Title: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Year: 2013
Director: Ben Stiller
Writers: Steve Conrad (screenplay), James Thurber (original story)
Actors: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, John Daly, Sean Penn
Music: Theodore Shapiro
Movie Summary: This film is loosely based on the original short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939), by James Thurber. Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a daydreamer who escapes his boring and predictable life through vivid heroic and romantic fantasies. Mitty has a crush on a co-worker (Kristen Wigg), who is often the object of those fantasies. When his job is threatened, Mitty must embark on a global journey in search of lost film. He goes on his first real life and action-packed adventure.
Sound: Three basic categories of sound are dialogue, sound effects and music. Each serve an important function and must be carefully balanced to make the story work (Goodykoonz&Jacobs, 2011, 6.4). Sound plays an important role in this film; each fantasy is spurred by a sound, word or event in the real world. The film switches back and forth from fantasy to reality, which establishes the theme. This also allows for its inclusion to the fantasy film genre.
Simply put, dialogue are characters talking to one another in a film. The dialogue can inform and add clarity or it can greatly impact the mood of a scene. Sometimes the dialogue can be imaginary and very fantastical. This is the case in the following scene between Walter Mitty (Stiller) and Cheryl (Kristen Wiig) As Mitty stands listening to the sounds of Cheryl talking to a co-worker, he begins to daydream (below):
The actions scenes in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) are filled with sound effects. The sound effects in a film add power and adrenaline to action sequences (Goodygoontz & Jacobs, 2011, 6.4). During the following scene, the use of sound effects reflect the urgency of the situation (the alarm) and the power of a volcanic eruption as the car speeds away:
Music can set the theme for a movie and the mood for an individual scene. Early in the movie, Witty is made fun of at the office by his new boss and is called “Major Tom”. During a later scene, Mitty feels frustrated during his mission and he imagines that Cheryl (Kristen Wiig) is singing “Major Tom” to him. It motives Mitty to act boldly and creates an elevated, hopeful and excited mood. It is a very pivotal moment in the film:
As you can see, if you removed the music from this particular scene, it would make no sense. The scene would not have been nearly as powerful or memorable.
The music in the individual scenes is much more dramatic than the overall soundtrack. According to supervising sound editor Craig Henighan, “The approach we took from a sound design standpoint was: in Walter’s everyday life the sound should be bland – a simple and basic soundtrack. When we enter the fantasies, we’d go into huge sound moments, open up the sound field to big-7.1, buildings could explode. From black and white to technicolor. We were trying to do the sonic equivalent of that idea” (Cunningham, 2013).
As you can see, the importance of sound in this film is clearly demonstrated. The mix of dialogue, special effects and music make the story come to life.
Resources:
Cunningham, K. (2013, December 5). Contenders – Sound Editor Craig Henighan and Sound Mixer Danny Michael, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | Below the Line. Retrieved from http://www.btlnews.com/crafts/post-production/contenders-sound-editor-craig-henighan-and-sound-mixer-danny-michael-the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty/
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From watching to seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) – IMDb. (2013, December 25). Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359950/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
Rich, K. (2013, July 30). Ben Stiller’s Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Debuts Stunning First Trailer – CinemaBlend.com [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Ben-Stiller-Secret-Life-Walter-Mitty-Debuts-Stunning-First-Trailer-38765.html
Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Pub Scene) on Vimeo [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/85156527
The secret life of walter mitty video clip [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytf3mnY1wK
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Clip – Eruption (HD) Ben Stiller [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hijJxwlmCAY
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