Estado del conocimiento sobre la trata de personas

Open ing:

A South American Jun gle

Like all the chap ters of the se ries, the film opens with the Par a mount logo, a moun tain, which dis solves onto a vis u ally sim i lar form.¹ In this case, the Par a-mount moun tain be comes a real moun tain, the pro file of which is then blocked off by the en trance of a char ac ter don ning a fe dora hat and com ing into the frame fac ing away from the cam era. We find out later that the man with the hat is the pro tag o nist. At the mo ment, we can only rec og nize in him the typ i cal

“ex plorer type.” View ers in 1981 were fa mil iar nei ther with In di ana Jones nor with Har ri son Ford, who at that time was not as well known as he is today. The man is lead ing an ex pe di tion in the jun gle; with a super im posed title, the nar ra-tion in forms us that we are in “South Amer ica, 1936.” We know the time, the place, and we are al ready in the midst of an ad ven ture.

This open ing is strik ing for one ele ment that dif fer en tiates it from clas si cal films and from the other two neo clas si cal mod els, Star Wars and Super man. In the clas si cal pe riod, the open ing title se quence was a fixed pres ence and had some re cur ring fea tures.² The names of the cast and crew were shown on a

162 • Raiders of the Lost Ark Analysis

back ground and with graph ics that an tic i pated some nar ra tive themes or vis ual mo tifs of the film—like the falcon’s image in The Mal tese Fal con ( John Hu ston, 1941). More over, there used to be a lit tle mu si cal over ture pre sent ing the main mu si cal themes of the score: stick ing to our Mal tese Fal con ex am ple, the open ing ti tles are ac com pa nied by Adolph Deutsch’s mys ter i ous and men ac ing music.

Neo clas si cal films like Star Wars and Super man begin with a mem or able extra- diegetic title se quence that serves as a frame to the film nar ra tive. Super man even has a meta lin gu is tic pro logue that bares its comic-book or i gin. Star Wars does not have clas si cal open ing ti tles—cast, crew, and so on—but has an open ing se quence any way, tell ing the back story through crawl ing ti tles of a strik ing vis ual im pact. Even Jaws, which is the least overtly neo clas si cal of these three films, has a mem or able open ing title se quence. In all these cases, the music brings the viewer into the film, start ing its over all macro-emotive func tion of uni fy ing the nar ra tive. Oddly enough, a neo clas si cal film like Raid ers has no ex trad ie getic open ing title se quence and no mu si cal over ture. George Lucas ex plained: “The idea was that in stead of start ing off the film slow, we would start off fast. The whole thing in se ri als is that they al ways re capped what hap pened be fore. I didn’t wanna make it that much of a se rial. So I said, ‘The fun part is if we take the last epi sode or last film, and start at the cli max.’ You take that—the best part of a movie you haven’t seen—then stop, then you start a new movie 15 to 20 min utes in. It was kind of an out ra geous idea at the time.”³

Fol low ing the aes thet ics of se ri als, Raid ers was not de signed as a sin gle, stand-alone film but as a por tion of a larger se ries of ad ven tures, not only open to more epi sodes to come fea tur ing In di ana Jones,⁴ but also in con ti nu ity with the past films with Harry Steele, Alan Quar ter main, Tar zan, and oth ers. So, we are de lib er ately thrown into the mid dle of the ac tion. As soon as the Par a mount logo dis solves onto the real moun tain, the music starts to ac com pany the ex pe di-tion. First of all, it de notes the ex otic lo ca tion, using cli chéd per cus sion in stru-ments typ i cally as so ciated with the idea of wild er ness and un civ il ized lo cales.

The sus pense builds through a very slow barely tonal mel ody for flute in low reg is ter and sus tained high-pitched dis so nant notes of the strings, creat ing a sense of anx iety due to the music sta sis.⁵

Next, a na tive who is tak ing part in the ex pe di tion finds an ef figy of a threat en ing deity be hind the veg e ta tion and flees in ter ror, caus ing the de ser tion of the other na tives as well. The music em pha sizes the fright en ing dis cov ery with a star tling dis so nant trum pets stinger in per fect syn chron iza tion. It is al ready clear that we should ex pect from the score a prom i nent use of the old- fashioned Mickey-Mousing tech nique. In deed, shortly after that, an other ex-plicit synch-point—a muted trum pets sfor zando and a tam-tam rub—di rects our

at ten tion to a poi soned dart stuck in a nearby tree. When Satipo, one of the guides, says con cern edly that the Ho vi tos (a dan ger ous local tribe, we infer) are prob ably on their trail, the di alogue under scor ing presents men ac ing, low- pitched trom bones minor chords. The as so ci a tion between low-pitched trom-bones minor chords and “vil lains” will be a re cur ring idea through out the film.

