Departure and evacuation*

Classification in categories

• Battle and technology
• Suffering / victim / sacrifice

Metadata

Through the interplay of camera, shot composition and sound design, this scene connects three variations of an identical series of events (moment of rest, receiving orders, departure) to an image of the cyclical order of events. This order structures the military as a cyclical process in which increased readiness for battle is continuously born out of moments of hurt or loss.

In the film’s dramaturgical structure, this scene is between the final battle (>Radio station raid) and the temporal intensification of the remembrance of fallen heroes of war (>Victory speech and commemoration of the victims). It is thus the transition between the dynamic desire to fight and the contemplative remembrance of heroic sacrifice.

In the interaction of camera movement and progressive depths of field in the beginning, a moment of rest unfolds at what seems to be the end of the war. Parallel edits bind the soldiers in a new chain of command and thus return them to military activity (> EMU 1). Following this, the interplay of camera range and music extend the death of the soldier named Transport to the remembrance of a war hero, before the parallel edits continue the image of military command (> EMU 2). Finally, the interaction of camera and voice-over deepen the contemplative remembrance of the victim and through the determined departure of the surviving soldiers, transforms it into increased willingness of the military collective body to fight (> EMU 3).

Each unit of the scene describes the relationship of battle and dying as one of mutual causality: The troop loses individual soldiers because they fight and tirelessly continues the fight in particular because of the heroic sacrifices already made. The interplay of the visual and auditory levels focuses on the intensity of remembrance as the potential for future readiness for battle.    FS

Expressive movement units

Materials about the scene

Position of scene in film