness. During the film’s resolution, when Frodo
out his gun and then the film cuts to an exterior hallway and Sam agree to travel together on a quest to destroy the
as audiences hear a shrill, startled neigh and the sound of ring, a flute plays the theme. The instrumentation, with its
a gunshot offscreen. The departure from verisimilitude— Gaelic flair, conveys how the communal spirit of the Shire
the substitution of a horse’s neigh for a human shriek— follows these two friends as they vow to work together to
introduces some black humor into the scene. The sound combat evil. Composer Howard Shore chose Celtic music,
effect creates a metaphor equating the cyclists with ani- “one of the oldest [forms of] music in the world” to give the
mals: both are “disposed of” when they become injured score “a feeling of antiquity” befitting the bygone era of the
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

and no longer useful. Shire (Otto and Spence).

Such systematic use of film music can contribute to the
emotional and intellectual complexity of a film in five
Components of Film Sound: Music ways: it can establish the historical context for a scene; it
can help depict a scene’s geographical space; it can help
On the set of Lifeboat (1944), Alfred Hitchcock questioned define characters; it can help shape the emotional tenor of
the logic of scoring a film set entirely on a lifeboat in a scene; and it can provide a distanced or ironic commen-
World War II, wryly asking, “But where is the music sup- tary on a scene’s visual information.
posed to come from out in the middle of the ocean?”
Hearing of the director’s reluctance to include a score, Establishing Historical Context
composer David Raksin suggested that Hitchcock should Music offers filmmakers an efficient means of defining
be asked “where the cameras come from” (quoted in a film’s setting. Audiences should associate diegetic music
Prendergast, pp. 222–23). with the story’s time period, since, in the name of historical

264 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

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accuracy, most filmmakers will try to ensure that the music In Neighbors (Nicholas Stollar, 2014), when a rowdy
characters listen to would have been popular during the fraternity moves in next door, young parents Mac (Seth
time when the story takes place. Throughout The Last Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are forced to confront the
Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971), the music of fact that their youth is behind them. When the couple vis-
Hank Williams seeps out of car radios and jukeboxes, its the new neighbors, the loud house-party music shocks
evoking the mood of a dying Texas town in the 1950s. The their senses, reminding Mac and Kelly that they no longer
country music legend’s lyrical emphasis on broken fit in the carefree singles scene (fig. 8.21). In contrast, the
relationships and loneliness reflects the characters’ soft music playing in the background through much of
alienation. In Saving Private Ryan, the soldiers enjoy a Rear Window contributes to the audience’s understanding
brief respite from battle listening to the love songs of that Jefferies’s open window looks out onto a busy court-
Edith Piaf. The choice of music is highly evocative of the yard. The barely perceptible music points to the fact that,
story’s setting in France, since Piaf was an unofficial although he is surrounded by neighbors, Jeffries is simul-
symbol of France and its resistance against Germany taneously cut off from them.
during World War II. The use of intentional anachronisms Music can even suggest the specific cultural makeup of
in Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, 2006), in which a setting’s location. The celebrated opening tracking shot
popular rock songs from the late twentieth century appear in the re-released version of Touch of Evil contains an
on the soundtrack even though the story is set in the eclectic assortment of diegetic music, whereas the studio’s
eighteenth century, is rare in popular films, partly original release included only a non-diegetic title song by
because music plays such an important role in situating Henry Mancini. An elaborate crane shot begins a tour of
the audience in the narrative’s place and time. the streets of a town on the U.S.–Mexican border. As the
camera passes various buildings, the soundtrack music
Shaping Space changes, establishing that the town is full of bars playing
Diegetic music can be used to help audiences perceive the loud music. Moreover, by having each bar play a different
geography of the setting. Consider how, in Notorious, style of music, the soundtrack highlights the multicultural
Hitchcock underscores Alicia and Devlin’s precarious sit- makeup of this border town.
uation as they investigate the wine cellar, spying on
Alicia’s suspicious husband. By lowering the volume of Defining Character
the party music on the soundtrack, the film emphasizes Just as many people express themselves through the
the cellar’s proximity to the festivities upstairs. By using music they listen to, so filmmakers use music to define
diegetic music to remind audiences of the geography of characters. A particular song, artist, or type of music may
Sebastian’s manor, Hitchcock invests the scene with function as a motif that informs audiences of a character’s
a considerable amount of tension. taste, demeanor, or attitude. In music terminology, the
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.21 Neighbors—Rose and Mac watch

as their rowdy neighbors move in. Soon,
the sound of loud music will disrupt the
young parents’ quiet.