This as so ci a tion of the minor mode with dra matic events and the low reg is ter with dark ness and men ace are old mu si cal con ven tions.⁶ It is also a well- established cli ché in film music, al ready used in the si lent era.⁷ For brev ity, hence forth these chords will be called “villains’ chords.”

The ex pe di tion party ar rives at a river, and the other guide treach er ously tries to shoot the man with the hat: a low-pitched turn of the contra basses is brought out to an tic i pate the man’s crim i nal in tent. The man with the hat hears the gun ham mer click ing and with a rapid whip crack—high lighted by a trum pets burst of re peat ing notes—he dis arms him and makes him flee. Then, the man with the hat emerges from the shad ows with a men ac ing look in his eyes; here we see his face for the first time. When he comes out of the shad ows, a marked down ward scale of trom bones minor chords is heard, which in creases the men ac ing na ture of his look. Inter est ingly, the villains’ chords are used here for the man with the hat. We do not know any thing yet about his in ten tions and na ture, and the music plays on this am bi gu ity, choos ing to use those chords in stead of the character’s leit mo tiv.

The two re main ing mem bers of the ex pe di tion— Satipo and the man with the hat—ar rive at the treas ure cave. The music tex ture gets thin ner to make room for the di alogue between the two men. They enter the cave, the music be com ing al most a back ground noise–like at mos pheric pat ina: low-pitched piano notes, soft tam-tam roll, and high-pitched clus ter ef fects of the vi o lins creat ing a re ver ber at ing “cav ern ous” sound.⁸ The mu si cal tex ture presents sparse pi a nis simo move ments by the strings: low-pitched tre molo chro matic scales, contra basses and vi o lins piz zi cato. They do not cor re spond to any vis ible move-ment yet but seem to sug gest the pres ence of an un known some thing, mov ing off-screen. As an tic i pated by the music, a hor rified Satipo points at some thing on the shoul ders of the man with the hat. A for tis simo bow slap by the contra basses is heard in syn chro nism with the cut to the man with the hat, re veal ing that he is cov ered in ta ran tu las. This mu si cal ges ture is fol lowed by a creep ing, al most ale a tory high-pitched vi o lins piz zi cato, which mim ics the move ment of the legs of the spi ders and emo tion ally height ens the viewer’s shud der of re vul sion at the sight of the spi ders on the protagonist’s neck. Soon, Satipo re alizes that many more ta ran tu las are on his shoul ders too. The em o tive func tion of music here is to de pict Satipo’s re pul sion, which is ac com plished through an up ward

164 • Raiders of the Lost Ark Analysis

vi o lins glis sando of high-pitched dis so nant chords, a mu si cal equiv a lent of a

“shiver run ning down the spine.”

Once they get rid of the spi ders, the two move on to the treas ure room. The music—with a prev a lent spa tial per cep tive func tion—plays through out the whole se quence, catch ing each ac tion.⁹ The music also has an em o tive func tion:

a strings tre molo creates ten sion over the fate of Satipo being on the verge of the bot tom less pit and a slow ato nal strings ar peg gio pro jects its tonal un cer tainty onto the im ages, mak ing the suc cess of the ex pe di tion feel un cer tain.¹⁰

In order to take the golden idol away from its ped es tal, the man with the hat has to re move it with out trig ger ing the weight-activated se cur ity mech a nism, and to do so he has de vised a plan to swiftly sub sti tute it with an equally heavy bag of sand. The ato nal ar peg gios are super seded by equally un cer tain har monic pro gres sions, a dy namic cres cendo and a thick en ing of in stru men ta tion. Music is now gain ing mo men tum and build ing the cin e matic sus pense. When the man quickly re places the idol with the bag, the mu si cal pro gres sion stops with a rapid up ward scale du pli cat ing the move ment of his hand. Every thing seems to have gone fine. How ever, a sus tained high-pitched strings note can still be heard—not a good omen. In deed, in spite of the sand bag the ped es tal of the idol low ers—wrong weight!—and the cave be gins to col lapse. The man with the hat is forced to make a hasty re treat, ac com pa nied by hec tic music char ac ter ized by rapid high-pitched re peat ing notes of the trum pets when a roll ing boul der chases the man with the hat. Here, the main func tion is tem po ral per cep tive:

the music em pha sizes the pace of the fren zied es cape and sup ports the speedy rhythm of the ed it ing. The man with the hat man ages to es cape and jumps out of the cave at the very last min ute, the dis loyal and greedy Satipo hav ing found a de served death. The music ac com pa nies the hasty, final rush of the re treat with a cres cendo chord played for tis simo by the whole or ches tra. The chord stops abruptly and makes way for a contrast ing si lence when we un ex pect edly see the men ac ing Ho vi tos wait ing out side and sur round ing the man with the hat.¹¹

The Ho vi tos are led by Bel loq, a treas ure hunter and arch en emy of the man with the hat, whose name is fi nally re vealed: “Dr. Jones,” as Bel loq calls him. Bel loq takes the idol away from Jones and in cites the Ho vi tos to kill him.

