Soundtrack Analysis in the Movie Dunkirk

Introduction

Events of the Second World War (SWW) evoke horrible memories of the damage that was inflicted on the parties involved. The movie Dunkirk is one of the recent masterpieces in the entertainment industry to have captured the events of the SWW in a way that leaves the audience glued to their screen for hours to watch how the story unfold. From the start to the end, the film does not disappoint in entertaining in spite of the horror that pops almost in every scene of the story. The movie is a war film directed by Christopher Nolan with Emma Thomas featuring as the producer. The production team has shown excellent skills utilizing cinematography techniques to ensure that the story is relayed as initially intended and also make a significant impact on the viewers. One of the cinematographic tools that the filmmakers have powerfully used is the sound. The effects of the soundtrack are so crucial in the film that their absence would have otherwise made the dull movie entertainment. An examination of the film reveals that the soundtrack serve to create emotional appeal, depict the desperation of the trapped soldiers as well as reflect the extent of the horrors of the war resulting from aerial bombardments by the German warplanes.

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The movie is about a rescue mission for Allied forces in the English Channel. It features explicitly British soldiers trapped in the English Channel against the advance of the German troops. The action of the film takes place in three distinct ears. The areas are land, air, and sea. The beginning of the film shows a group of stranded soldiers seeking to cross the English Channel as they attempt to escape the advancement of the enemy. The scenario that is depicted is that the soldiers have difficulty in crossing the channel for fear of air bombardments as well as advances of ground forces of the enemy. As the scenes unfold, what follows is a period of action that shows civilians take charge of the rescue mission to bring stranded British soldiers home by marshaling boats and yachts. The film represented events in history during the SWW when the Germans trapped French and British forces in 1940 in the town of Dunkirk in 1940, an occurrence that resulted in one of the foremost ferocious fighting during the war (Rabinowitz, 2017). In revealing the film's theme, Nolan and his team give the soundtrack a special place throughout the story to create various effects that make it one of the most exciting scripts of recent years in the film industry.

Right at the onset of the story in the opening scene, the use of the soundtrack introduces the viewer, informing them that the film would involve situations that provoke emotions. As the movie starts, baffled British soldiers encounter leaflets that fly over their heads like snow. Shortly, the audience can see that the environment in which the soldiers are located is dangerous not through the propaganda leaflets but also through the ticking of the clock that increases in intensity. According to Barsanti (2017), the use of the ticking clock sound was indeed taken from the clock that the producer specifically identified to create the effect of the situation that the soldiers in the opening scene find themselves. The ticking serves to develop the story in critical ways. For one, the ticking represents the lapse of time that faces the British soldiers. That is, the German soldiers are arriving, and there seems to be no realistic route through which escape from the advancing enemy could be avoided.

The other effect that is created by the ticking sound is the tension that such ticking generates. The music appeals to emotions, so us to facilitate the urgent evacuation of the stranded soldiers. As the audience sees the opening of the movie, the ticking sound suggests an impending catastrophe. This means that immediate action is needed to rescue the soldiers. During the time of the event featured in the film, Winston Churchill, then UK prime minister remarked that he might be killed by the German forces when reports indicated that the Germans were making an offensive on Dunkirk (Rabinowitz, 2017). This is precisely what the movie seeks to provoke in the viewers. As posted by Andersen (2017), creating of the ticking sound creates a real-world scenario by providing an accurate representation of historical events to make the viewers have an almost precise feel of the tension that the people who involved in the conflict experienced. In other words, the soundtrack seeks to depict what really happened on the ground. This is a masterpiece of a technique because it empowers the characters to tell the story 'as it happened' as opposed to the production team or third parties.

Perhaps the most prominent soundtrack feature in the story is the use of the Shepard tone. The tone consists of several tones separated by an octave that is placed on each other. Based on the sound effects, the bass tone is layered in a way that when it starts to fade in and a high tone takes over, and this continues for a while, creating a soundtrack of a rising tone. The sound goes up and up as the scene unfolds. The continual rise in tone creates a feeling of increasing intensity (Guerrasio, 2017). According to Haubursin (2018), the Shepard tone is anxiety-inducing, and its use in the film seeks to portray characters as 'real' as possible to ensure that what they represent in the movie is accurate as per the historical event featured in the movie. The effect is that it makes the audience to be drawn to watching the film from the start to the end. Additionally, it also used to connect the three storylines that make up the entire film. Throughout the film, the increase in the intensity of tone is widespread and will, therefore, feature significantly in the subsequent sections of the paper.

