Välimäki, Susanna
(Tampereen yliopistopaino, 2008)
In this book, I discuss sound design and music in World War II combat films. My main object is to study audiovisual aesthetics and narration in war films from the point of view of sound and music and to demonstrate what a pivotal role music and sound design play in the construction of the ideological meanings of a film. World War II films represent a prototype of war film by which conceptions of history are narrated but also, as importantly, by which the conceptions of today’s world and the justice of the present wars and conflicts are negotiated. War films form a central cultural imagery and mythology through which the conceptions of national identity, history and future, among other things, are shaped, defined and re-negotiated. Moreover, war films are entries in the debate on the deepest perennial problems of mankind in general. Music plays a decisive role in this ideological communication in war films, and indeed music is an age-old vehicle for propaganda. Often it is the music that tells the audience what to think of the war, the historical events, the violence and the deaths on the screen. Of all the means a film uses to bind the viewer emotionally to the film, music often is the most powerful. It almost forces the audience to identify with the narrative, and for the most part it does so insidiously, without the audience noticing. The first chapter of the book outlines the field and scope of film music research and sound studies from the point of view of cultural musicology, the study of auditory culture and hermeneutic music analysis. After this introduction, I present detailed analyses on the following six WWII combat films: the first two versions of The Unknown Soldier (1955, dir. Edvin Laine; 1985, dir. Rauni Mollberg, Finland); The Iron Cross (1976, dir. Sam Peckinpah, UK/West Germany); Das Boot (1981/1997, dir. Wolfgang Petersen, [West] Germany); Come and See (1985, dir. Elem Klimov, USSR); and The Thin Red Line (1998, dir. Terrence Malick, USA). The focus in the analyses is on how the WWII combat films examined communicate critical or anti-war messages. Interpretative frameworks in the analyses vary for example from the phenomenological theories of auditory experientiality, aesthetic transcendentalism, and the notion of acousmêtre to theories of imaginary nation building and critical montage. The book methodologically develops sound and music studies as a field within film studies and also film music research and sound studies as a field within cultural musicology that examines music and sound as cultural representation, identity construction and ideological communication. In accordance to the basic tenet of audiovisual music studies, I claim that music and sound create meanings in films as powerfully as the visuals and the dialogue, though often these auditory workings remain outside the conscious attention of the perceiver. Moreover, I develop the methodology of film music and sound research by emphasizing how important it is to always study the music and sound in a film as not just as part of the overall audio-text but as part of the overall audiovisual text. War films are an especially interesting genre to study from this point of view, since they are a genre that emphasizes the auditory dimensions of the film by drawing on the spectacular and distinctive soundscape of war. Many war films have been on the front line of innovation in developing new audio technologies for the film industry, and the film industry and war history have a complex relationship. The book develops film music and sound studies as part of arts studies emphasizing the sonic dimensions in subjectivity, culture and media technology. My aim is to demonstrate what a powerful cultural technology music and sound are, both in film and contemporary culture in general. Moreover, the book contributes to the study of war and art, an emerging interdisciplinary field of academic research with significant possibilities for the humanities to engage with the social impact of research beyond academia. Contents 1. Introduction: the sonic communication in war films 2. The Unknown Soldiers: With and without the music 3. Cross of Iron: Children’s songs, Nazi-march and melancholia 4. Das Boot: The sound of the underwater war 5. Come and See: The soundscape of the broken mind 6. The Thin Red Line and the cosmic harmony List of sources Index Closing credits