The Role of Voice-Over Narration in Any Two Films - Essay Example

Section/# The Role of the Voice-over Narration in Two Films: An Analysis of “Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”, “Artificial Intelligence”, and “The Big Lebowski” Whereas filmmakers have many unique devices through which they can engage and provoke thought and ideas within the viewership, one of the ways in which this is accomplished is through the effective use of the voice-over narrative. This technique is not new; rather, it has been employed to varying degrees from as early as film was first starting to gain a foothold. Before the narrative voice over was introduced, there existed similar mechanisms within silent film which the director and/or responsible entity would allow the audience a brief glimpse into the action from an omniscient perspective by words flashed on the screen to describe from an all seeing position the action that was taking place. Although such a film device is not in any way new or inventive, the fact of the matter is that it is storytelling technique that different directors utilize to differing degrees based on the needs of the plot and the messages they wish to convey to the audience. As such, this brief analysis will track and consider the ways that three distinct film’s directors employ this technique. Through such an analysis, the author hopes to reveal the different nuanced levels of meaning that the individual directors hope to invoke through such a story-telling technique such as the voice –over narrative. Kubrick himself, when speaking about what way he would cast and direct a satire on the lunacy of the Cold War noted that it should be something that is presented to the audience in a form of dark humor. In this way, the levels of truth and different meanings which are conveyed could more readily be accepted and understood (Bilandzic et al 2011). As a means to accomplish this end, Kubrick employed many techniques that sought to mirror elements of true life that the audience would readily be able to identify with and would appreciate. Of course one of the most powerful mechanisms that was employed is that of the way in which news-like stories were presented to the viewer in such a matter of fact way; regardless of the nature of how utterly insane they might be in content. Kubrick further sought to provide a type of societal commentary that housed the work in a convenient yet detached framework. Rather than allowing the individual characters to stand out to a high degree and ultimately take away from the message that Kubrick was attempting to get across, the director saw it as a better mechanism to allow a central omniscient or seemingly omniscient narrator. In this way, the director is able to present a severely serious and gripping subject matter in a satirical way and from a detached standpoint. The detached standpoint itself is further compounded by the way in which the monotone voice of the voice-over narration serves to impress upon the viewer that what they are viewing The overall effect that the director was attempting to incorporate into the film was precisely this. Due to the fact that the satire itself stood on its own and helped to engage the viewer with the preposterous nature of the Cold War and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), it was only necessary to add elements of realism into a script that was already tinged by elements of absurdity (Kirshner 2001). In this way, the voice-over narration provided the necessary ethos that Kubrick required to accomplish such an end. Regarding Stanly Kubricks’s “Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”, Luis Garcia Mainar, relates the following regarding the way in which Kubrick incorporates a unique style of using the voice over. Says Mainar: “Voice-over narration in Kubricks films evolves from an element that shows the mastery of the text by itself, an element of coherence that assures the perfect fitting of each element in the first films, to a more detached, ironic relationship of narrator to text that hints at the growing feeling in the later films that reality cannot be controlled and that the text is unable to present it to us in a clear, reassuring way. This passage seems marked by the absence of voice-over narration in 2001, a reference to the organizing, clarifying function it had fulfilled in Kubricks films up to then, which would not have been coherent with the spirit of this revolutionary film” (Iguarta 2009 p.58). What is of particular interest with reference to the way that Kubrick employed the voice-over narrative in Dr. Strangelove is the manner in which the narrator spoke to the audience. Although this paper has already referenced the fact that the narrator spoke in much the same way that a news broadcaster of the time might do, what has not been discussed is the similarities to the fireside chatting style of Edward R. Murrow and others that had become such household names by the time that the movie was released. This was of course at least nominally intentional due to the fact that Murrow himself participated in a series of Cold War propaganda films that were not entirely dissimilar to the subject matter that was satirized in Dr Strangelove. This “newslike” representation of the subject matter is further evidenced within the way that the narrator justifies and categorizes the film within its opening sequence. Says the nameless narrator in an ominous and eerie voice-over that opens the film, “There is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor one that will be, but any war. And the enemies that struggle here do not exist unless we call them into being. For all of them, and all