In this post, I will continue the examination on the movie; Inglourious Basterds. In this part, we will address the use of communication technology in the film. To start with, communication technology encompasses a great many things, and this case audio and sound effects (SFX). With this in mind, I would like to examine just how the audio and sound used in Inglourious Basterds helped enforce it's narrative alongside multilingualism, a topic I already covered in my previous post. Throughout the film, there has been numerous instances which has given us good examples of how Inglourious Basterds utilizes sound effects like gunshots, shells firing/exploding, whip-cracking and etc to either invoke realization of the plot or as connecting dots behind key scenes in the film to the audience.
For instance, one of the most provocative scenes in the movie; the execution of the Jews in the beginning of the film. When the orders were given for the shooting, we can see or rather, hear instead the sounds of bullets fired and the tearing of the floorboards as the Dreyfus family was mercilessly wiped out. Even though there was no visual violence in that scene, the audience is able to experience a whole new sense of horror as the scene was made chillingly clear by the sounds of bullets delivering death to its victims. Not only does this provide the audience a different perspective of the same scenario, it was also a clever use of the SFX in the film.
Another scenario I would like to bring up concerns my second claim; that the SFX was used in connecting plot points within the film. For this, we will examine the scenario in Chapter 4 of the film, where Stiglitz faces Major Hellstrom and the film gives a flashback to Stiglitz's torture. The flashback shows Stiglitz being brutally whipped by an unseen individual. Later when the film resumes it's present course after the flashback ends, Hellstrom taps Stiglitz to provoke a response from Stiglitz on the game they were playing. The sounds used for the tap was the same sound heard during the whipping. This implied that Hellstrom himself was responsible for delivering the torture and this scene invokes clarity to the audience. Chion defines this technique; “synchresis consists in perceiving the concomitance of a discrete sound event and a discrete visual event as a single phenomenon” [13 p.492]. The action of tapping Stiglitz and the whipping sound that followed may not be related, but it will be recognized as the same event regardless.
For instance, one of the most provocative scenes in the movie; the execution of the Jews in the beginning of the film. When the orders were given for the shooting, we can see or rather, hear instead the sounds of bullets fired and the tearing of the floorboards as the Dreyfus family was mercilessly wiped out. Even though there was no visual violence in that scene, the audience is able to experience a whole new sense of horror as the scene was made chillingly clear by the sounds of bullets delivering death to its victims. Not only does this provide the audience a different perspective of the same scenario, it was also a clever use of the SFX in the film.
Another scenario I would like to bring up concerns my second claim; that the SFX was used in connecting plot points within the film. For this, we will examine the scenario in Chapter 4 of the film, where Stiglitz faces Major Hellstrom and the film gives a flashback to Stiglitz's torture. The flashback shows Stiglitz being brutally whipped by an unseen individual. Later when the film resumes it's present course after the flashback ends, Hellstrom taps Stiglitz to provoke a response from Stiglitz on the game they were playing. The sounds used for the tap was the same sound heard during the whipping. This implied that Hellstrom himself was responsible for delivering the torture and this scene invokes clarity to the audience. Chion defines this technique; “synchresis consists in perceiving the concomitance of a discrete sound event and a discrete visual event as a single phenomenon” [13 p.492]. The action of tapping Stiglitz and the whipping sound that followed may not be related, but it will be recognized as the same event regardless.
I will conclude my examination and discussion on this topic in my next post.
Harvard References:
Chion, M. (2003) Film, a Sound Art. USA, Columbia University Press
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