Listening to Stanley Kubrick by Christine Lee Gengaro Read Free Book Online Page A

The opening credits are accompanied by an orchestral version of La Marseillaise . 40 Fried has added some snare rolls to this version of the anthem to give it a distinctive military flavor. The song is not allowed to resolve as it was written, but instead ends on dissonant chords that give the listener the sense that something isn’t quite right.
    When the film begins, a voiceover explains some historical background on World War I, but underneath this voiceover, Fried has taken the opening phrases of La Marseillaise and altered them to form dissonant, distorted versions of the original music, wordlessly commenting on the nature of this conflict.
    French General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) asks fellow general Mireau (George Macready) if his troops can take a position called the German Ant Hill. Mireau first argues this is impossible until Broulard dangles the possibility of a promotion in front of him. Mireau agrees to try it. He asks Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) to engage his men in this battle. Dax believes that it will be a difficult assignment, if it is possible at all, but follows orders, bravely leading his men. When the men cannot advance, Mireau claims the men are cowards and orders that the soldiers be urged on by friendly fire. The order is refused and the surviving men retreat. Mireau, angry at the outcome, demands that one hundred men die in front of a firing squad for cowardice. Broulard convinces him that three men will do. Colonel Dax—who was a civilian lawyer before the war—defends the three men in court, although he is not allowed to enter much evidence in their defense. Despite Dax’s efforts and the testimony of the men, the three soldiers are killed by the firing squad.
    For most of the film, if there is music at all, it is percussive in nature. Gerald Fried’s longest cue in the film underscores the scene of the night patrol. Lieutenant Roget, who spends most of his time drunk, takes two men with him on patrol and sends one ahead to scout. When the man does not return, Roget becomes anxious and wants to leave. Assuming the scout is dead, and fearing enemy fire, Roget throws a grenade that ends up killing his own man. There are a few important musical gestures in this segment. One features steady hits on a bass drum. A second is a four-note motif intended for a dampened timpani, although Fried said that he ended up changing the instrumentation to a tuned tom-tom because he was not able to find a timpani in Munich—where the score was recorded—that could play the highest note in the motif.
    Example 1.14. The timpani of the Night Patrol.
    This motif grows in intensity, as the last note—the high A—becomes three notes, then more. The third motif is a tick tock cue very similar to the one heard in Fear and Desire , this time played by a timpani.
    Example 1.15. Night Patrol Tick Tock.
    On the soundtrack to the film, the resemblance to the earlier cue is not as obvious, but on a compilation album of themes from Kubrick’s films (made by the Prague Philharmonic), the similarity is eerie. There is something elemental about this cue and the one from Fear and Desire that for Fried must have symbolized the fear of war, a fear that encroaches relentlessly upon one’s sanity.
    As the men on the night patrol grow more anxious, the timpani part changes slightly and also becomes twice as fast. A fourth musical element of the scene are rolls on the snare drum (there are actually two snares, one with snares on and one with them off), which are added to the cue, while the percussion of weapons—guns, grenades, and explosions—seamlessly becomes part of the texture. Corporal Paris, the third man in the night patrol, continues looking for the missing man after Roget retreats. The cue ends with a shot of the dead body of the missing member of the night patrol. The startling discovery is accompanied by a jarring roll on a hanging cymbal. The cue is very effective, although the Prague recording reveals unheard