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leitmotif (leading motif) was first used to describe the later, when Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider) hits the high seas
compositional strategies of Karl Maria von Weber and with two compatriots in pursuit of the shark, Williams’s
Richard Wagner, who used distinctive musical phrases score is often more uptempo (fast) and lushly orchestrated
and themes to define character and present ideas. Fritz to suggest the sheriff’s sense of excitement and adventure.
Lang’s thriller M (1931) offers one of cinema’s first (and
most disturbing) examples of how music can define Distancing the Audience
a character. The child killer (Peter Lorre) whistles Edvard Music sometimes exploits a contrast between sound and
Grieg’s sinister “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from image. The effect of such a contrast is to distance the
Peer Gynt. In Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry, 2000), young audience—to sever the connection between sound and
Billy spends his days listening to the songs of the rock image, so that the audience sees the images from a more
band T Rex while he fantasizes about becoming a ballet critical perspective.
dancer. Given Billy’s rejection of traditional gender roles Sometimes, filmmakers use this technique to offer wry,
and his ambiguous sexuality, T Rex is an appropriate satirical commentary. Dr. Strangelove begins with images
choice, since the band’s lead singer, Marc Bolan, was not- of bomber planes refueling in mid-flight, a process that
ed for his glam-rock androgyny. requires one plane to release fuel through a long tube into
Composers can also score non-diegetic musical motifs the tank of the bomber. Instead of using military music to
for specific characters. For Once upon a Time in the West accompany the image, Kubrick uses the airy, romantic
(Sergio Leone, 1968), Ennio Morricone composed a haunt- tune “Try a Little Tenderness.” The odd juxtaposition of
ing, almost tuneless song built around the lone wail of sound and image transforms the military operation into
a harmonica. Throughout the film, this song is associated a mechanical mating ritual, pointing to one of the film’s
with the character called, appropriately enough, central tenets: that weaponry is an absurd substitute phal-
Harmonica (Charles Bronson). The theme is intimately lus and that the arms race between the Soviet Union and
connected to the character’s personality. He plays the the United States is a dangerous contest to see who has
instrument himself, and a flashback eventually reveals the biggest “equipment.”
that a harmonica played a pivotal role in a traumatic On other occasions, filmmakers exploit the juxtaposi-
childhood event, which has haunted him ever since. tion of music and image to suggest the world’s complete
Harmonica’s nemesis, Frank (Henry Fonda), is associ- indifference to a character’s plight. In Face/Off (John
ated with an electric guitar that suggests the character’s Woo, 1997), a child listens to the song “Somewhere over
methodical menace. But submerged under the main melo- the Rainbow” on headphones, oblivious to the bloody
dy of Frank’s theme is the wail of the harmonica, suggest- shootout taking place around him. At Club Silencio in
ing the sadistic past these two men share. When the two Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001), a torch singer col-
characters finally meet for a climactic shootout, the two lapses while performing a Spanish version of Roy
musical themes compete for audio space, representing the Orbison’s haunting ballad “Crying,” but the vocals contin-
central conflict between two strong wills. While most ue even while she lies on the stage unconscious. The
scores are composed after shooting is completed, strange discrepancy—whereby the music plays without
Morricone composed the score before shooting on the film regard to the singer’s distress—makes it clear that the
began. Leone then played the score on the set during film- “live” performance wasn’t what it initially appeared to be.
ing, so that each actor could move to the music. The unu- The chanteuse was only lip-synching. In Sam Fuller’s
sual process Leone and Morricone adopted indicates how Naked Kiss (1964), a woman discovers her fiancé sexually
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

closely they tied the characters to the score’s musical molesting a child while a record of children singing a lull-
themes (Frayling, pp. 280–81). aby plays in the background. According to Claudia
Gorbman, such instances “testify to the power of … music
Shaping Emotional Tenor which blissfully lacks awareness or empathy; its very
Music plays an important role in helping audiences know emotionlessness, juxtaposed with ensuing human catas-
how to interpret the mood of a scene. John Williams’s trophe, is what provokes our emotional response”
score for Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) offers a good (Gorbman, p. 24). In other words, such blatant inappro-
example of how music can help a filmmaker emphasize priateness draws attention to the contrast between the
dramatic shifts in emotional tenor from scene to scene music’s complete lack of response and the audience’s
within a single film. The famous main theme—a sinister (hopefully) more empathetic response to these charac-
melody played primarily by low strings and based on an ters’ predicaments.
eerie, two-note progression—precedes each of the shark’s Obviously, a piece of film music can carry out more
attacks, and thus contributes to its horrific menace. But than one of these functions simultaneously. To help

266 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

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recognize how a piece of film music functions, audiences ticular characters or settings? With particular emotions?
should train their ears to recognize five different With particular visual imagery?
characteristics. John Williams’s famous score for Star Wars demon-
strates how musical motifs can be associated with particu-
Five Characteristics of Film Music lar characters. The film’s familiar opening theme is asso-
Film music is notoriously difficult to write about. Despite ciated with the idealism of the Rebel Alliance, whereas
a song’s uncanny ability to sweep audiences up into the the more foreboding and militaristic theme (played in
romantic (or exciting, or tragic) sentiment unfolding a minor key with a plodding rhythm played at a tempo to
onscreen, few people have the ability to describe how the mimic the sound of marching boots) signals the presence
music accomplishes this. Those who have formally stud- of the Evil Empire.
ied music are perhaps best equipped to describe and ana- Scholars should be attuned to how musical motifs
lyze film music. For those who haven’t spent years train- evolve over the course of a film as well. Dramatic changes
ing their ears to dissect a tune into its individual in a musical motif usually signal dramatic changes in
components, the danger in trying to write about music is character, or turning points in narrative structure. Jean-
that the discussion will be too imprecise to inform or con- Marc Vallée’s Wild (2014) follows Cheryl Strayed (Reese
vince other readers. Vague adjectives such as “romantic” Witherspoon) as she hikes the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest
or “scary” are of little value when describing a melody. Trail alone in an attempt to overcome drug addiction and
Still, it is possible for non-musicians to talk and write the emotional devastation following her mother’s death
concretely about film music. In order to think and write (fig. 8.22). Simon and Garfunkel’s adaptation of the
about it with specificity, begin by concentrating on these Peruvian folk song “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” serves as
five attributes: patterns of development, lyrical content, the film’s defining musical motif. On and off throughout
tempo and volume, instrumentation, and cultural the film, muted and wordless snippets of the song play as
significance. Cheryl walks. At the most basic level, viewers should
gradually come to understand that each time the tune
Patterns of Development plays, Cheryl is thinking about her mother. This motif
Like other elements of film, music develops systematical- develops from a flashback early in the syuzhet (plot) that
ly. Musical themes are often repeated, establishing motifs reveals Cheryl’s mother (Laura Dern) playfully singing
and parallels. And as musical motifs evolve, they signal the song for her children.
important changes in the story. Consequently, perhaps But the song also functions as a structuring device,
the most important strategy for actively listening to and encouraging audiences to recognize a pivotal turning
thinking about film music is to note when a musical theme point in Cheryl’s story. The film begins in medias res as
appears. Does the theme come to be associated with par- Cheryl is well into her hike, sitting in pain at the top of
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.22 The rough climb toward emotional

well-being in Wild.

