The Power of Rhetoric in Films
A Rhetorical Analysis of A Quiet Place
Please consider the following questions: Why do we usually obtain a better experience when watching a film in a cinema than at home? Is it because popcorn gives us extra pleasure while appreciating films? If you are an avid popcorn enthusiast, it may be one of the reasons. For most people, however, the reason for this experience gap is that moviegoers at home can roughly have a taste of the film plots only, while the rhetorical techniques applied by filmmakers can be impaired significantly because of the audience’s inferior film-playing equipment. In other words, in addition to the rich plot, having effective rhetorical techniques, which is often overlooked, is also the key to achieving an attractive film.
A Quiet Place revolves around a family forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing in a post-apocalyptic world. Through the novel use of music and clever light settings, John Krasinski, the director, succeeds in immersing the audience in a highly stressful atmosphere of terror. Moreover, the choice of characters in the film frees it from the “pure-horror” and endows it the glow of family affection.
Silence: An Innovative Form of Music
“Where words fail, music speaks.” — Hans Christian Andersen
Music plays a decisive role in the expression of content and the shaping of the atmosphere. As a film centered on hearing, the design of sound is crucial in A Quiet Place. Horror films are often characterized by loud and screechy affairs, but contrary to the norms, A Quiet Place makes the sound a more sensitive element, creating tension and uneasiness with details. The novelty of sound design brings a whole new experience to horror film lovers.
The cleverness of the film is not to scare the audience, but to bring tension and keep the audience focused at all times. Combined with the plot of the film, the absence of background music from time to time does not make the film appear boring. Instead, it artfully makes the audience involuntarily pay attention to all the other subtle sounds, and thus achieving the goal of attracting concentration.
At the beginning of the film, for example, the Abbotts are collecting living supplies in a supermarket, where the filmmakers deliberately do not insert any background music, so all the slight sounds are amplified dramatically: footsteps, breathing, wind, heartbeat, etc. It highlights how hard the family has worked to prevent making any sounds, which causes the audience curious about what would happen if a sound is made.
Some people may deem that a successful film needs to use shocking images and striking music at the beginning to quickly immerse the audience in the story, which is not presented in A Quiet Place. However, the meticulous sound processing technique applied widely in the entire film is not only an interesting plot setting but also allows the audience to integrate themselves into the film in another effective way. Imagine that you are watching this film in the cinema right now. You may still be talking with people around you or playing mobile games when the film gets started. What you did not expect is that the surprising silence of this film makes the noise you make awkwardly dissonant. To avoid distracting others, you are likely to stop these behaviors immediately and get concentrated. In addition, the silence in this film effectively engages the audience and forms a psychological interaction. Each audience becomes a passive participant, acting as a member of avoiding monsters together with the characters. This is an innovation of this film, and some viewers even can not help covering their mouths and trying not to make a sound when watching it.
Color and Light: The Visual Power
The masterly combination of color and light applied in A Quiet Place serves as another crucial aspect of rhetoric that can disturb and move the audience with a pack of bleak and warmhearted scenes. It is amazing human nature that people will emerge with different emotional changes in response to diverse colors. As a horror film in the context of an apocalypse, the filmmakers incorporate tons of dusk and night scenes with a purpose. The life scene of the family supporting each other in the film usually happens at dusk, because the warm tones of that moment typically give people a feeling of warmth and hope. Along with melodious and soothing music, the audience can feel the existence of hope and love embedded in disasters and fears. When night falls, the cold-tone hue instantly wipes out hope and happiness and brings the fear of the unknown. The strong contrast makes the sense of crisis reach its peak and elicits the audience’s emotions accordingly.
The climax of the film arrives when Evelyn Abbott accidentally stepped on a nail and therefore attracted the monsters, and at the same time, she was about to give birth. When she lights up the warning lights, the dark background and the red lights, symbolizing danger and urgency, collide with each other, intertwining fear, crisis, and violence. Moreover, red, in addition to representing danger, is often reminiscent of blood. When the red light comes on a dark night strikingly, it also implies that this quiet life will eventually be broken, and sacrifice and blood are inevitable.
Role Setting: The Incorporation of Emotional Elements
In fact, compared with some other famous supernatural horror films like The Conjuring and Annabelle, A Quiet Place does not seem particularly eminent in terms of the degree of horror. One of the vital factors that make this film a success is the choice of a family as the carrier of narratives. Although it was classified as a monster film, A Quiet Place centers on human characters and injects plenty of emotional elements into the story. Through such a plot setting, the film not only succeeds in obtaining all the elements needed to qualify as a horror film but also conveys emotions that resonate with the audience. In addition to an overt storyline about avoiding monsters, A Quiet Place also has a covert line of affection between father (Lee) and daughter (Regan). At the beginning of the film, after the death of the youngest son, an invisible estrangement seemed to be formed between Lee and Regan. Although they still love each other, neither “speaks it out.” Until the end of the film, to protect his children, Lee shouts aloud to attract monsters and sacrifices himself after expressing “I love you” in sign language.
At this point, the gap between father and daughter has been completely lifted, but the price paid was Lee’s life. Lee’s shout is not only a last resort to attract monsters and save his children, but also the most powerful expression of this long-standing family affection. “Please be brave to express your love to your families before it is too late,” which I think is the message the director wants to convey implicitly.
Conclusion
Overall, in A Quiet Place, John Krasinski succeeds in creating a tense and engaging atmosphere through the innovative use of music and clever light utilization. In addition, the inclusion of emotional elements conveys a deeper meaning and creates a strong appeal to pathos on the basis of being a great horror film. After reading my detailed rhetorical analysis of A Quiet Place, I hope you can now have a better understanding of rhetorical techniques applied in films and how they contribute to present a superior experience for the audience. So the next time you go to watch a film, why not try to analyze the film in terms of rhetoric?