Expressive movement unit 3

Metadata

At the beginning of this unit, two clearly differentiated conflicting dynamic poles alternate. The first pole is the triumphal pathos of the music, reminiscent of the “Ride of the Valkyries,” and the pathos of the pilot merging with his machine in the parallel of the long shot of the slanting airplane and the sloped profile close-up of the Lieutenant. The second pole is the physical tension of the soldiers on the ground: Hardy’s cramped crawling position and the increasing narrowness of the frame as he approaches the retreating camera as well as the contrast between Todd’s frozen bearing and Sailor’s mechanical gum chewing.

This unit is dominated by prolonged close-ups of the Lieutenant in half profile. The play of the composition of light and dark shadows speeding past in the background and the flickering moving impulses on his face act as visual music. The mysterious stoic and unmoving nature of the Lieutenant’s face itself is placed in contrast to the sympathetic expressions of his fellow soldiers. The Lieutenant’s death is underlined in the same way by contrasting his slow movements as he clasps his heart and then collapses in on himself followed by an immediate cut to Todd and Sailor—connecting this moment to the general tension and ambivalence of the scene.

This tension between the visual dynamic of the cockpit shots and the cramped paralysis of the observers on the ground ends with a blast in the still long shot of the bridge. The plane falling into center frame as the music reaches a shrill dissonant crescendo and the explosion that follows with a prolonged echo in the eerie stillness open an acoustic and temporal space.