that happens now is outside history. Only the unchanging shapes of fear and doubt and death are from our world. These soldiers that you see keep our language and our time, but have no other country but the mind” (Stillman 2008 p.489). Although purposefully vague and mysterious, the above quote is indicative of the style that Kubrik intended to evoke by employing such a mechanism in the film. In essence, by employing this noticeable and unavoidable narrative, the director is able to use a greater degree of freedom in seeking to describe and define the individual characters within the film. In this way, rather than defining themselves based upon a framework that Kubrik sets forth for the actor to engender, the narrator is able to create the themes and underlying motives that define the satire. As such, rather than being a mechanism that is used to walk the viewer through the movie in a condescending way, this mechanism is employed to radically and quickly set the stage for the means by which the satire itself and the proceeding characters will interact within the larger framework of the issues involved. Conversely, in Artificial Intelligence the voice-over narration is used to a different end. Whereas the voiceover narration was used almost exclusively in Dr. Strangelove to evoke a sense of ethos within the viewer and provide the elements of a news broadcast with respect to the happenstance that was occurring on the screen, the use of voice-over narration in the “Artificial Intelligence” serves to provide helpful segues into what would otherwise be disjunctive portions of an already abnormally long film. In this way the director does not seek to impart a sense of overarching understanding by means of incorporating the voice-over narrative; rather, the purpose of the narrator is to provide a smooth and effortless transition over the long periods of time and different phases of the epic journey that child robot undergoes. Moreover, what is of unique relevance to the development of the child-robot is the fact that emotional growth is not available to him at the same level that it would necessarily exist in a human child. As such, it is the belief of this author that the voice-over narration helps to bridge the gap between the level of emotional understanding and desire that exists within the child’s programming and the actualities of the external world. Similarly, as discussed, the level of plot development within the robot’s journey can be traced to 4 distinctly different periods. As stated, these uniquely disjunctive periods are bridged by the voice-over narration helping to provide segue into the new material and the development that Spielberg wants to incorporate into the plot. Obviously there are other means by which this could have been accomplished; however, for purposes of saving further time that it would necessitate to allow the characters to develop this within the plot itself. As such, Spielberg chooses to incorporate the voice-over narrative as a means to shorten the overall length of the story as well as rapidly grasp and redirect the viewer’s attention to the topics that he chooses to focus upon. Additionally, and much more traditionally, the voice-over narration is used in Artificial Intelligence to rapidly catch the viewer up to speed with a world that they would otherwise be quite unfamiliar with and confused regarding. Such a technique has been employed for a very long time in film as a rather cheap trick to rapidly introduce subject matter and cut directly to the plot and or the action that is to be discussed and dealt with (Geraci 2007). In this way, the mechanism is used as an alternative platform to engage with the viewer, gain his confidence, and present the subject matter in a rapid and succinct way. Yet, beyond this desire to impart a quick background to the story, the viewer can realize a secondary reason why the director chose to incorporate a voice-over narrator within the plot of the film. A secondary reason for this is of course the fact that the film itself deals with a subject matter that is inextricably linked to religious themes. Due to the fact that the robot child must mentally develop and seek to form attachments and mirror the relationship that a true son would have with the family he is “born” into, the religious theme of “making man in our own image” is fully brought to the viewer’s attention. In this way, the manner in which the comparisons and contrasts to the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life, and the relationship between the son and his parents mimics that of a fall from grace which Adam and Eve experienced only serves to underscore the religious tones that the director is trying to effect. In this way, the juxtaposition of such a narrative helps to reinforce the omniscient view of the narrative that was mentioned briefly in the introduction to this brief analysis and give the allusion that the narrator is acting as a type of deity explaining how the fall of mankind precipitated. This type of narrative style helps to categorize the story from the very beginning within the viewer’s mind as something similar to a tragedy which will necessarily unfold in what can only be described as an ominous way. Regardless of the tone, the way in which the director engages the voice over narrative to impress upon the viewer the overtly religious tones that will be discussed only serves to strengthen the overall message that the director is attempting to get across. In this way, both the plot and the mechanism of the voice-over narrative serve to engage the viewer and draw them further into a story which itself contains strong elements of religious connotations