In the first ten minutes of the film, there are three critical scenes I have chosen, as they all show great links between image, sound and theme. The first scene shows Private Witt’s nameless companion in a medium close up camera shot whilst handling a wild, tropical bird. There is a strong image and theme link here with the man and bird representing a strong relationship between mankind and nature and an even deeper link into equality as the wild bird is interacting with an American soldier, not just the native islanders. Showing us that Terence Malick is trying to get the message across that anyone can have a relationship; there is potential, people just need to make the effort. The film shows that freedom is possible and that is what they are fighting for.
The sounds in this scene, so far, are diagetic. Malick does this so that we hear the same sounds as the soldiers, from there we empathise with the soldiers and there is a close relationship between us which allows us to see that all of the soldiers are individuals and have their own opinions on the war at hand and the sounds and environment around them.
The peace and beautiful nature around the soldiers gets destroyed by the war and the peaceful nature of the natives is also destroyed by the guns. This shows Malick’s views on war as a force that destroys equality between mankind and nature and destroys peace on earth.
Another scene is where Private Witt is talking to a native islander about her baby. The conversation starts with less trust, the baby is afraid of the unknown an there is no background music. The long camera shot shows that the conversation is unfamiliar for both cultures. The native then begins to laugh as she becomes familiar to Witt, the calm music returns as the familiar, joyful relationships return. The camera shot turns to an over-the-shoulder shot representing the, now, intimate relationship between the native and Private Witt, formerly the camera was a long-range, two-person shot giving a sense of seclusion as if we are not in the conversation.
The growing relationship between the native and Private Witt shows a contrast between black and white cultures, how opposites can work together for happiness and how different races have a lot in common.
In contrast to the relationship between cultures, the soldiers are white skinned but have a black nature; they have a dark and evil reason for being where they are. The native has black skin but has a white nature as she is ‘clean living,’ there are no problems. This could represent Malick’s thoughts on war as well, with him believing that war has a dark and evil nature. I think that he has used an excellent situation and has an excellent perspective on war.
An important moment in those first ten minutes is when the native boy is holding shellfish in the safety of the palms of his hands. Malick wants us to concentrate on the shellfish in the hands; he does this by using and over the shoulder shot and Hans Zimmer excludes all music. I think he uses the over-the-shoulder shot so that by not seeing the boy’s expressions we can only look at the image on screen and see the shellfish in the boy’s hands.
The shellfish in the boy’s hands represents that the shellfish are safe, which is a link of image and theme to the safety on the island. It is also another image that shows the harmonic relationship between mankind and nature. There is freedom in the safety of the shellfish and freedom is what is being fought for, also it, again, links to larger points like how the beautiful nature gets destroyed and the peace shown will get destroyed by guns later on in the film.
Another link between image, sound and theme is that the islanders hold peaceful, quiet shellfish safe in their hands whilst the soldiers hold loud, destructive guns and they are constantly in danger. Here Malick is representing his views on war by showing how war means the participants are constantly in danger and may also bring destruction.
As a conclusion I believe that Terence Malick starts the film with the opening sequence on the island to show us his views on war and how it is a destructive force with a dark nature, its participants are constantly in danger and it brings horror to mankind; destroying equality and peace.
