REVIEWS
74 | Sight&Sound | November 2019
Reviewed by Michael Hale
Offering an aural-focused grand tour of film
history, Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic
Sound gives some welcome exposure to an
underappreciated but critical aspect of cinema.
Realising that sound design is an arcane subject
even for many film enthusiasts, long-time sound
editor and first-time director Midge Costin
lines up an armada of galaxy-class directors
in the opening sequence – Steven Spielberg,
Ryan Coogler and Christopher Nolan, to name
but three – to attest to its importance in their
work. Then, dropping the viewer on to the
D-Day beaches with an examination of the
famed opening battle scene from Saving Private
Ryan (1998) in which Gary Rydstrom’s sound
design conveys a wider narrative scope than the
narrow point-of-view visuals, Costin executes an
effective one-two punch to grab the attention.
The bulk of the film adheres to a chronological
approach that motors through decades of
film history, making pitstops with clips and
commentary for notable advances in the sound
medium. Techniques underpinning a veritable
barrage of well-edited cinematic highlights – a
few seconds of King Kong (1933) here, a snippet
of Tippi Hedren under avian attack in The Birds
(1963) there – are laid bare. Malaise-stricken
studios reuse the same stock sounds across their
productions for years, only to be reinvigorated
by Orson Welles bringing innovation from the
world of radio. Particularly impactful is the
juxtaposition of underwhelming recordings of
actual jet planes considered for Top Gun (1986)
and the supercharged animal roars and screeches
that were used to great effect in the final cut.
Such dissection of movie alchemy will not be for
everyone, but there is almost endless fascination
here for those willing to peek behind the curtain.
The pace slows for detailed analysis of some of
the towering figures of this cinematic territory:
Walter Murch, Ben Burtt and Rydstrom. The
section on Murch builds from formative early
influences, including the French New Wave, to
his collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola
that set the template for modern sound design,
while the story of Burtt’s contribution to Star
Wars (1977) is suitably evocative. However, the
backdrops to these stories – the epic production
of Apocalypse Now (1979) and the rise of George
Lucas’s space opera – are so ubiquitous in popular
culture that it’s a pity Costin doesn’t linger longer
on the less commonly seen elements; we get only
a tantalising glimpse of Murch’s groundbreaking
sound-design sketches for Apocalypse Now.
Lucas states that sound makes up half the
moviegoing experience, but there is clearly a
less equitable split within the sound-design
profession in terms of gender. Costin doesn’t
shy away from the subject, and includes
successful female sound professionals such as
Pat Jackson and Bobbi Banks throughout. Less
commendable is the unacknowledged exclusion
of sound innovation outside the American
film system. The absence of the briefest hat-tip
to, say, Andrei Tarkovsky betrays a blinkered
approach that privileges Oscar-winners over
some of the most artistic sound use in film.
Similarly, it is a shame that, as the film
approaches the present day, some highly original
scores – Mica Levi’s for Under the Skin (2013)
and Jonny Greenwood’s for There Will Be Blood
(2007), for example – aren’t given their due.
Structurally, it can be argued that a detailed
sequence explaining the components (voice,
sound effects, music) and sub-components that
make up a sound mix would better serve the
attentive viewer nearer the beginning of the film.
Also, some consideration of the challenges ahead
for sound designers in the rapidly evolving world
of virtual reality would have been illuminating.
It is hard, though, to be overly critical of a film
that offers the pure joy of seeing foley artists
rolling pine cones along the floor or swishing
rugs in the air to create their dramatic effects.
Celebrating the magic of cinema as much as it
explains it, Making Waves will have cinephiles
listening to their favourite movies with fresh
ears. The fact that it might leave some hankering
after a more extensive and global treatment of the
subject in the style of 2011’s The Story of Film: An
Odyssey is largely just a testament to its success.