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a mountain with a detached toenail. Suddenly one of her and voice, sonically marking the narrative’s two defining
boots tumbles down to the bottom of a deep ravine. In moments: the turning point in the flashback that prompts
frustrated agony, she hurls her other boot down the Cheryl’s downward spiral, and the turning point in the
mountain. Is this the last straw? Will she decide to give film’s present tense when she decides to persevere, press-
up and go home? The audience doesn’t immediately ing onward on her hike in an effort to turn her life around.
know the answer to these questions, because after this
exposition, the film flashes back to reveal how Cheryl Lyrical Content
wound up at the top of a mountain with a bloody toe. Wild Since the late 1960s, soundtrack music has relied more on
unfolds like a narrative puzzle, cutting back and forth self-contained popular songs instead of scored material.
from the early stages of her hike, to scenes of Cheryl and Often (but not always) filmmakers choose songs whose
her mother, to images of her indulging in drugs and sex lyrics are relevant to the image onscreen. Consequently,
with random strangers. an analysis of film music should consider the possible sig-
What’s the cause/effect logic linking these narrative nificance of any lyrics.
threads? Wild eventually moves toward an answer as Lyrics can be powerful indicators of mood or turning
Cheryl’s hike inevitably leads to the image on the moun- points in plot. In Thelma & Louise, after Thelma finally
taintop that opens the film. When she finally arrives, an gathers the courage to ignore Darryl’s orders and accom-
elaborate parallel-editing flashback sequence ties the pany Louise on a weekend getaway, the soundtrack plays
narrative threads together, cutting from her mother’s Van Morrison’s “Wild Night.” The lyrics mirror Thelma’s
deathbed, to Cheryl’s first experiments with heroin, to her and Louise’s actions as each packs her bags in a parallel-
chucking her boot down the mountain. For the first time, editing sequence:
the film makes it clear that Cheryl’s addictions (to drugs
and hiking) are coping mechanisms for dealing with her As you brush your shoes, you stand before your mirror
mother’s absence. Significantly, this parallel-edited And you comb your hair, grab your coat and hat
sequence is also the first time the audience hears Paul
Simon’s vocal track on “El Condor Pasa (If I Could),” and More importantly, the lyrics speak to the giddy anticipa-
the volume swells so that the music fully takes over the tion both women feel over the prospect of escaping their
soundtrack. Previously, the song has sounded “incom- humdrum daily routines:
plete” and fragmented, with only a few bars of music and
Cheryl’s mumbled humming heard here and there. But at And everything looks so complete
this pivotal moment, the song plays with full orchestration When you’re walking down on the streets
And the wind, it catches your feet
8.23 Song lyrics foreshadow Thelma & Louise’s dramatic Sets you flying, crying
conclusion. Ooh ooh-ooh wee, wild night, is calling *

Interestingly, the soundtrack plays Martha Reeves’s ver-

sion of the song, emphasizing how this moment captures
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

the excitement of the women’s liberation. Furthermore,

the lyrics’ emphasis on flying establishes one of the cen-
tral motifs in the film: flight into open space as a metaphor
for empowerment (fig. 8.23). In short, the use of the song
effectively ends the film’s exposition, as both women have
made the first step away from their gender roles as house-
wife and waitress.

Tempo and Volume

Tempo (speed) and volume are two attributes of music
that are readily describable, even to the untrained ear.
They also play a significant role in determining the emo-
tional intensity of a song (and, by extension, a scene).

268 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Kilgore’s racism and bigotry. Wagner dominates the mix

on the soundtrack and offers audiences a sense of the sol-
diers’ simultaneous fear and excitement. The music trans-
forms what would otherwise be the confined space of
a helicopter into a position of authority and dominance;
the blaring music is an act of aggression that exceeds the
physical space of the helicopter itself.
The sequence then cuts to the targeted village, whose
silence is disrupted by the comparatively quiet ringing of
a bell. Eventually Wagner’s music can be heard on the
soundtrack accompanying images of the village
(fig. 8.25). It gradually gets louder, culminating in the
helicopters’ attack. The abrupt movement from loud to

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soft shifts the audience’s identification, so that the excite- guitar accompanies images of the three riding southwest
ment they might otherwise share with the soldiers on a train. The instrument’s association with folk music
onscreen gives way to empathy for the villagers. Sound (and rural space) is an efficient way to emphasize the
editor Walter Murch’s manipulation of volume in this film’s early twentieth-century setting and to signal the
scene puts audiences in the position of the attacked, as characters’ movement from an urban to a rural locale. In
well as the attacker. contrast, Howard Shore’s score for the opening credits of
The tempo and volume of non-diegetic music can also Se7en (David Fincher, 1995) helps to establish the urban
help paint internal space. In Psycho, as Marion leaves setting and grim tone by utilizing distorted electric and
Phoenix, the score is played quite loud and establishes electronic instruments and sampled sound effects.
her nervousness. Moreover, multiple melodic lines unfold Instrumentation can also suggest important character
in differing rhythms and suggest the dual facets of traits and emotional states. Jonny Greenwood, lead guitar-
Marion’s personality. At a lower pitch, the strings play ist for the alternative rock band Radiohead and composer
a rapid progression of notes characterized by their sharp, in residence for the BBC Orchestra, has become one of the
distinct (staccato) sound. This is the dominant strain in most compelling composers of film scores in recent years,
the melody, which begins immediately after Marion’s boss fusing his interests in rock, classical and avant-garde mu-
crosses the street in front of her car; his perplexed look sical techniques. In films such as There Will Be Blood,
makes it clear that he wonders why Marion is not home Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung, 2010), We Need to Talk
sick in bed, as she said she would be. As Marion continues About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011), and Inherent Vice
her drive the next night, the plucking of the strings corre- (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014), Greenwood’s eclectic
sponds to the blinding rain and slashing windshield wip- sonic concoctions are far more than audio filler; his exper-
ers, which clearly distract Marion, leading her to the Bates imental compositions play a key role in helping audiences
Motel. This line is clearly associated with Marion’s fear as to perceive the intense, churning emotions characters
she leaves town and evades the law. struggle to repress.
The second melodic line is higher pitched. The violins In The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012), Joaquin
play a legato (notes that are smooth and connected) melo- Phoenix plays Freddie Quell, a World War II veteran
dy at half the speed of the lower notes. Given the narra- whose primal obsessions with fighting, sex, and booze
tive context, this upper melodic line seems to correspond make him a veritable powder keg when he returns home
with Marion’s attempt to remain calm—or rather, to act to the States. The film’s exposition finds Quell winding
calm when under the surface she is almost paralyzed with down his days on the Pacific front (fig. 8.26). In a seem-
fear. In this regard, the two distinct melodic lines reflect ingly insignificant moment, Quell scurries up a tree to
one of the film’s most important motifs: personalities torn
asunder by conflicting desires. The volume and tempo of 8.26 Music suggests Quell is a bomb with a short fuse in
Bernard Herrmann’s score are, in other words, a musical The Master.
representation of psychosis.

