How do Performance and Sound add to the emotional mood in the final scene (funeral scene) of Ladder 49?

How do Performance and Sound add to the emotional mood in the final scene (funeral scene) of Ladder 49?

January 5, 2009, 2:39 pm
Filed under: AS Film Studies

Ladder 49 was released in the UK on 21 January 2005 and was written by Lewis Colick. The film tells the story of the life of Jack Morrison and his journey to becoming and his life as a firefighter. Most of the movie is in flashbacks, helping us to get to know Jack, his family and his friends. Throughout the film we are taken back to the current scene, being a burning building with Jack trapped inside. This is ironic, as normally he would be the one doing the saving, but in this case, everyone is trying to save him. Ladder 49 received 7 award nominations, winning one of them which was the BMI film music award.
For my micro-analysis, I have decided to focus on the final scene of Ladder 49 which is the funeral of Jack Morrison. I’ve decided to look closely at the sound, both diegetic and non-deigetic and performance in the scene and analyse these closer than mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography.

As the scene begins, we hear very slow, sad non-diegetic music than begins to create emotion instantly and we see Jack’s wife Linda appear. We immediately sense that something might be wrong but we are put at ease when we hear children laughing, before we see their faces; this calms the audience. Linda hears a car pulling up outside the house, and she curiously walks to the window. We see the emotion in her face change as she raises her hands to her mouth and lets out a small gasp. This is displayed in the screen shot below, and we can see just how amazing her performance is here in this part of the film. We know from previous scenes in the film that a red car is significant as it brings bad news to the families of the firefighters, and it is discussed between Jack and Linda.

Her performance here is really realistic because she doesn’t make a scene in front of her children, as she obviously wouldn’t want them to be upset, as she has realised her husband has passed. Her realistic performance really adds to the emotion here. 

There is then a sound bridge of Captain Mike Kennedy talking, a firefighter who had worked very closely with Jack. As we are introduced to this part of the scene, we discover that he is at a funeral and talking about the person who has passed, being Jack. He talks about how he had watched Jack grow as a firefighter, and as he is talking, the emotion is expressed in his voice. It adds to the performance because his voice seems dry and shaky with lots of pauses breaking up what he’s talking about. This suggests that Mike is fighting with his emotions. He takes a lot of deep breaths throughout his speech and this adds to the emotional performance because it is almost like he’s too upset to speak. The above screen shot of Mike Kennedy shows pure emotion in his face and even seems to give the impression of his breaking voice as his face seems to be scrunched up. There is an ongoing piece of slow, non-diegetic music in a minor key being played throughout this scene, that is very similar to the music used in the first part of the scene. It again helps to add to the emotion and creates a sad mood even though there is the sound of a voice over the top. It somewhat adds to the emotion in Mike’s voice as he seems to being talking to the slow and sad beat of the music. There are several close ups on the faces of the people at the funeral during this scene, whose facial expressions and individual performances make the scene even more emotional. Each of the close ups capture the emotion of the scene without saying or doing anything and this is extremely powerful. At the end of his speech, Mike asks everyone to stand up, and applaud the life of Jack Morrison. Everyone stands up and begins to clap, and the sound of the clapping really makes the end of the scene emotional, and really stick in your head as if everyone (the characters and the audience) is celebrating his life. We’re shown close-ups of mainly Mike and Linda during this part of the scene as these were the two closest people to Jack in the film. This is significant as their performances here are the most believable and the most emotional.
As we are focused on a close up of Mike’s face after he has finished his speech, the sound becomes non-diegetic and there is a sound bridge to lead us to the next part of the scene. We are invited to join the last part of Jack’s funeral along with all the other firefighters and his family and friends. The emotion here is clearly created by the sound and performance. Throughout the scene, a song is played and every other piece of sound that would have been in the scene is not, and is over powered by the s0ng. Its a particularly slow and emotional song with lyrics that really relate to the current situation. The music doesn’t seem to fit perfectly with the scene, as the music seems very cheesy and a typical American song, but if the lyrics are listened to clearly, they relate well. The whole last part of the scene is very realistic and believable as the scene of a typical, American fire fighter’s funeral is created. The performance of all of the people in the scene, mainly Mike and Linda again, is again created by using close up shots of peoples faces. There are several close up shots of just Linda’s face where she is crying and very emotional. Her performance here is not too over the top, making it extremely believable.
Towards the last part of the scene, flash backs are used to help to show Jacks life and everything that he has achieved. The music here seems to pick up a bit in volume and in key, and begins to sound more celebratory and a little more happy than the rest of the scene; almost as if a gosbal choir have been added in. This gives the sense of a more happy emotion and end to Jacks life and the scene. The final thing we see in the scene is Jack and Mike emerging from a building (obviously still in flash backs) and the music slowly quitens connoting the end of the scene. The shot is then de-saturated and made to look like a photograph. The performance in the actors faces at this point creates a happier emotion as they are both smiling because it was after Jack had put out his first fire and this adds a happier outlook to the final part of the scene, leaving Jacks happy memory with us after the film is finished. We find ourselves smiling along with the two firefigters as they celebrate the significant event in Jack’s life, and the audience celebrate the event and Jack’s life along with them.

Both performance and sound had a major impact in creating the emotional mood throughout this scene, and without either of these the scene would not have created the same impact on the audience as it did.

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