Death in a palm tree*

Classification in categories

• Battle and nature
• Suffering / victim / sacrifice

 

This scene shows the curve of Matowski’s death; after extensive preparations for the ascent of the palm, there is a short stay at the crown and a sudden fall. The slow ascent and sudden descent form a peripeteia. The affective dramaturgy is staged as tension followed by a short moment of relaxation, surprise, shock and finally mourning; conveyed by the alternation of silence and noises on the one hand and long and short shots on the other hand. The affective dramaturgy is staged primarily as a composition of the varying acoustic levels—sounds, music and dialogue—supported by varying shot lengths and camera movements.

The character of Sergeant Dane, who appears at the beginning and the end, brackets the scene with the aid of a zoom out from him at the beginning and a zoom in to him at the end. This structure provides the framework for a scene that can be divided into two parts on the level of sound design: slowly building tension during the silence that accompanies the ascent  (> EMU 1) and the musical manifestation of mourning following a short relaxation and the abrupt shock of the peripeteia (> EMU 2).

The clear change between the units takes place at the moment the sound of rustling palm leaves suddenly becomes loud and there is a cut to an unusual camera perspective: a frontal view of the crown of the palm. Eeps’ smile and deep melodic humming and the staged exchange of glances between Eeps and Matowski create a change to a relaxed mood which, however, alters suddenly. The loud bang of the gunshot, the piercing, shrill scream and the staccato of the montage of close-ups of the soldiers against the striking musical background mark a temporal sequence of affective stages from shock to surprise and finally mourning. In this way the soldier’s sacrifice and the group’s mourning are staged as being related to one another.  

Expressive movement units

01 02 

Materials about the scene

Position of the scene in the film