March across the bridge*

Classification in categories

• Transition between two social systems

 

This scene is dominated by changes into different registers of emotion (comic, suffering, the experience of separation), that create a linear chain in the advancement along the civilian path of the street. This movement is repeatedly shown as a turn off when someone leaves the path: for example the woman driving away (>EMU 2) and the turn off into the jungle (>EMU 3).

On the one hand, the discovery of the explosives after the scene of destruction, because of its comic nature, stages a moment of relaxation on the level of shot composition. On the other hand, the three-fold sequence of surprise sketches the experience of military initiation as variations on collectivization (>EMU 1).

The expression of suffering in the field hospital is followed by alleviating gestures on the part of the couple Lassiter and the nurse. The experience of the pain of separation of the sexes is literally loaded with these components of alleviation: The car turns off the road holding both the woman and the suffering man, so that the experience of alleviation is part of their baggage (>EMU 2).

The second turn off, which marks the final separation of the sexes, follows a long march.  The linearity and uniformity of the movement gives form to the rediscovered experience of community. This time it is the soldiers themselves who leave the straight continuous path of the civilian street to delve into the inscrutable undergrowth of the jungle (>EMU 3).    SG

Expressive movement units

01 02 03 

Materials about the scene

Position of the scene in the film