Instrumentation
It is not difficult to make generalizations about what
instruments are used to perform a piece of music. Does
an orchestra play the music? A brass ensemble? A string
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

quartet? Do the musicians use electric or electronic

instruments? Do the musicians sample and manipulate
pre-recorded sounds? Bernard Herrmann’s score for
Psycho would have had a very different effect had he
included brass instruments to temper the sound of the
strings, especially during the piercing notes that accom-
pany Marion’s violent death. Different instruments create
different moods, so the choice of instrumentation can
play a dramatic role in creating an environment for
a scene.
Instrumentation can suggest a film’s time period and
setting. For example, when Bill, Abbey, and the Girl flee
Chicago at the beginning of Days of Heaven, an acoustic

270 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

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http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/suub-shib/detail.action?docID=6006563.
Created from suub-shib on 2023-03-27 08:37:38.
retrieve a coconut. Film scholar Caitríona Walsh’s careful Music that functions in this way often relies on stereo-
description and analysis of Greenwood’s instrumentation types to produce meaning. The music in Ford’s film is not
reveals that this moment, which might otherwise appear authentic Apache music; it is a cliché that became a sub-
to be inconsequential, actually introduces crucial, disturb- stitute for the authentic artifact because of its repetition in
ing information about character psychology. film, radio, and eventually TV.
[When] we first meet with Freddie Quell, his initial In contrast, Office Space (Mike Judge, 1999) intention-
actions [take] the form of the strenuous, measured ally upsets cultural assumptions about music for comic
chopping motions of a machete as he extricates a coconut effect. Throughout the film, three beleaguered office
from a tree-top. Here, his trenchant movements are in workers—Peter, Michael, and Samir (Ron Livingston,
direct syncopation with the strings featured, as well as David Herman, and Ajay Naidu)—suffer through the
being echoed by the clunky rattling of the woodblock. mind-numbing tedium of their white-collar jobs. Gangster
These metered rhythmic patterns are offset by incisive, rap by Canibus, Ice Cube, and the Geto Boys plays
fragmentary, upward-edging violin(s) […] and by the throughout the soundtrack, articulating the friends’ grow-
slightly off-key […] pizzicato (plucked) strings. […] The ing frustration at work. The film trades on the irony that,
cumulative impact of these various sonic phenomena is while most viewers immediately associate rap with the so-
that they offer an initial insight into the temperament of called “urban experience,” this trio of angry misfits is sub-
the protagonist, who is at once erratic and off-kilter, urban and decidedly middle-class—quite the opposite of
decisive in action and yet difficult to pin down in terms of
intent. The percussive continuity evident here also elicits
a sort of a musical re-framing of the proverbial ticking 8.27 Harpo Marx is always associated with a horn or a harp.
time bomb, with Freddie himself assuming the threat
of a detonated device.
Walsh’s argument demonstrates how careful identification
of instruments (wood block and violins) and the way they
are played (plucked) can help cinephiles understand the
way music often leads the audience to recognize some-
thing about a character that the dialogue hasn’t explicitly
revealed (in this case, that he is a ticking time bomb).
Marx Brothers’ films offer many comic examples of
how instruments can be associated with a character. In
these films, Harpo Marx never utters a word. His primary
means of communication are his mischievous smile and
an oversized bicycle horn, which he frequently honks in
exclamation. Yet the chaotic frenzy of a Marx Brothers’
film is always tempered by Harpo’s romantic side, which
appears when he tenderly serenades the audience with
a harp (fig. 8.27). The character’s quirky humor arises
from the bizarre juxtaposition of low-brow (the honking
horn) and high-brow (the harp).
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

Cultural Significance
Finally, filmmakers can add complexity to a film by using
music that bears a specific cultural significance. A specific
song or type of music may conjure up shared cultural
knowledge, as in Stagecoach (1939), when John Ford uses
a familiar musical theme to tell audiences that Native
Americans are near. According to Claudia Gorbman, the
film’s “Indian music” produces meaning in part because of
its “cultural-musical properties—[the] rhythmic repetition
in groups of four with accented initial beat … [which]
already signify ‘Indian’ in the language of the American
music industry” (Gorbman, p. 28).

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http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/suub-shib/detail.action?docID=6006563.
Created from suub-shib on 2023-03-27 08:37:38.
the gangsters romanticized in the lyrics. One riotous scene the montage, shapes meaning, establishes tone, and
combines the Geto Boys’ “Still” with the visual cues from encourages flights of fantasy” (Alter, p. 3). Alter offers
gangster rap videos—canted, low-angle shots and slow a specific example of a musical composition that links two
motion—as the trio unleashes all its wrath on the compa- very different essay films together in compelling ways.
ny (fig. 8.28). But instead of torturing somebody, as cele- A haunting Hanns Eisler score can be heard on the
brated in the lyrics, Peter, Michael, and Samir demolish soundtrack of both Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog (1955),
the thing they hate most: the office printer. The ironic use a self-reflexive meditation on the death camps of World
of music, and the fact that it infiltrates the film’s visual War II, and Loin du Vietnam (Far from Vietnam, 1967), an
style as well, points to a larger theme in the film: how far omnibus film about the Vietnam War made by Resnais,
removed these men are from the “street” problems Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude
described in the songs they worship. Yet it also evokes Lelouch, Chris Marker, and Agnès Varda. In 1967, it
how rap’s vitriolic expressions of disaffection transcend would have been extremely provocative to directly com-
cultural, racial, and class barriers. pare the U.S. prosecution of war in Southeast Asia to
Filmmakers may also use songs whose production his- Hitler’s genocidal practices, especially since the United
tory holds some cultural significance. In The Royal States had been seen as a “savior from totalitarianism” in
Tenenbaums, after Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) World War II (Alter, p. 4). However, Alter contends,
unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide, Nick Drake’s Eisler’s score connects these two catastrophic periods:
recording of “Fly” plays softly in the background. The fact “What could not be said or shown—and here it’s impor-
that Drake committed suicide adds poignancy to the scene tant to recall that Resnais’s films […] were immediately
beyond the melancholy of the actual tune itself. censored by the French authorities—could be suggested
Film scholar Nora Alter explores the powerful role that through a musical composition” (Alter, p. 4). Even in non-
non-diegetic music can play in the non-fiction essay film, fiction films, then, music “speaks” to audiences, but does
a genre that may incorporate elements of documentary, so in an indirect way on what Alter calls a “parallel track.”
fiction, and avant-garde films. “Critical attention is rarely In this instance, the musical score conveyed ideas about
focused on the soundtrack of the non-fiction essay film,” war, about violent bloodshed, and about bearing witness,
she writes, “[a]nd yet, music is one of the most important that were so politically sensitive that they could not be
and determining forces in this type of film. It structures stated outright.
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

