THE DIRECTORS CONTRIBUTION TO TARZAN (1999) – STUDENT ID: 4322866
The pressure of converting Burroughs’s tale, of an ape-man who tries to find his true identity after discovering he was actually a human, into a Disney animated classic is not an easy task, the need to encapsulate the wilderness of Tarzan, his identity battle and development into man hood with an accompanying soundtrack, that is comprehensible to Disney’s animation demographic. However, directors Lima and Buck managed to encompass the storyline and soundtrack without forming a stereotypical Disney musical. Their decisions, regarding voice, image and character ethnicity transformed the film, and allowed for the storyline surrounding identity to prevail rather than interfering and social factors complicating the narrative.
Before the 1999 rendition of Tarzan, the Disney franchise tended to use music as a form of the main character's dialogue. However, co-director Lima felt that he, ‘couldn’t imagine a half-naked man in the jungle bursting into song' and that this newfound need to fit music into the film without using the principle character as a mouthpiece made them rethink how to format the film and, 'forced [them] to think in a different way.' Instead of telling the story through song, as seen in Disney's previous film Mulan, the directors decided to mirror what was happening in the film with the music . Not only was their choice to not voice Tarzan revolutionary after a decade of animated musicals – their decision to give the music a percussion sound was to differentiate the sound of Tarzan (1999) from that of The Lion King, a film which connects itself musically via choral work . This musical work was to set the pace of the film – using it as a method to pass time. Director L said the purpose was to, 'keep pushing forward in time.' The song 'Strangers Like Me' teaches Tarzan about manhood – beginning the song as a child and ending as a man, allowing the music to complement the narrative of the main character – without Tarzan having to utter a word. Similarly, the percussion drumming throughout the film dictated the speed of how Tarzan moved – in fighting scenes with the leopard the music was slow, reminiscing of a heartbeat, whereas when Tarzan as running through the trees it was quick to emphasise the speed of the scene. The directors having this control and vision for the use of music in the film shows how immersed they were within the key elements of the film and this is evident with how focal the music was to the storytelling and narrative of the film rather than voicing a specific character's immediate emotive state as seen in previous films, such as 'Reflection' in the 1998 Disney film Mulan .
One criticism of the film highlighted by The Spokesman-Review, and a decision the directors have strongly defended, is the lack of ethnic diversity within Tarzan (1999) – due to its setting in Africa but a predominately white character base. Buck and Lima believed that, 'the absence of minority characters in Tarzan was [to] keep the story simple, […] and concentrate on Tarzan's choice of being animal or human.' If Tarzan (1999) was chosen as the film to illustrate diversity within the Disney franchise, the directors iterated that this would have distracted from the storyline of links with two cultures – which in turn is diversity and begs the further question of whether Tarzan (1999) needed minority characters to influence this – or would the simple education of ape and man been ample as a metaphor for complex societies. Teaching fundamental societal principles via extremes of species to highlight modern day dilemma. In order to remove any confusion, Lima and Buck decided to not include any African characters, instead opting for scenes, such as the one where Tarzan covers himself with mud, to show his identity crisis and the idea that he is the wrong colour. This controversial decision affected the entire nature of the film, but also highlights the extremes Lima and Buck would go to, to keep the integrity of their vision of Tarzan (1999) and what the story would represent.
The focal image from the 1999 classic is the image of ape and human hands together, the motif taken away by Lima after reading Burrough's original Tarzan novel . The directors used the aforementioned motif to emphasise unity, seen to bring together Tarzan and his ape mother in the beginning of the film which foreshadows the end whereby Tarzan and Jane are united using the same motif. Lima states that it was 'a metaphor for Tarzan's search for identity' and that it, 'underscores Tarzan's sense of being alike, yet different from his ape family.' This visual allows audiences of all calibre and age to identify the key theme within the film, without the need for dialogue or explanation. It is simple but not patronising, and Lima’s use for it multiple times during the film allows this repetition of thought, re-focusing the audience of the theme throughout the violent and turbulent nature of the jungle scenes.
Conclusively, there is no doubt that Buck and Lima were heavily involved with the creation of Tarzan (1999) and responsible for their vision not being manipulated by outside racial factors, like Disney’s general lack of diversity, or sticking to Disney’s recipe for creating an animated musical classic. Their ability to stick to a storyline which still encapsulates young people now, 19 years later, proves that their innovative approach to film making has made Tarzan (1999) an ‘old school Disney classic’ with accolades such as its Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album to emphasises its success.
In what ways does sound impact on the narrative strategies of Scarface (1932)?
There is no doubt that sound is paramount in telling the narrative of Scarface (1932), it uses both vocal and simulated sound techniques to ‘convey the gangster world’ and allow the audience to follow the storyline with ease, due to the sound substituting visual narrative strategies in order to not overcomplicate. Director, Hawks, used a combination of accent, whistling and gunshots as sound-motifs within the film. The former two represented Camonte’s character and enabled the audience to distinguish him from other characters and the latter to manoeuvre around the Production Code, by not visualising the multitude of death scenes – instead representing them with the
The role of accent within Scarface impacts the narrative strategy as, due to the gang nature of the film with the iconic Irish and Italian warfare, it allows the audience to automatically identify which characters belong to which gang. This is crucially important due to the fact that most characters within the film wear the same 1930s suits, and also because of the amount of characters the film gets through via deaths and raids. The simple use of accent allows for the plot to continue with no wasted time introducing each character, for them to just be killed moments later.
Referencing blogs of accent specialists, whilst regarding how to write accents, they convey the idea that accents allow the audience to use, 'their own imaginations to fill in the gaps,' allowing for subtle narrative, implied by the characters – without explicit conversion of ideas. The majority of characters within Scarface are not named nor introduced, yet their accent allows for the audience to assume or, 'use their imagination' to comprehend the character's background and which gang they associate with. This allows for the narrative of the film to flow and progress, without halting to introduce characters that are soon to be killed off anyway. Before sound within film, it was impossible for audiences to assume a character's distinct heritage without obvious or extravagant hints, the use of accent in Scarface is crucial to the audience following the plot of the film. Even though reviews say Muni's Italian accent was, 'awful' and 'dreadful' , it was still identifiable therefore its purpose within the film was obtained. However, it has to be said that, this reaction and audience assumption was only viable with an American audience, when those of either Italian descent or who were Italian saw the film, the use of accent distracted them from the plot and instead stereotyped them as gangsters – a mentality so profound that the Italian ambassador and fifty Italian American organisations denouncing Scarface as a, ‘libel on the Italian Race’ ultimately disturbing the narrative strategy of the film. However, some scholars believe the 'anti-communal […] distinguishes them from the community' therefore distancing the actions of the actors with their cultural counterparts.
Furthermore, the sound effect of whistling plays a focal part in the narrative of Scarface. Throughout the movie, the sound foreshadows death of character, whilst adding an eerie notion to the scene. The sound of whistling is specific to the character of Scarface, and therefore was used as a motif to identify him throughout the film. This allowed for the audience to be aware of the presence of Camonte without the need for him being visually or vocally explicit, significantly used during the multitude of death scenes. During the aforementioned death scenes, whistling was used to ‘circumvent the Production code’ allowing for Hawks to justify such violent scenes as the whistling intrigued the audience rather than eluding to violence .
Gunshots are also paramount in allowing the film to cope with the amount of death scenes in the film, and impacts the narrative strategy as it allows for Hawk’s vision of turbulence to be produced even under extreme Production Code restrictions .