The Magus x The Shout Commentary

The Shout is a 1978 film by Jerzy Skolimoski based on a story by Robert Graves. In it, a man claims to have learned an ancient and mostly forgotten method of turning his voice into a weapon that kills all those in its projected path. A musician he befriends finds this claim doubtfully curious and asks to hear it. Grabbing a candle to secretly protect his ears, the musician sets out behind the determined man to test the claim. Heading towards an open spot without potential bystanders (an effort they miscalculate) the musician is seen struggling to keep up with the man in the black coat who pushes forward with concerted determination.

The prospect of a sound, even a human voice, being used in a fashion that could kill, perhaps by rupturing a heart or other organs, is something of fantastical conjuring in this movie. Apparently it is scientifically possible at high decibels, though maybe not those capable by the human voice. But perhaps Robert Graves and Jerzy Skolimoski know something I don't?

I was taken by the striking beauty of the British coast in this clip. The high sand dunes and long grassy patches swaying in the ocean wind set a dynamic and eerie platform for the scene. Thanks to the wax in his ears, the musician survives the endeavor but we're shown a shepherd and his sheep as well as a seagull that are not so fortunate.

It was challenging to connect the distorted bass in the second half with the synthesizers in the first. I find changing moods from something not so abrasive to something abrasive can be a delicate and tempestuous ordeal that sometimes just ends up uneffective or even cringey at its worst. With the first half, I wanted to convey the musician's (man in blue sweater) growing fear and self doubt as the man in black lures him towards the beach. The emotions on his face show a mix of doubt, fear, anger, exhaustion. After the shout we see his understanding and resolution to avoid the man in black, who believes him dead.

The two halves of the song finally connected with a slight mode change that gave the bass line the proper footing it needed to move forward on the foundation established by the synthesizers at the beginning. I felt like the camera position in this second half, focusing on the man in black walking away, pulls the viewer along similarly to how the musician was before the shout. I think the rhythm and melody bass lines mirror the emotional change present in the camera angles, never looking at him in the face or eyes.