8.28 The office workers act

out the lyrics of gangster rap
in Office Space.

272 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

In Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976), Robert De the filth” of the city, might just be the “real rain” to
Niro plays Travis Bickle, a lonely New York cab driver clean up the street.
who is simultaneously sickened by the moral decay he Yet, from the opening credits, the film clearly
sees everyday and obsessed with political campaigner emphasizes that his condemnatory view of the city is
Betsy (Cybill Shepherd). When his romance with Betsy a distorted and destructive one. Several scenes
fizzles out, Travis tries unsuccessfully to assassinate emphasize that Travis directs most of his hostility
the political candidate Betsy works for. After he fails, toward African Americans. Also, Travis repeatedly
Travis murders a pimp and several street hustlers in points weapons (or his fingers, as if they were
order to rescue the thirteen-year-old prostitute Iris a weapon) at innocent strangers: people walking on
(Jodie Foster). He becomes a local hero in the process. the streets, dancers on television, and women
Travis’s obsessions seem paradoxical: on one hand, onscreen at the local porno theater.
he’s a hopeless romantic, and on the other hand he’s Coming on the heels of Travis’s fuming over the
an explosive cynic who can only see the city’s decay. moral decay of the city, the romantic theme initially
But Bernard Herrmann’s score emphasizes that suggests that love could, perhaps, alleviate some of
Travis’s romantic and violent sides are interrelated. his anger and cynicism. It appears more frequently in
Herrmann’s score for Taxi Driver (his last score in the first half of the film, whenever Travis thinks long-
a career that began with Citizen Kane in 1941) intro- ingly about Betsy. For example, when he sees Betsy
duces two dominant themes during the opening for the first time, the music plays and Travis’s voice-
credits. The soundtrack alternates between the two, over explains, “She appeared like an angel out of this
seemingly antithetical, non-diegetic themes. The filthy mass.” In his eyes, she stands apart from the
first theme is spare and militaristic. It is built around rest of the city. Audiences may assume that her love,
two low, descending notes. Often the tonal progres- then, could save Travis from his anger. Once she
sion is punctuated by the tapping of a snare drum, rejects him, the theme is associated with Iris, suggest-
whose tempo gradually increases until the high note ing that she becomes a substitute for Betsy.
gives way to the low note. The second theme is But the film makes clear that Travis’s psychotic
a slow, lilting jazz tune played on a tenor saxophone. ranting and his romantic longing, far from being
Onscreen, the image cuts back and forth between opposites, are actually complementary. Travis’s
extreme close-ups of Travis’s eyes and blurry, over- tirades against the city’s culture, his love for Betsy,
saturated point-of-view shots of New York City. This and his desire to rescue Iris are nothing more than
suggests immediately that the music reflects two means for him to prop up a wounded ego. What
halves of his personality, and that Travis’s perspec- Travis really desires is to assert his dominance, by
tive of the city is distorted. acting as the supreme moral force over an entire city
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

Throughout the film, the militaristic theme is asso- and by protecting two women whom he sees as too
ciated with Travis’s seething anger. The foreboding helpless to defend themselves. His first thoughts of
theme, largely played on low brass instruments, Betsy are notable for their misguided chivalry, and
reflects his military background in Vietnam, and his when he asks Betsy out, he promises to protect her.
voice-over emphasizes that Travis will eventually use When Betsy rejects Travis, he turns his attention to
this background on the domestic front. As he contem- Iris, someone who, he thinks, is in need of rescue. To
plates how sordid the city has become, Travis’s voice- underscore that Travis’s motivations are selfish and
over speaks of his hopes for a “real rain [to] come and misogynist, Herrmann’s jazzy romantic score appears
wash all the scum off the streets.” The militaristic in the diegesis when Sport seduces Iris. He puts on
theme typically accompanies these thoughts, suggest- a romantic record to accompany his sweet talk, pre-
ing that he, the lone stalwart against the “scum and venting her from returning home to her parents (see