The music, which has been si lent for only fifty-nine sec onds, re sumes to pro vide ac com pa ni ment to Jones’s es cape. The mu si cal piece opens with a sin is ter horn motif played as Bel loq laughs wick edly. So far, the music has main tained a sort of am bi gu ity about the na ture of the man with the hat. The nar ra tion has now re vealed his name and in the pre vi ous scenes has shown that he is not only a grave rob ber but also a man of prin ci ples: after all, he saved Satipo from fall ing into the bot tom less pit. More over, now we know that Bel loq is the real vil lain.

Ac cord ing to the black/white Man i chae ism of the pop u lar Hol ly wood cin ema, if Bel loq is the vil lain, then Jones must be the hero. The music con firms this in fer ence, em pha siz ing Belloq’s laugh with a dark horn motif. Jones is re vealed as the hero of the nar ra tive, but what kind of hero is he?

The music does not ac com pany his es cape from the Ho vi tos with a pow er-ful rhyth mic sec tion or vig or ous ac tion music, but with a bum bling strings piz zi cato, awk ward stac cato ac cents by muted trom bones, and funny ges tures of the pic colo clar i net. The music casts a comic emo tional over tone onto the chase, giv ing an ironic image of Jones, a re source ful and brave ad ven turer but quite far from being the tra di tional in fal lible hero. When Jones swings on a vine to reach the sea plane that is wait ing for him but in stead plunges into the river, we hear the main Jones leit mo tiv (“Indy 1”) for the first time, played by the trum pets, with only its first four bars re peated twice; the full theme will be stated only much later. An up ward high-pitched trum pets ges ture cel e brates the suc cess of the dare devil re treat.

Jones’s plane fi nally flies away from the hos tile Ho vi tos. The nar ra tion taunts him again, down play ing his he roic status: Jones is rum pled, soaked through, and his fe dora now re sem bles a bowl-shaped wet rag. Then he re alizes with hor ror that a py thon is crawl ing on his legs and shouts to the pilot, al most whim per ing, that he hates snakes. ( Jones’s rep tile pho bia is intro duced as a gag, but once again it is also a set up that will have its pay off later in the se quence of the Well of Souls.) The pilot re as sures him by tell ing him that it is Reg gie, his pet py thon, and in vites Jones to be a man: “Come on, show a lit tle back bone!

Will ya?” The music ac com pa nies the scene pre sent ing for the first time the sec on dary In di ana Jones leit mo tiv (“Indy 2”) dur ing the py thon gag. As we have seen, “Indy 2” will be used through out the film to under line the hero ism of Jones’s feats. Here the mu si cal irony is given by the pres en ta tion of the he roic motif over a gag un veil ing one of Jones’s weak spots, thus stress ing once again his fal lible, com ically human side. Then, “Indy 1” is taken up by the trum pets when we see the plane fly ing into the sun set, and the epi sode set in the South American jun gle is over. A di min ished coda for strings with a ca dence re solv ing to the tonic re in forces the clo sure ef fect and bridges the cut to the es tab lish ing shot that opens the next scene: the aus tere ex te rior of a col lege.

At Home:

Get ting Ready for a New Mis sion

We soon dis cover an other facet of Dr. Jones: his sec ond life as an ar chae ol ogy pro fes sor. Two govern ment of fi cers come to see Dr. Jones: they in form him

166 • Raiders of the Lost Ark Analysis

and Brody, the dean of the col lege, that the Nazis are on the trail of the Ark of the Cov e nant. Jones opens a bulky book to show the of fi cers what the ar ti fact is ex pected to look like. As soon as the book is opened, we hear a “pedal point,” a sus tained low-pitched note of the contra basses that con veys a sense of threat and un easi ness to the scene. This is an other clas si cal mu si cal cli ché: the low-

and Brody, the dean of the col lege, that the Nazis are on the trail of the Ark of the Cov e nant. Jones opens a bulky book to show the of fi cers what the ar ti fact is ex pected to look like. As soon as the book is opened, we hear a “pedal point,” a sus tained low-pitched note of the contra basses that con veys a sense of threat and un easi ness to the scene. This is an other clas si cal mu si cal cli ché: the low-