Expressive movement unit 1

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A slow, dark and tired dirge played by deep horns overlies the development of the theme of exhaustion in the gestures and movements of the figures.

The length of the three shots allows time to observe the condition of the soldiers’ clothing, the blood on their bodies and underscores the slowness and tiredness of the individual movements. The direction is marked as “return” from the beginning as the soldiers move from the back of the frame to the fore. The exhaustion is experienced more clearly in the halting movements of the figures, who share a tendency to collapse or fall to the ground. Sailor has to kneel and can later barely climb over the sand sack barrier. Todd collapses after he emerges from the fog—interrupted movements that bring them all closer to death, closer to the dead Japanese soldier who falls and does not stand up again. At these moments of falling and pausing the music also pauses shortly, underscoring the impression of having no strength.

After everyone reaches the foxhole, they sit almost completely hidden; partly in the shadows. Sailor’s legs hanging over the sand sacks are well-camouflaged, so that the group merges with the physical environment. This adjustment to the environment as the visual loss of the margins of forms seems to be the continuation of the slow, halting movements in the unfolding of the signs of exhaustion. Todd’s sudden haul back for a throw followed by a forward falling movement, the simultaneous, literal yielding of the individual characters, the explosion off screen and the prolonged echo of the grenade end this unit with an exclamation point.