SOUND 273

274 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Pramaggiora, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film : A Critical Introuduction 4th Edition, Laurence King Publishing, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/suub-shib/detail.action?docID=6006563.
Created from suub-shib on 2023-03-27 08:37:38.
This discussion of sound concludes our text’s coverage Works Consulted
of the five technical aspects of film art (narrative, mise en
Alter, Nora. “Sound Thoughts: Hearing the Essay,” in
scène, cinematography, editing, and sound). By and large
The Essay Film, eds. Sven Kramer and Thomas Tode.
this chapter (along with Chapters 4 through 7) has
Konstanz: Konstanz University Press, 2011, pp. 1–15.
explored how these elements function in narrative films.
Bordwell, David. On the History of Film Style. Cambridge,
Because sound lacks shape and form, writing about its use
MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
in cinema is in some ways more difficult than writing about
Bradshaw, Peter. “Sorry to Bother You Review – White
narrative and visual content, but it is no less important.
Privilege Gets a Wacky Wake-up Call.” The Guardian. Dec.
Yet even films that don’t tell stories can use sound to
6, 2018. www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/06/sorry-to-
complement images onscreen, even when those images
bother-you-review-boots-riley-lakeith-stanfield-tessa-
are abstract. While sound in such cases won’t contribute
thompson. Accessed April 4, 2019.
narrative information such as historical context or a char-
Carlsson, Sven. “Sound Design of Star Wars.” FilmSound.org.
acter’s upbringing, the characteristics of the human voice,
www.filmsound.org/starwars. Accessed August 13, 2006.
sound effects, and music will still be relevant. The next
Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York:
chapter takes up in more specific detail two such alterna-
Columbia University Press, 1994.
tives to narrative filmmaking: documentary and avant-
The Voice in Cinema, trans Claudia Gorbman.
garde cinema.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Clair, René. “The Art of Sound.” FilmSound.org. https://web.
archive.org/web/20060118100644/http://lavender.fortunec-
Chapter Review
ity.com/hawkslane/575/art-of-sound.htm.
8.1 Contrary to popular assumption, the cinema was Cook, David. A History of Narrative Film. New York:
never silent. Even before the advent of sound technology, Norton, 1996.
music accompanied most film screenings. The history of Doane, Mary Ann. “The Voice in the Cinema: the Articulation
sound technology has seen several major developments, of Body and Space.” Yale French Studies, 60 (1980),
each one an attempt to provide higher fidelity. pp. 33–50.
Eisenstein, S.M., V.I. Pudovkin, and G.V. Alexandrov.
8.2 Because sound is added or altered during post-
“A Statement.” FilmSound.org. https://web.archive.org/
production, it is freed from the image.
web/20120406020920/http://lavender.fortunecity.com/
8.3 There are five common image–sound relationships: hawkslane/575/statement.htm.
onscreen vs. offscreen sound; objective vs. subjective “Foley Artists at C5 Share Their Secrets.” C5, Inc. News.
sound; diegetic vs. non-diegetic sound; image time vs. c5sound.com/newsroom/secrets.php. August 13, 2006
sound time; and image mood vs. sound mood. Frayling, Christopher. Sergio Leone: Something to Do with
Death. London: Faber, 2000.
8.4 Analyzing dialogue requires the viewer to study more
Gomery, Douglas. “The Coming of Sound; Technological
than just the literal meaning of the words that are spoken.
Change in the American Film Industry,” in Film Sound,
Viewers should also take note of how the spoken word
eds. Elizabeth Weis and John Belton. New York: Columbia
sounds. Doing so requires careful attention to four sonic
University Press, 1985, pp. 5–24.
attributes: volume, pitch, speech characteristics, and
Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music.
acoustic qualities. Each of these may be a determining
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.

factor in how audiences interpret subtext, and the degree
Grover-Friedlander, Michal. “The Phantom of the Opera:
to which audiences trust voice-over narration.
The Lost Voice of Opera in Silent Film.” Cambridge
8.5 Sound effects have three common functions in every Opera Journal, 11.2 (1999), pp. 179–92.
film. Scholars should be able to describe the sound effects Kinder, Marsha, and Beverle Houston. Close-Up: A Critical
in concrete terms, focusing on four sonic attributes: Perspective on Film. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich,
acoustic qualities, volume, regularity, and verisimilitude. 1972.
Lee, Joanna. “The Music of In the Mood for Love.” In the Mood
8.6 Recognizing five characteristics of music can help
for Love. Dir. Wong Kar-Wai. USA/Criterion DVD, 2002.
scholars with no formal musical training describe and
Leeper, Jill. “Crossing Borders: The Soundtrack for Touch of
analyze in concrete terms what they hear: patterns of
Evil,” in Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular
development, lyrical content, tempo and volume,
Music, eds. Pamela Robertson Wojcik and Arthur Knight.
instrumentation, and cultural significance.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001, pp. 226–43.

SOUND 275

Film Analysis
The Human Voice and Sound Effects

The essay below examines the way sound emphasizes that the gruesome
violence in No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007) is in keep-
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

ing with a long tradition of bloodshed.

The study notes that accompany this film analysis focus on strategies
for writing introductions and conclusions. These paragraphs are notori-
ously difficult to write, largely because writers fear they may be redundant.
However, introductions are important since they establish what the rest of
the paper will cover, and conclusions often summarize the main argument.
From the reader’s perspective, these paragraphs aren’t repetitive—they
clarify. Introductions guide the reader into the argument, letting her know
what main point(s) will be addressed in the body of the paper. Conclusions
reiterate this main point in light of the ideas that have been developed
throughout the paper.

276 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

the reader for the main argument that follows? How does the conclusion been completely formulated yet. So,

reiterate the logic that connects the essay’s major claims? many students find that, when they
have difficulty getting started on a

Sound in No Country for Old Men: A Tradition of Violence paper, the best strategy is to skip

Set in 1980 in the midst of escalating drug wars in the United States, No
writing the introduction until a rough

Country for Old Men, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, begins with
draft is finished.

Sheriff Ed Bell’s (Tommy Lee Jones) voice-over, in which he describes his

2 Using a common rhetorical strategy,
anxieties about an escalation of violent crime.1 As he sees it, the era’s bru- this author pulls the reader into his
tality is beyond comprehension. Bell’s nostalgic lament for better days coin- argument by focusing on one tech-
cides with footage of a deputy’s arrest of Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), nique—the voice-over—to make a claim
the calculating hired killer who appears to be the face of the modern vio- about the film as a whole. This author
lence Bell says he can’t fathom: Chigurh soon kills the arresting officer and links this technique to the overall plot.
goes on a cross-country killing spree in search of stolen drug money. Bell is Exploring the relationship between
a relatively peripheral character in the narrative, which concentrates on the Bell’s voice-over and the central
dangerous cat and mouse games between Chigurh and Llewelyn Moss (Josh plotline allows this author to home in
Brolin), a welder who absconds with the drug money. Still, the sheriff’s on a central argument. Writers should
voice-over opens the film, and his dialogue will close the film, foreground- minimize plot summary in introduc-
ing his musings and focusing the film’s thematic concerns on his emotional tions. Do not use the introduction as
response to events he only observes from a distance. But careful study of filler or merely to summarize the plot
the relationship between sound and image reveals Bell’s condemnation of for readers who haven’t seen the film.
modern society to be off the mark.2 This tension suggests that No Country Use it instead to prepare the reader
for Old Men isn’t exactly a social critique of changing times and corroding for the thesis that follows.

