Children of men car scene

The use of sound in the car scene of children of men

The car scene in children of men is both visually and audibly astounding. The fact that the scene is all done in one take and everything is just done so well is a testament to the great direction of Alfonso Cuaron. This report will analyse the use of sound in that scene and what makes the overall impact great.

Music 

The music in this scene is quite unique to other scenes in this movie. It is diegetic as the music is always in the car even though the characters do not pay attention to it. The music does a good job of building up the tension even though the music was not invented to do that. The genre of the music sound a lot like rock. The percussion builds up and that is when the first part of the action starts. The music does cut out at one point in the scene when a major character dies and then an ambient sound brings it back in again. When a viewer watches the movie for the first time they might think that the music is quite inappropriate for what really happens in the scene but in fact it works really well and that contrast of rock with so much intensity going makes the scene more engaging.

Sound effects

The sound effects in this scene are very naturalistic. From the beginning you can hear the car and everything you would expect to hear in the car and then when the action starts, loads of sounds are being thrown at you. First of all you have the car making a sound indicating that the vehicle is about to come into contact with something. Immediately after that a flurry of people start rushing out and attacking the car. We can hear the sound of things beating against the car and the sound of glass breaking. A Molotov is then thrown at the car with both glass and fire breaking out onto it. A motorbike then comes screaming from the angry crowd of people and races towards the car. Someone with a gun on the backseat then takes a shot at a character. Two distinct sounds are made at this point. The first is the sound of the windscreen slowly cracking and breaking and the second is the ringing sound from the beginning of the movie returns. Throughout the movie this sound returns when something loud and traumatic happens. Towards the end of the scene when the camera ends up outside of the car we hear naturalistic sounds again. The sound of nature and peace return from what has just been a chaotic scene. The sound effects in this scene make for an even more intense action moment and it carries on that visceral feeling of this dystopian world.

Dialogue
The dialogue in this scene is very progressive and functional. It Starts of as friendly dialogue and naturalistic as the characters are just messing around and talking about their former lives. Then very suddenly the dialogue becomes intense. The characters talk about the object approaching them and then they all start shouting. The crowd approaching them all start shouting as well. From this point on the dialogue becomes functional until the end. The characters are pointing out things as they are trying to escape their pursuers. This yet again mirrors the mood and tone that the rest of the movie is going to be taking.

Conclusion
In conclusion the car scene from Children of men uses sound to portray the realism of the world that these characters live in. It is a very hate driven world with little hope. The dialogue shows how the characters miss their old lives and how they are forced to live in a bleak world. The sound effects keep the audience in a tense environment that does not let up until the end and the music is a good catalyst for the action scene even though at first it seems like it doesn't fit. As mentioned before, all of these features are used to show a dark world with a only a glimmer of hope left. This is the world of Children of Men.