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Daniela C. Rodriguez

Dr. George P. Thomas

English 1102 – 3 Souths

11 March 2019

The Manipulation of Dialogue and Music in the Film “Moonlight”

Director Barry Jenkins artfully and masterfully manipulates sound in the form of voice

(or lack thereof), natural sound, and music in his film, “Moonlight”, to create an atmosphere that

is almost uncomfortably intimate or lacking an element of realism.

During the first section of the film, Jenkins masterfully limits dialogue between young

protagonist, Chiron, and the rest of the characters. The elementary school version of Chiron,

“Little”, can tell the audience a profound story about loneliness and feeling unwanted using

limited dialogue. The cameras capture Chiron’s facial expressions and melancholy, glassy eyes

to convey his true feelings instead of dictating them through dialogue with other characters.

When Juan, the drug-dealer and later father figure to Chiron, attempts to strike conversation with

him when they first meet, it is to no avail. Generally, children who have trouble engaging in

conversation have had significant amounts of mental or physical trauma. Director Jenkins uses

this film technique of limiting Chiron’s dialogue to create an air of mystery around “Little” that

has the audience questioning his origin and what caused his trauma. During the diner scene

between Juan and “Little”, Juan attempts to coax base level facts out of “Little”, such as his

name and address. “Little” stays silent and eats his macaroni and cheese as if he had not

consumed a decent meal in days. When the camera pans out to a medium shot, Juan removes the

pasta dish away from Chiron to try to get him to speak. Suddenly, there is a close-up shot that

captures Chiron’s face of pure sadness as he looks down at his lap in embarrassment and
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disappointment. Juan apologizes; however, Chiron glances up briefly, and then looks down

again. Chiron refuses to speak for the majority of the first section of the film. The first phrase

that “Little” says in the movie is, “My name is Chiron”; however, that is not until the dinner

scene at Juan and Teresa’s house where he feels a semblance of stable family life. A stable home

and a stable family life are both concepts that Chiron is not acquainted with. However, Jenkins

manipulated the screenwriting and saved Chiron’s first phrase of the movie for a scene where he

felt enough trust to share his name with Teresa and Juan. Chiron gets spoken at multiple times

throughout the first third of the movie; however, he usually “responds” by looking back at them

with his large, sad eyes.

“Little” only speaks when he feels comfortable, which is supported by the fact that he

only engages in conversation with Teresa, Juan, and Kevin throughout the entire first third of the

film. One of the most uncomfortable conversations of the film occurs between Teresa, Juan, and

Chiron regarding the definition of a “faggot”. It is gut-wrenching for the viewers because of the

lengthy pauses and silence between the dialogue. The audience feels the same pain that Teresa

and Juan are feeling as they try to explain to Chiron the definition of a “faggot” while also trying

to explain to him that he is not one himself. Another uncomfortable encounter with silence is the

scene of Kevin and Chiron’s brawl in the schoolyard. The grunting and grappling noises create

an uncomfortable ambience because the viewer feels as if they are witnessing a private and

intimate moment. The boy’s faces are not shown; however, there are close-up shots of the boy’s

bodies as they wrestle around the grass. No words are exchanged during this “fight”, and at its

conclusion, the camera pans into close-up shots of the two boy’s faces as they pant and breathe

heavily. The heavy breathing resembles the experience of a post-sexual encounter. There is a
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sexual twist to this seemingly innocent “fight”. No dialogue takes place to make the viewer feel

the strong sexual tension.

In the second section of the film, there is another scene that parallels the uncomfortable

silence created by the prior sexual tension between protagonist Chiron and his love interest,

Kevin. This scene is paralleled by the scene where Chiron experiences his first real sexual

encounter on the beach with Kevin, a member of the same sex. The teenaged boy’s faces are

covered in this scene to make the viewer feel less uncomfortable about this intimate moment

they share. The former “grappling” and “grunting” noises of their childhood are replaced by

Chiron’s matured rhythmic, orgasmic grunting. There are close-up shots of their bodies that

seem to fill the entire frame to the point that their bodies are not fully in the frame. This film

manipulation technique of filling the frame puts emphasis on the state of their bodies and makes

them look “larger than life”. There is also a close-up shot of Chiron gripping the sand and

releasing it, symbolizing the release of his repressed sexual energy.

