Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-294) and index.

"This book describes in detail how music and sound function as a constituent part of the prestige combat film's larger work of memorialization in the cultural realm of commercial cinema. As Rikke Schubart and Anne Gjelsvik note, historians must deal with 'the complexity of history, war, heroism, patriotism, memory, and the process of their representation.' Hymns for the Fallen traces an expressive sonic continuity in this 'process of representation' for serious war films. The three elements of the soundtrack--dialogue, sound effects, music--are treated in detail in the chapters which follow, although music proves to be of particular interest"--Provided by publisher.

"In Hymns for the Fallen, Todd Decker listens closely to forty years of Hollywood combat films produced after Vietnam. Ever a noisy genre, post-Vietnam war films have deployed music and sound to place the audience in the midst of battle and to provoke reflection on the experience of combat. Considering landmark movies--such as Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Black Hawk Down, The Hurt Locker, and American Sniper--as well as lesser-known films, Decker shows how the domain of sound, an experientially rich and culturally resonant aspect of cinema, not only invokes the realities of war, but also shapes the American audience's engagement with soldiers and veterans as flesh-and-blood representatives of the nation. Hymns for the Fallen explores all three elements of film sound--dialogue, sound effects, music--and considers how expressive and formal choices in the soundtrack have turned the serious war film into a patriotic ritual enacted in the commercial space of the cinema." -- Publisher's description

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