which are shared by the unique use of the voice over narrative (Petlewski 1979). The final film that this analysis will consider with respect to the director’s use of the voice-over narrative is that of “The Big Lebowski”. This particular movie is a vastly different genre from the other two films that have thus far been analyzed. Due to the fact that the subject matter is so divergent, it also stands to reason that the use of the voice-over narrative is such that it is intended to provide the viewer with a different level of understanding and a particularly nuanced mode of transmission (Ozguven 2010). This is seen in “The Big Lebowski” in that the voice-over narrative helps to provide the unspoken audience reaction to the over-arching and far reaching generalizations of the actions that are occurring on the screen. In this way, a type of third actor is interacting with the cast as he seeks to exhort the audience with respect to how they should analyze and consider the proceeding action that takes place with respect to “The Dude”. The way in which the Coen brothers employ this narrative voice-over helps to engage the audience with the unique way in which the Coen brothers present their material and seek to provide an overarching framework within which to better understand the lead character (Igartua 2009). What should be acutely understood is that the role of these voice-over narratives is not meant to be understood and analyzed as a solitary entity. Rather, they are each distinct in their own unique way as a type of mechanism that is designed and incorporated into the film to bring about a certain end (Butte 2008). Whether this end is to further provide a level of differentiation/comedic relief, story segue and development, or framework in which to quickly explain and frame the plot which will proceed, each of these is much more than merely a voice over narrative; rather, it is a means of storytelling in which each of the respective directors employs to relate his specific story. In this way, regardless of the differentiated ways in which each of these voice-over narratives are employed, they are merely a means by which the director can work to introduce and differentiate his story to the viewership. As can be seen, although the mechanisms by which each of these voice-over narratives are employed and the ultimate ends that they are meant to accomplish in the minds of the viewers is as diverse as the films that have been briefly analyzed within this brief paper. Regardless of the subject matter that the director attempts to engage the viewer with, the implementation of the voice-over narrative is both an effective and diversified tool in which such an engagement can take place. Furthermore, regardless of the genre, the end result of such a mechanism is meant to differentiate the story and allow the viewer to engage with it in a way that they otherwise might not (Wilson 2006). Rather than relying on the individual actors or circumstances to paint the image and clearly grip the viewer’s attention, the voice over narrative does so in an obtrusive way which forces the viewer to engage and identify strongly with the subject matter at hand. Naturally, this can be abused by filmmakers and become a tiring technique which appears to be preaching to the audience on a host of topics. However, with the particular applications that this essay has dealt with, it is the opinion of this author that with the exception of perhaps “Artificial Intelligence”, the directors have used the technique sparingly enough to evoke the desired effect masterfully upon the audience. References Bilandzic, H, & Buselle, R 2011, Enjoyment of films as a function of narrative experience, perceived realism and transportability, Communications: The European Journal Of Communication Research, 36, 1, pp. 29-50, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Butte, G 2008, Suture and the Narration of Subjectivity in Film, Poetics Today, 29, 2, pp. 277-308, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Geraci, RM 2007, Robots and the Sacred in Science and Science Fiction: Theological Implications of Artificial Intelligence, Zygon: Journal Of Religion & Science, 42, 4, pp. 961-980, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Igartua, J 2010, Identification with characters and narrative persuasion through fictional feature films, Communications: The European Journal Of Communication Research, 35, 4, pp. 347-373, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Igartua, J 2009, Film Involvement and Narrative Persuasion: The Role of Identification With the Characters, Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, pp. 1-19, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Kirshner, J 2001, Subverting the Cold War in the 1960s: Dr. Strangelove, The Manchurian Candidate, and The Planet of the Apes, Film & History (03603695), 31, 2, pp. 40-44, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Özguven, F 2010, Writing on Film History, Far from the Canon, Cinema Journal, 50, 1, pp. 163-165, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Petlewski, P 1979, Complication of Narrative in the Genre Film, Film Criticism, 4, 1, pp. 18-24, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Stillman, GB 2008, Two of the MADdest scientists: where Strangelove Meets Dr. No; or, unexpected roots for Kubricks cold war classic, Film History, 20, 4, pp. 487-500, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Wilson, G 2006, Transparency and Twist in Narrative Fiction Film, Journal Of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, 64, 1, pp. 81-95, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 November 2012. Read More