Overall, the film was shot and produced to simulate real life. The intent is that the

audience/viewer is made to feel “immersed” into the film with close-up and medium shots.

However, oftentimes, Director Jenkins uses film sound manipulation techniques to make the film

lose a certain sense of realism during specific scenes. A scene that garners attention for its

masterful manipulation of sound in order to affect its realism is the scene where teenaged Chiron

is in the principal’s office after he was roughed up by Kevin during the fight scene instigated by

Terrell, the film’s “bully”. The principal’s words seem to not affect Chiron because his body

faces opposite her direction throughout the entire scene. As she continues to talk, her voice

becomes inaudible, and there is a wide shot taken from a lower standpoint that fills the frame

with both Chiron’s bloody and bandaged face and the upper portion of the principal’s
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authoritative figure. There is a sense of depersonalization where Chiron is experiencing an “out-

of-body” sensation where he is unable to control his surroundings and hear what the principal is

saying. The film loses its sense of realism, because it has now been edited and manipulated to

lack elements of real life – the output of the sound of voice as the principal’s lips are moving.

Another example of the film’s manipulation of reality is through the temporary omission of the

sound of Paula’s, Chiron’s mother, voice during the hallway scene. The scene is edited to appear

in slow-motion and in reverse. She is facing the audience in a red, eerily-lit hallway where she is

dressed in a red shirt. Her expressions and clothing color are fiend-like, and her character can

ultimately be interpreted as a devilish influence in the film. The most striking component of this

scene is the omission of Paula’s screaming voice. Her lips are moving; however, her voice is

muted, and the unpleasant violin film score is the only sound that is heard during this scene.

This scene reappears at the beginning of the third section of the film, where grown-up, “Black”,

wakes up to the sound of his mother saying, “Don’t look at me!”. The formally omitted sound is

reintroduced to wake “Black” up from his nightmare. Waking up to disturbing sounds is not

uncommon for Chiron, because earlier in the film he wakes up as a teenager to a dream where he

is hearing the orgasmic sounds of Kevin having sexual intercourse with a girl on a beach in

Miami. Chiron is easily triggered by sounds which makes the audience feel even more

uncomfortable when the sounds strongly affect him throughout the film.

The film score/music within the film is objectionable and represents peculiar choices of

sound that contributes to an off-putting ambience for the audience. Throughout the film, there is

a classical violin ensemble that plays during key moments of Chiron’s personal development.

The repetitive use of classical music throughout the film as a genre of music is strange because it

clashes with the general atmosphere of the film. Due to the heavy African American cultural
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representation, I was expecting to hear rap and hip-hop music influences. Instead, there was a

heavy usage of a melancholy classical violin ensemble that could be said to represent Chiron’s

inner sadness. During the poignant scene where Juan is teaching Chiron how to swim in the

ocean, there is blaring classical violin playing. It is so obvious and pronounced that it

overpowers the entire scene. The voices and the sound of the waves crashing are subdued by the

violin, symbolizing that no matter how wonderful a moment may feel, Chiron’s deep sadness

overpowers his ability to be happy. As the movie progresses, Chiron gets older and the timeline

advances into a modern era. Despite the advancement into the modern era, there are still

influences of the classical violin, old school hip-hop, and the 1963 hit, “Hello Stranger”, that

Kevin plays for “Black” in the intimate diner scene. All the music that is played within the movie

was created with popular styles that date before the 2000s. When “Black” is older, it is almost

difficult to decipher whether or not he is living in a modern era because of the choices of music.

The integration of older music within the film makes the audience lose their concept of time,

warps their perception of reality, and potentially signifies “Blacks” inability to let go of his past.

Overall, the masterful manipulation of the sound in the film contributes to an intimate,

peculiar atmosphere with significant amounts of tension that the audience can almost physically

grasp. Through maneuvering the concepts of silence and natural sound, Jenkins is able to convey

emotions and feelings that dialogue often cannot do. The strange usage of music also contributes

to a peculiar and melancholy atmosphere that shares Chiron’s inner sadness in ways modernized

music or hip-hop influences would not be able to do either.