Moonlight: Silence, Sound Bridges, Motifs
The following analysis was submitted for an informal film journal assignment Junior year.
Silence has Meaning
The absence of sound shapes our understanding of images in a film. While quiet passages may produce tension, abrupt silence in a noisy passage may cause the spectator to jolt. One scene where the filmmakers use meaningful silence is after Kevin attacks Chiron. Terrel remembers a childhood ‘game’ called “Knocked Down, Stay Down” and asks Kevin to show the others how good he is at the game. Terrel selects Chiron as Kevin’s target, demanding that Kevin strike him down. Kevin starts beating Chiron up, telling him to stay down on the ground. As Chiron continues trying to get up, Terrel and his friends take the situation into their own hands and stomp Chiron into the ground. The sound in the scene consists mainly of the pushes and shoves directed at Chiron, but fades to silence once Terrel and his friends start stomping Chiron. The silence continues as the perpetrators run away and an onlooker tries to get Chiron back on his feet. The other bystanders hustle away from the scene and, eventually, Chiron limps away as the silence continues. The next sound the spectators hear is the following scene where Chiron speaks to a social worker. The silence in this scene is meaningful because it underscores not only the physical implications of Kevin beating Chiron up, but also the emotional implications. Chiron and Kevin’s kiss shortly before this scene. The kiss was one of the first instances where Chiron attempts to be vulnerable about his sexuality, almost physically confiding in Kevin. Although Kevin’s aggression towards Chiron in this scene was in part due to peer pressure, it still evoked deep-seated emotional pain in Chiron. In this moment, Chiron’s previous attempts at physical intimacy are met with physical violence and betrayal. The silence emphasizes the emotional significance of Kevin’s aggression towards Chiron.
Use of Sound Bridges
A sound bridge is when sounds from the previous scene linger while the image has already moved onto the next scene. Sound bridges play with the spectator’s expectations: creating smooth transitions, establishing expectations, then confirming such expectations. One example of a sound bridge is in the film’s final moments. After visiting the restaurant Kevin works at, Chiron and Kevin go back to Kevin’s apartment together. Kevin talks about his job and his family and says he is not where he expected to be in life, but that he is still content. Chiron admits to Kevin he has not been physically intimate with anyone since Kevin and rests his head on Kevin’s shoulders. Kevin strokes Chiron’s head and the scene switches to a young Chiron staring at the waves at the beach. In the moment where Chiron admits to never touching anyone since Kevin, a non-diegetic, subtle sound of waves begins in conjunction with soft piano music. Kevin does not respond to Chiron’s comment and the piano and wave noises continue as Kevin strokes Chiron’s head. When the scene cuts to young Chiron on the beach, the sound of the waves and soft piano music continue. This sound bridge indicates that the next scene will be at the beach and will likely be an emotional, sad scene, as indicated by the melancholy piano music. Linking these two scenes with a sound bridge helps tie together Chiron’s fractured life stages shown throughout the film. Chiron is now a man, but he still grapples with his childhood identity struggles.
Motifs: Waves & Violins
Chiron’s life is largely defined by specific people and specific instances. Both the scenes with violin music and the scenes involving waves and water indicate some of the pivotal, life-altering moments in Chiron’s life. The scene where Juan teaches Chiron how to swim incorporates both waves and violin music and serves as one of the most salient instances in Chiron’s childhood. The violin music emphasizes the emotion in the scene, while the water might symbolize a degree of rebirth. The swimming scene between Juan and Chiron felt baptismal in a sense, as Juan and Chiron created a bond that altered the course of Chiron’s life. It was as if Chiron was reborn as Juan’s son, to an extent. The man that Chiron becomes at the end of the film is essentially the spitting image of Juan, which reinforces the stronghold Juan’s influence had on Chiron’s life. Furthermore, the violin music helped indicate the importance of the subsequent conversation about identity between Juan and Chiron. Waves are also present during Chiron and Kevin’s kiss on the beach, which acts as another pivotal moment Chiron’s identity development. As the waves crash and the two become intimate, Chiron leans into, or discovers, his sexuality. Each instance with waves represents a moment of discovery for Chiron, but such moments are accompanied by a degree of hesitation and fear. Even in the final scene where young Chiron stares at the ocean, it seems as though Chiron is both entranced and intimidated by the power of the ocean. While the wave scenes are crucial moments in the construction of Chiron’s personal identity, he realizes the accompanying threats that a gay, Black identity holds. The violin helps underscore the importance of certain moments in Chiron’s life and is once again presented alongside the wave motif when Chiron glances at the ocean before following Kevin up to his apartment. The violin music plays as Chiron stares at the crashing waves and persists as the two walk together to Kevin’s room. Here, the violin music again indicates that the following scene will be a crucial moment in Chiron’s life. The two proceed to talk about their new lives and share yet another intimate moment. Another instance of violin music comes after the scene where young Chiron asks Juan what a “faggot” is and admits to Chiron that he deals drugs. The following scene shows Chiron as a teenager walking through school with violin music playing, seemingly indicating that his grapplings with sexuality followed him into his adolescence. It continues to play as Chiron looks over the fence and sees his bullies, apparently cognizant of the threat that accompanies growing into his identity. Overall, scenes with waves and scenes with violin music work together and and contribute to emotionally significant events in Chiron’s life. The music and waves tie together the otherwise fragmented events that shape Chiron’s path of discovery.
Who we are & What we’re Called
Chiron is called “Little,” “Chiron,” and “Black,” among other names throughout the film. The different names contribute to the film’s commentary on identity. Chiron’s grapples with sexual and racial identity as he struggles to determine who he wants to be. As Juan and Chiron sit on the beach after Juan teaches Chiron how to swim, Juan tells Chiron that “at some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you're going to be–can't let nobody make that decision for you.” Chiron’s identity is almost entirely composed of the identities people around him give to him and Juan tells him that he must eventually choose his own identity. This projection of identity from others onto Chiron is symbolized by the various nicknames people in his life give to him. Teresa begins to call Chiron by his name after he expresses that “Little” is merely a nickname used by others. Kevin gives Chiron the nickname “Black,” which he later hesitates to use when they run into each other later in the film. He recognizes that he gave Chiron the nickname to express their intimacy, but is unsure whether the intimacy they once shared still remains. In the third chapter of the film, the spectator sees that Chiron has essentially followed in Juan’s footsteps, spending his time working as a drug lord. This parallel reminded me of the scene with Juan and Chiron on the beach and I contemplated whether Chiron actually discovered his own identity, or if he merely took on the identity of the deceased Juan.
