Exam Question 1B: No Country For Old Men / Captain Fantastic

 Exam Question: How far do you think your chosen films demonstrate the importance of visual and soundtrack cues in influencing spectator response? Refer in detail to at least one sequence from each film.

While Captain Fantastic has a relatively conventional, though still interesting use of soundtrack cues, No Country For Old Men has a much more minimalistic soundtrack and approach to visual cues, prioritising silence to heighten the tension of each scene, only using soundtrack cues when needed most.

In the funeral scene of Captain Fantastic, the family that the film revolves around perform an acoustic rendition of Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns 'n' Roses, making the song sound a lot more warm, homely and compassionate. This begins diegetically, as we see them perform the song onscreen, however, the song continues into the next scene in the airport, making it non-diegetic. As they perform this very uplifting song in high spirits, the tone of the scene and song is complimented by the high key natural lighting reflecting off of the family, as well as the clothes that they are wearing, especially the flower crowns making them appear angelic, as well as the wide shots of their colourful, yet natural surroundings looking heavenly. This suggests that, after the melodrama of the film, the family have finally found peace, and come to accept the mother's death. This creates a stark contrast between the tone of the scene and the content of it, as while the family are singing and in high spirits, the mother is being cremated right next to them. This will completely break the expectations of and alienate many audience members as it breaks societal expectations and standards of how we treat death and specifically funerals. While this may seem distasteful and disrespectful to many audience members, the family in the film would say the opposite, as they would rather celebrate death than mourn it, as well as staying true to the fact that this is what the mother wanted to happen. As the scene transitions from the performance to the airport, the family all go into a cubicle in a public toilet together, pour the mother's ashes into the toilet, and flush it. This is played for comedic effect as the family laugh while huddled around the toilet, before the youngest girl shouts "Bye mummy!" while flushing it, just as the song finishes. This takes the distastefulness, and potential disturbingness of the previous scene to much greater heights, to the point that it could almost be considered shock humour, or comically dark. However, the light-hearted way in which the family treat this, as well as the whimsical music that continues to accompany it is reinforcing the potential ideological themes from the previous scene, of celebrating death rather than mourning it, and bodily autonomy, as this is what the mother stated that she wanted in her will. Despite this, many viewers will still find this scene to be shocking and potentially even immoral, adding a layer of irony to the uplifting music; especially as the song ends as the toilet flushes, highlighting that part in particular, as it is what the scene was building to.