In the chapter “Sound in the Cinema” from Bordwell and Thompson’s Film Art, they write: “The creation of the sound track resembles the editing of the image track. Just as the filmmaker may pick the best image from several shots, he or she may choose what exact bit of sound will best serve the purpose… also sound that was not recorded during filming may be added freely” (320). This use of sound in film is particularly exemplified in Micheaux’s The Blood of Jesus in which the moral dilemmas and temptations with which the young female protagonist, Martha, is faced throughout the film. Generally, the moments in which she is seemingly “walking the path of righteousness” gospel choir music or church organ music will be playing in the background. This employs Bordwell and Thompson’s term “internal diegetic sound” in which the audience seemingly enters the characters mind as Martha’s face is shot simultaneously with gospel music and the shots pan back and forth from her face (or mind) to the picture of Jesus hanging on her wall.
Similarly, when “internal non-diegetic sound” which does not indicating the mind of a person, but also has no physical presence in the shot, it sets the mood and the pace for the scene. This is exemplified particularly twice in the film The Blood of Jesus. The first time occurs at the beginning of the film during which a baptism is taking place and a man, claiming he sees a snake in the water, comically and pathetically runs away from the congregation and his baptism, tripping and stumbling his way down the road. While this is occurring a ridiculous upbeat hymn begins to play with a faster tempo titled “Run child run, The Devil’s Behind You,” which adds to the comicality of the scene. Later on in the film, following Martha’s “sinning” and debauchery in the city where she is continually tempted by the devil, she escapes yet is chased by a handful of men who believe that she ahs stolen from them. During this chase scene, in which the camera shots pan back and forth between Martha and the gang of men behind her, the same song “Run child run, the Devil’s Behind You” is replayed from earlier in the movie. The effect of this is that the danger that Martha is in is, to some extent, taken out of the scene, as the audience relates the comic effect from the earlier scene of baptism to the chase scene.
Furthermore, “external diegetic sound” is employed in the film through Satan’s laugh—it comes across in the film as maniacal to the extreme. It is an attempt to be so “scary” that it is comical or ridiculous. In this instance, the filmmakers, who continually show Satan running away from the “voice of God” or the angel who repeatedly appears, may be attempting to demonstrate how, despite his supposedly maniacal laugh, it is ridiculous when God comes into the picture. Therefore, though Satan’s laugh is maniacal and held for over a good 10 seconds on camera, it can be considered ridiculous, as long as Martha resists temptation.
Something that I was wondering about was the use of silence in a film that employs so much sound to indicate the emotional and mental states of the characters. During the first scene, when the entire congregation is walking along the road and singing hymns before the baptism—Martha, though she is going to be baptized as well, is strangely silent. I could be reading too much into this, but does her silence indicate that, despite the fact that she is going to be baptized, she hasn’t yet been tempted and therefore is not truly a Christian?
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