One of the scenes that offer a perfect reflection on how the Shepard tone works are where shelling from the Germans on the British soldiers struggling to cross the English. For instance, the British soldiers on the beach are urged to have hope and confidence that they cross over the channel successfully to the British Isles. After a bombardment, a shivering and shell-shocked soldier (Cillian Murphy) can be seen as an individual with desperate need for help in the face of enemy. However, what is more telling about the case of the soldier is the variation in the music that plays as fear takes over from a soldier who expressed great confidence a few minutes before about the possibility of rescue at least in the way he behaved at the shore of the English Channel(Barsanti, 2017). From this incident, it is evident that the soundtrack played represents the variation in the circumstances in which the characters experience in the movie. This revelation suggests that the soldiers are also mortals. That is to say, no matter the confidence a soldier may express, a time comes in the battlefield such level of assurance goes away. By depicting the characters in this manner, Nolan reveals the tension that those who take part in law undergo and also the frightening nature of death.

The shelling was done by the German planes on the British ships also offers a great insight into the role music sound plays developing theme of the story. As the soldiers cram together on a ship in channel, sound can be heard playing. The sound starts from a low pitch the slowly rises to a level where it can be considered as the highest in the context in which it was being played. However, it is what happens after the tone rose to the highest that matters concerning the effect of sound in film. As the sound reaches its peak, enemy airplanes strike, causing extensive damage to the ships besides causing the death of some of the soldiers. The choice made by Nolan is deliberate in communicating a given aspect of the main idea of the movie. Notably, the rising in the tone of the soundtrack is meant to warn of impending danger. As such, a rising tone acts as a warning to the targeted individuals that something worse them hence the need to prepared to limit the damage (LoBrutto, 1994). The design of the highlighted soundtrack appears to have been designed to specifically capture the terror of being caught in the middle of the enemy and how each soldier reacts to such threatening circumstances.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the soundtrack used by Nolan is the capture of the enemy planes firing onto the British soldiers from high up in the sky. The area that makes a lot of relevance to the role of sound in film is the Stuka, a special type of aircraft fighter jets that were used to subdue the advancing enemy. The Stuka was a dive bomber and ground attack aircraft used by the Germans during the SWW and had unique features that made it a special weapon for Hitler during the war. The Stuka was well known for its peculiar inverted wings and odd undercarriage. The parts that made up of the inverted gull wings and the undercarriage were fitted with a bizarre attachment known as the Trumpet Jericho (Smith, 2013). The sirens made the screeching sound that served many functions related to strategy during the SWW.

One of the major functions of the sirens was to give a psychological advantage to the Germans during the war. The noise made by the sirens was so terrifying that they had an impact on the enemy. According to Smith (2013), wailing sirens were meant to instill fear in the enemy. The German military also put the attachments to depict the bombers as a true weapon of war, especially that horror that was associated with its raids on the British and French forces. Equally, in the context, the film depicts scenes where the Trumpet Jericho played a critical part in advancing the theme of the story. For instance, when the German bombers attack British soldiers on the beach, there is deafening screaming from the planes as they dive into inflicting damage on their targets. The screeching sound was mainly created to depict the horrendous atmosphere at the beach where the strikes take place. The inclusion of the sounds in the striking planes in movie sought to communicate the real-life experiences soldiers underwent during the German invasion. This makes the film powerful in the sense that it captures the historical events in clear terms as they happened. It was meant to create accuracy in the events that appear in the film by empowering the characters to communicate their experiences in the frontlines.

The last scene where sound plays a vital part in advancing the main idea of the story is falling tone in the soundtrack. The process of evacuating the soldiers was characterized by horror as a result of the bombings and subsequent deaths of soldiers. In the last scene, for instance, the soldiers are seen been taken across the channel and safely reach the other side of the sea. However, it is not everybody that arrives as many soldiers are killed and their war weapons destroyed by the enemy. Here, Nolan uses music sound to bring the film to a climax perfectly. Notably, the Shepard note can be heard as evidence in the rising intensity during the strikes. As the survivors cross successfully to the English soil, the pitch of the sound is lowered in a systematic version and light is seen. Unlike in the case of a rising pitch where bad things happen, here, good things can be observed as the British forces finally arrive home. Therefore, the lowering of the tone also serves to foreshadow about possible positive outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Nola uses different cinematographic styles to communicate his central message about the movie, Dunkirk. Although there many techniques that feature in the film, the use of soundtrack appears to be the leading item in the creation. From the beginning to the end, sound music is dominant to the extent that detaching sound from the film. There is likelihood that its m...