“I Think We Took a Wrong Turn…”: Space-Form, Gesture, and Action

Figure 3.11: “Master of Two Worlds” synthesis of textures.

“I Think We Took a Wrong Turn”: Space-Form, Gesture, and Action

Williams often uses textural changes to heighten onscreen action. As Luke’s party

sneaks through the Death Star’s hallways in stolen Stormtrooper gear, gestural-space

scoring creates a claustrophobic feel. They enter a larger detention corridor to free Leia, and

Williams crescendos into a larger ensemble space with horns and tremolo strings. We as

viewers are unsure what kind of space the characters are about to enter, but Williams,

through this vectorizing textural zoom, suggests that it might be quite large. Effects like this

can create intense drama, even if the “payoff” revelation of the target visual space is

underwhelming (as it is here). They can also make visuals seem larger or smaller than they

appear to be onscreen — a request often lobbied at composers by nervous directors.

A similar approach to texture adds a descriptive formal level to the sequence inside

the Sandcrawler. C3PO and R2D2 have been captured by desert-dwelling Jawas and

confined in a holding area within the giant vehicle. The editing jumps between close shots of

several disheveled robots; viewed without music, the sequence is a jumble. Williams adds

his own context to the space. He begins the sequence in the larger ensemble space of a

string section, suggesting a more extensive setting. Upward and downward glissandi

gestures suggest that the setting is filled with shifty bad actors. As Artoo powers up, gestural

space concentrates visual attention on him. Gestural space also zooms in on other robots,

and we begin to hear individual timbres as more humorous than threatening. The solo tuba

used here can have a sluggish, lugubrious sound due to its physical distances explored

earlier. A pair of nasal oboes dance around in minor seconds and thirds, the characteristic

intervals of playground taunts (nya-nya!) (Figure 3.12).83

Figure 3.12: Robot gestural space

Timbre tells us that Threepio and Artoo are not in any immediate danger. Williams reminds

us however, that greater trouble may await, zooming back out to ensemble space at the

exterior long shot of the Sandcrawler.

Chion posits that every “audio element” of a film “enters into simultaneous

relationship” with “narrative elements contained in [an] image.”84 This is true of all sounds,

including musical ones. Earlier I extended Smalley’s definition of behavioral space to

incorporate visual behaviors, acknowledging the fusion of visual and aural stimuli in films. I

use this as a subtle defense of the much-maligned practice of “Mickey-mousing:” some

83 Jeremy Day-O’connell, “Speech, Song, and the Minor Third An Acoustic Study of the Stylized Interjection,” Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 30, no. 5 (2013): 443.

84 Chion, Audio-Vision, 40.