values; rather, it is a psychological portrait of the aging sheriff’s feelings of

3 Thesis statements almost always
irrelevance and impotence as he tries to cope with his own mortality.3
conclude introductory paragraphs in
academic writing. Readers, at least in
Questioning Bell’s Perspective as a Narrator
Western cultures, are trained to look for
Though Bell considers himself a wise, avuncular figure, his word choice
these all-important sentences at the
and speech characteristics in his voice-over undercut his supposed author-
end of introductions. This is why it is
ity. Most conventional voice-overs narrate directly to the audience from
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

crucial for writers to spend so much

a point in time after the events depicted. That is, they speak to us from time crafting precise thesis statements
a vantage point that implicitly offers us the complete knowledge afforded and to place these sentences at the end
by hindsight and experience. If the narrator is a character within the of the introduction (not at the begin-
diegesis, he has already experienced the fabula’s events and is sharing his ning, and not in the middle). Be aware
understanding of their ultimate significance with the audience. Quite that an introduction does not have to
simply, voice-overs usually work on the assumption that the narrator be limited to one paragraph. In longer
already knows where the story is headed. By contrast, Bell’s voice-over papers, an introduction might be
contemplates the present. While he fondly describes decades past, he does several paragraphs—or even several
so as a way of making sense of the world he occupies now: “You can’t help pages—long. But in general, short
but compare yourself against the old timers. You can’t help but wonder papers (fifteen pages or less) require
how they’d’ve operated in these times.” The fact that Bell casually rattles short introductions.

SOUND 277

Further complicating Bell’s voice-over is the fact that the images contra-
dict the sentiment he expresses. Although Bell invokes a modern world
where crime is rampant, we don’t see evidence of what he’s talking about.
Instead of showing streets crowded with junkies and thugs, the mise en
scène fixes on wide swathes of the barren Texas plains, hemmed in by
makeshift fence posts and barbed wire. The wind’s persistent whirr
emphasizes the essential emptiness of the setting. To be sure, the film
includes more than its share of gruesome bloodshed. But the rustic
Western setting and its historical and cinematic associations with genocide
and marauding bandits suggest that the violence onscreen is anything but a
symptom of twentieth-century American depravity. In fact, when Bell’s

278 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Good vs. Evil? Parallels Between Llewelyn and Chigurh

To further emphasize that the area is steeped in violence, the film uses
dialogue as well as visual techniques to draw repeated parallels between the
more benevolent, folksy family man, Llewelyn, and Chigurh, the supposed
face of irredeemable social decay. When Chigurh kills one man for his
automobile, he politely asks the victim to “hold still” before murdering him
(fig. 8.30).
In the very next scene, Llewelyn looks at wild game through the scope of
his hunting rifle, and he too whispers to his prey to “hold still.” The dia-
logue explicitly equates drug culture with another, culturally sanctioned
blood ritual (fig. 8.31, p. 280).
Sound designer Craig Berkey’s sound effects in one of the film’s action
sequences develops the implications of this parallel even further. Sitting
alone in the dark of his seedy hotel room, hiding from the mobsters who
are pursuing him, Llewelyn discovers a tracking device hidden in the sto-
len briefcase full of cash. At the same instant, he hears a tell-tale thump
reverberate down the hall. The Coen brothers generate suspense by rely-
ing solely on sound effects to hint at the doings offscreen. Another choice
would have been to use parallel editing to grant the audience a moment of
omniscience. Instead, the scene uses sound to put the viewer in
Llewelyn’s mindset, relying on hearing to surmise what is happening on
the other side of the door. His suspicions aroused, Llewelyn calls down to
the front desk but gets no response. When Llewelyn had paid for his
room, the desk clerk made it clear that he would be “on all night” and
would let Llewelyn know if any other “swinging dick” came around, so the
unanswered call means that the desk clerk has checked out early, so to
speak. Moreover, the soundtrack emphasizes the eerie call and response
between the ring on Llewelyn’s earpiece and the distant rings from the
front desk. The sound effects thus shape our perception of space. The
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

hotel is so empty, there’s no other noise to obscure the ringing sound

from downstairs; Llewlyn is now alone with a killer. Furthermore, given
that the hotel is small enough to hear what’s going on at the desk, there’s
little room for evasive maneuvers. As he sits in his room strategizing,
sound effects accentuate Llewelyn’s building anxiety. Soon enough, he
starts to hear the “beep beep beep” of the tracking device (which also
recalls the sound of a heart monitor) and the sound of Chigurh’s soft
footsteps walking down the corridor. Both ominously grow louder as the
killer approaches Llewelyn’s door. The accelerating tempo of the
rhythmic beeping makes it clear that the killer is getting closer … and that
Llewelyn’s heart is pounding faster.

SOUND 279

insistence (contrary to what Bell believes) that violence has been an attrib-
ute of this region for centuries. For one thing, the sonic emphasis on the
intimacy of the hotel establishes a mood that’s more in keeping with clas-
sic Western shootouts than urban crime films, an effect enhanced by the
creaking floorboards that groan with every step the two men take. The
sound effects that typically connote modern urban spaces are noticeably
absent. There are no roaring engines, no screaming sirens, no pulsating
rock tunes. The ambient sound is so minimal, that every move Llewelyn
makes—from sitting on the bed to switching the light off—is, by compari-
son, a deafening and potentially deadly tip-off. At one point, Llewelyn
lowers his head to the floor to peek under his door, and the airflow from

