Expressive movement unit 3

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Sailor’s wound creates a bridge from exhaustion to fear. This development is staged as a jumpy and at the same time slow process of facial and gestural reactions to recognizing the wound. The musical accompaniment structures the unit as being moved by this recognition.

The music again takes up the pathos of mourning as the strings join the mourning call of the wind instruments. After Sailor slowly crawls over the sand sacks from the right of the frame to the middle, while Todd, his face hidden, lies unmoving behind the machine gun, he sits up and, with labored breathing, panting, puts his hand to his forehead. Sitting up and the centering and shifting of the axis of the figure towards the camera create an opening towards realization of the state of being wounded.

This prepares for the next close-up that begins with Sailor’s movement to hold his forehead and focuses on the blood smeared there, shaping the process of the shock of becoming conscious of one’s own vulnerability. This process consists of Sailor’s stare at his hand, mirroring the blood visible on his forehead, and his delayed facial expressions, gestural movements and reactions. Each gestural or facial change is accompanied at the beginning by a repeated harp chord, followed by a short wind melody that barely changes, creating space for the internal nature of this process. The pauses of the facial expressions and gestural movements that make up the paralyzed slowness of this development is combined with sudden, shocked jumps and transition into a diffuse movement after a halted attempt to communicate his condition. Sailor stares at his hand uncomprehendingly, looks towards the camera and opens his mouth as if he wants to say something, talk to someone, one syllable passes his lips “Sa...,” but he finds no addressee, turns his gaze away, presses his lips together and becomes increasingly anxious, frenetic, almost panicked.