Death from malaria*

Classification in categories

• Battle and nature
• Suffering / victim / sacrifice

 

In the film’s dramaturgical structure this scene follows the discovery of the murdered "Yankee,” Salazar, and is followed by the staging of Dane’s exhaustion. At its center is the death of another of the group’s soldiers.

The dominant level of the staging is sound design, especially music, in interplay with editing.The dynamic pattern of the scene is structured as a sort of exposition  (> EMU 1) and its implementation  (> EMU 2), before the music is completely replaced by dialogue (> EMU 3).

The motif of mourning introduced in EMU 1 which connects to the previous scene  (>"Scarecrow"), becomes the material for the staging in EMU 2. Its trajectory leads from worry (in which closeness is created though shot/reverse shot technique) to loss (expressed through the spaces between the figures within the frame) and leave-taking (“Taps”). The end of the music in EMU 3 also marks the end of the direct staging of the drama of death. Death then becomes the subject of dialogue whereby in the end even the name of the dead man dissolves into individual parts as it is spelled. Parallel to this dispersal, Dane’s movements within the shot unfold. This leads to a transition from the staging of feelings over time (worry, loss, mourning) to a continuation of the plot.

This transition characterizes the affective arc of the scene: The elegiac mood—briefly heightened to a mood of mourning—parallel to the musical introduction of a military mourning motif and a corresponding reduction of movement within the image is resolved by abrupt movements (standing up, walking, breaking twigs at the campfire).    ML

Expressive movement units

01 02 03 

Materials about the scene

Position of the scene in the film