280 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

The Fear of Irrelevance

The unfounded anxieties Bell expresses in his opening voice-over essen-
tially bookend the film. Instead of building to the expected confrontation
between the forces of good and evil, the film seems to fizzle after Llewelyn
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

meets his anticlimactic demise offscreen, ending with a protracted fourth

act focusing on the sheriff’s decision to retire. While the final scenes seem
to deaden the brisk pace of a film that had become a nail-biting thriller, it’s
important to consider how the unusual anti-climax returns to and elabo-
rates on Bell’s fears. Bell’s opening voice-over establishes his need to
impose a sociological raison d’être upon violence. The film’s conclusion
explains the emotional motivation behind this need and points to the con-
sequences that ensue when Bell acts on his faulty, overly personal logic.
In the final scene, Bell describes a dream to his accommodating wife,
Loretta (Tess Harper). This moment makes explicit Bell’s recognition that
he grows closer to death by the day, which provides the psychological

SOUND 281

ment has disrupted their domestic equilibrium and now they must struggle
to find a new way to relate. Sound designer Craig Berkey amps up the eve-
ryday sound effects—the slurping lips sucking on coffee, the faint ring of
fingertips dragging across the porcelain cups, the persistent breeze blowing
outside—to emphasize the uncomfortable silences the couple now shares.
Put quite simply, now that Bell has quit law enforcement, he’s left with
nothing, and this leaves him plenty of time to sit and stew over his own
mortality. When he begins to tell Loretta about his dreams, her flippant
response speaks to Bell’s sense of irrelevance: “Well, you got plenty of
time for [dreams] now.” Later, as he nears the end of his dream narration,
the sound of his heavy, slightly accelerated breathing implies that sadness

282 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

even when characters, dreams, lives, and narration die. The downbeat altogether. Notice how this author

conclusion, with the image of nothingness juxtaposed with the sound of

discusses an element of the film

the clock, insinuates that time is the only thing that remains, and it moves
heretofore ignored (its title) as a way

on endlessly without us.

of reiterating the main point. The

The film’s title encapsulates the central idea discussed above.4 At first
author avoids using a self-announcing
phrase, such as “In conclusion,” to
glance, the viewer might mistakenly assume the phrase singles out a specific
territory that is uniquely hostile, as if the title was actually [This Is] No
begin the paragraph. Such phrases

Country for Old Men. But Cormac McCarthy took the title of his novel from
are clunky and distracting.

the opening line of W. B. Yeats’s poem “Sailing to Byzantium.” Yeats’s 5 In general, writers should avoid
poem is a meditation on death’s inevitability: introducing new ideas or texts in the
conclusion. But here the new idea
That is no country for old men. The young encapsulates and reiterates the entire
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees […] paper. Another option would be to
The salmon falls, the mackerel crowded seas, […] provide a more straightforward
Whatever is begotten, born and dies. summary. Yet another strategy some
writers use to shape conclusions is to
In these lines, the speaker bemoans the fact that every living being is des- point to the need for further research
tined to die. But whereas Bell tries in vain to forestall his inexorable fate by on the topic at hand, or to ask readers
retiring—not just from his job, but from life itself—Yeats’s speaker pro- a provocative question designed
claims that one’s only hope for solace is to live boldly and deliberately in the to make them contemplate the
face of death: ramifications of the main argument.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

Ultimately, No Country for Old Men does not dwell on death as the source
of profound sadness; appropriately enough, Llewelyn’s and Carla Jean’s
deaths both occur offscreen. Rather, the tragic pathos rests in Bell’s pas-
sive resignation. He is unable to live his life, and his soul can no longer
Copyright © 2020. Laurence King Publishing. All rights reserved.

manage to “clap its hands and sing, and louder sing.”5

Works Cited (in the essay)

Nichols, Mary P. “Revisiting Heroism and Community in Contemporary
Westerns: No Country for Old Men and 3:10 to Yuma.” Perspectives on
Political Science, 37/4 (Fall 2008), pp. 207–15.
Yeats, W. B. “Sailing to Byzantium.” The Tower: A Facsimile Edition. New York:
Scribner, 2004, pp. 1–3.

SOUND 283

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8 Sound A Critical Introuduction

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8 Sound A Critical Introuduction

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Chapter Eight Learning Objectives

8.1 Sound has always been a significant aspect

Sound of the cinematic experience. Articulate the

8.2 Summarize how technology and the

240 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

ers could not afford the large orchestras needed to per-

8.2 Alfred Hitchcock directing Anny

242 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.4 A Foley artist at work.

244 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Sound recording and dubbing in

246 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Mother’s voice bleeds into Marion’s room also reaffirms

Emphasizing the Difference between

8.7 Diegetic music blasts out of the

248 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.9 The diegetic waltz gives way

250 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Volume and Pitch

ered approach to solving the crew’s dilemma. Only after

252 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.13 Depicting the struggle for

254 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

256 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

In the film’s opening scene, which depicts

258 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Daniel Plainview sits alone on the western plains, listen-

ease (which the international ships transport, along with

260 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.18 A door closes on the Death Star

262 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

they find the migrant lifestyle anything but tranquil.

and no longer useful. Shire (Otto and Spence).

264 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.21 Neighbors—Rose and Mac watch

266 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.22 The rough climb toward emotional

Interestingly, the soundtrack plays Martha Reeves’s ver-

the excitement of the women’s liberation. Furthermore,

Tempo and Volume

268 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Kilgore’s racism and bigotry. Wagner dominates the mix

quartet? Do the musicians use electric or electronic

270 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

8.28 The office workers act

272 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

274 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.

ing with a long tradition of bloodshed.

276 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Sheriff Ed Bell’s (Tommy Lee Jones) voice-over, in which he describes his

values; rather, it is a psychological portrait of the aging sheriff’s feelings of

crucial for writers to spend so much

278 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

Good vs. Evil? Parallels Between Llewelyn and Chigurh

hotel is so empty, there’s no other noise to obscure the ringing sound

280 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

The Fear of Irrelevance

meets his anticlimactic demise offscreen, ending with a protracted fourth

282 PART TWO: FILM ANALYSIS

conclusion, with the image of nothingness juxtaposed with the sound of

on endlessly without us.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

manage to “clap its hands and sing, and louder sing.”5

Works Cited (in the essay)

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