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
USA 2019
Director: Midge Costin
A documentary charting development and innovation
in the field of cinematic sound. Beginning with the
creation of on-set recordings and analogue techniques
from the end of the silent era and continuing through
to the digital-dominated present day, the film explains
how sound plays a key role in the cinematic experience
through excerpts and analysis. The impact of pre-
eminent American sound designers Walter Murch,
Ben Burtt and Gary Rydstrom is covered in depth.
Produced by
Bobette Buster
Karen Johnson
Midge Costin
Written by
Bobette Buster
Director of
Photography
Sandra Chandler
Edited by
David J. Turner
Music
Allyson Newman
Production
Sound Mixer
David J. Turner
©Ain’t Hear
Nothin’ Yet Corp.
Production
Company
Ain’t Hear Nothin’
Yet Corp. presents
Executive
Producers
Roann Costin
David Green
Ahmanson
Jot Turner
Marietta Turner
Carla Brewington
In Colour
[1.78:1]
Distributor
Dogwoof
Credits and Synopsis
Reviewed by Maria Delgado
In a world where there are
thought to be some 250,000
child soldiers, it is perhaps
surprising that we don’t see
more films dealing with their
stories and predicaments. To Kim Nguyen’s
War Witch (2012) and Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts
of No Nation (2015), we can now add Alejandro
Landes’s remarkable Monos, a film that eschews
both exposition and a concrete sociopolitical
context – the setting is probably Colombia but
this is never confirmed – in favour of a framework
that prioritises mood and environment, seeking
to find a means of dramatising the confusion and
chaos experienced by its teenage combatants.
This is evidenced from the film’s opening,
when shots of the soldiers framed against the
expansive landscape are juxtaposed with close-
ups of their faces as they are put through their
training routine by a fierce drill sergeant known
simply as Messenger (played by a former Farc
deserter Wilson Salazar). At times they seem
tiny, engulfed by a wild terrain (first the vast
mountains and then the claustrophobic jungle)
that imprisons and constrains them; at other
times their faces appear almost distorted through
the intensity of the director’s use of close-up.
Landes doesn’t opt for a clear protagonist
with whom the viewer is encouraged to identify.
In the early part of the film, it looks as if Wolf
(Julián Giraldo), the team’s commander, may
be in the running to take on that role. He’s been
given permission by Messenger to embark on a
relationship with Lady (Karen Quintero), another
teenager in the group, and looks marginally
older than his colleagues. But Landes quickly
wrongfoots the viewer as Wolf dies in the
fallout after Dog (Paul Cubides) recklessly kills
the cow that has been entrusted to their care.
The focus is instead on the interactions,
conflicts and games of this pack of young monos
(‘monkeys’), who are woefully unable to live up
to their comic-book-hero names: the long-haired
Dog with his fixed glance and fitful temperament;
the manipulative Lady; lanky Wolf, whose fluffy
facial hair betrays his youth; the cackling Swede
(Laura Castrillón); shy, androgynous Rambo
(Sofía Buenaventura); the put-upon Smurf (Deiby
Rueda), the smallest of the group and the one
who is frequently given the least salubrious
jobs; baby-faced Boom Boom (Sneider Castro);
and the lean Bigfoot (Hannah Montana’s Moisés
Arias), who labours under the illusion that he
has the disintegrating unit under control.
There is no background detail on the teens’
past lives, nothing about their motivation or
intentions. Instead, Landes traps the viewer in
an endless present of recurring violence that
proves both unnerving and unpredictable.
The monos play football blindfold, howl
like wolves and jump around a bonfire as if
performing in incantation. Rambo’s birthday
celebrations involve beatings delivered by all.
Trigger-happy Dog’s random gunfire unleashes
further violence – including the death of the
cow – which sets in motion the terrible train
of events that will rupture this frail unit.
The focus on the experiential proves
disorientating: taking magic mushrooms found
Monos
Colombia/The Netherlands/Argentina/Germany/
Denmark/Sweden/Uruguay/Switzerland 2019
Director: Alejandro Landes, Certificate 15 102m 17s
Soundings: Making Waves
See Feature
on page 36
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Reviews, 17