Before taking this course, I showed the series of movies I
would be watching to one of the biggest nerds I know…my little cousin
Chase. When we were younger, he would
force me to watch Star Wars movies with him while I irked in pain, the fun
loving, glittery, sparkly side of me dripping out of my veins with every second
I watched. I knew he would be the best
person to give an opinion about weird, science fiction films. The movie that stood out to him, and the one
we culminated our science fiction journey with, was Alien. After watching an
enormous amount of films filled with hours of robots, drama, love, and aliens,
the quality effects of this movie had little effect on my now knowledgeable
self (I did not even squirm at the sight of the baby alien bursting out of
Kane’s stomach). However, there was one
piece to this film that made it stand out from other films of its kind that I
have seen. This was the use of sound.
As a suspenseful movie, Alien
had some frightening sounds to it, as do most scary movies. The use of the sounds of a racing heart beat
and breathing really added to the overall feel of the film and made it much
more suspenseful. There were several
instances of this use throughout the film, adding an air of uncertainty and
apprehension to the audience. In one
instance towards the beginning of the film, Kane is venturing into the hole in
the alien spacecraft, attempting to figure out what the organic life form
is. While he is exploring, tensions
rising, all you can hear is his breathing, slow and steady. Again, you hear his breathing throughout the
background of the film while the doctors are exploring him, attempting to
figure out what the alien creature is.
Although his breathing remains calm, there is a feeling of pure panic,
not knowing what is going to happen to Kane.
Later in the film, Dallas is attempting to look for the
alien while exploring the airshafts. You
can feel is anxiety as he is breathing, heavy and fast. Not only does the suspenseful music and sound
of Lambert screaming for him to leave.
However, the entire scene, you are with Dallas feeling for him along the
way.
One final and very suspenseful scene revolving around
breathing occurs when Ripley is attempting to get answers from Mother about why
she cannot neutralize the alien.
Throughout this entire scene, all you can hear besides Ripley’s typing
is the sound of deep and slow breathing.
The breathing seems to be coming from Ash, foreshadowing his attempt to
spy on and kill Ripley.
Again, the background sounds in the film Alien made it stand out from other films
and added to the overall suspense of a scene when it was employed. It would have been that been that much better
if there would have been the constant sound of a heart beat or breathing throughout
the entirety of the film as a reminder that you are never alone.
Props to Faith Hill on helping me with my final title.
Throughout the series of this year, I have been drawn to the movies with their physical color, locking into what I can see and forgetting about what I hear. Going back and watching the clips you have discussed, I realized exactly what you were talking about. Even though I was not aware of it, the sound of human breathing and heartbeat added to the underlining drama that made the scene even more intense. I think this movie used more natural, meaning bodily, sounds than any other movie we had watched in the past.
ReplyDelete