Expressive movement unit 2

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The second part of the scene repeats the transition from distancing in the narrative mode (voice-over) to the staging of emotion through facial expression. However in the end what is staged is the transfer of facial movements to a spatial movement—departure.

EMU 2 again begins with the presence of the voice-over. If the camera pan to the left at first creates a visual broadening of a close and obstructed space (exacerbated by the dark shadows and the low camera angle), the first cut to a sitting soldier (medium close-up) and the following edits of similar shots create a spatial staging of confinement and corporeality. Again the transition to a spatial staging is accompanied by a change to inner-diegetic dialogue.

As in the preceding images of Pearl Harbor, here the editing of a multiplied soldier’s face refers back to a voice in the radio. The radio broadcast is reflected in the serious expression of this face. A long shot, that even zooms out for the final shot, dissolves this face. The strong emotion invested in the facial expressions now unfolds in the movement of departure which takes up the entire space.