By Cordelia Fitzgerald (Rated G)
Music, as many people much more educated than I can expound upon, has profound effects on the emotions, making it the perfect accessory, or even main conduit of information, in film. This role of music as communicator is not limited to musicals, but is rather spread throughout every genre, to their great benefit. Consequently, I would like to present for consideration two movies which feature music prominently in their climaxes.
First for introduction is I Am David, a 2003 film following the attempted escape of the eponymous child from a prison camp. Starring Jim Caviezel and Hristo Shopov (Christ and Pilate from The Passion, for those who would like to know) in supporting roles, the film ironically places them in the parts of friendly, yet tragic fellow-prisoner and head of the prison camp, respectively. However, the story dwells in the camp mostly through flashbacks, instead focusing on David’s journey to leave the only life he has known behind. It is slow; it is ponderous; it is fraught with fear. It is not a story to be galloped through.
Likewise, Song of Names (2019) is a film that drags so through its middle that one rather wonders whether we shall ever get to the point. Funnily enough, the main character in this story is also named David, although most of the movie follows the actions of his friend Martin. This David was placed by his father with an English family in order to protect him from the effects of World War II. Yes, his full name is Dovidl Rapoport, and he and his family are Polish Jews. Additionally, David is a child prodigy violinist, and his talent develops quickly until, at twenty-one, he is booked for an international concert. Martin, the son of the English family that has sheltered David, waits behind the stage for him in vain; David never appears. Thus embarks Martin and the story on a quest to find David, which, interwoven with flashbacks portraying the background just given, comprises the bulk of the movie.
Both of these films take their time meandering through the story. Both are worth the wait. Perhaps it’s the very tension produced through the long buildup (rather like Norm Macdonald’s moth joke) that leads to the sense of relief and gut-wrenchingly heartbreaking emotion experienced at each climax, but one thing is for certain: this girl does not cry during movies, and she found herself bawling for these.
I Am David rather cheated, of course. After steadily laying on the tension, fear, suspense, and sorrow, a major milestone is reached by the main character and is then immediately followed by a (long time coming) plot revelation, all in the space of the few minutes it takes to hear Mozart’s Ave Verum. Using Mozart is cheating, isn’t it? Because the amount of emotion contained in those few minutes of organ and voice perfectly complement the concurrent plot flow, the scene cuts masterfully matched to the change in tenor of the music and the minor chords wreaking havoc on the already weeping heart. The catharsis is like no other.
Except, perhaps, the climax of Song of Names. Unlike the former tack, the journey to reach this musical piece contains all of the needed plot points and revelations the viewer requires. It remains, however, for two of the characters to reach an emotional point, and this scene delivers it in a tableau summarizing and slightly expanding on the known background. The music composed by Howard Shore (of Lord of the Rings fame) comes out of nowhere and overwhelms the two with an emotional understanding they lacked previously, and it hits another character and the viewers with a simultaneous emotional relief and closure, all in the course of the most moving three minutes of violin I have ever heard. While I didn’t reach the tear level elicited by I Am David, that one scene, together with the entire ending, took me from the boredom of almost shutting the movie off to an acute participation in a whole culture’s pain. When the last note faded, I was left with the deep satisfaction of a tale well told, in defiance of that first dragging hour and a half.
As Longfellow says, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” A master writing his story for all people in all times uses timeless themes in his works, and directors in the relatively new medium of film act wisely when they tie their work to a similarly timeless “universal language.” Whether using pieces from an old master or taking advantage of the genius of the new, films can only help their cause by harnessing the emotional power of music.
Nota Bene: Do your research before diving into these two movies. Song of Names, particularly, deals with some rough topics as the boys grow, and is not, unfortunately, free of language. Exercise right sense, as always, and please do not regard this review as an unreserved recommendation. For the discerning viewer, however, I do recommend both.
LogoSophia Magazine 