Law Abiding Citizen – Sound Analysis

The movie starts with a soft country music, making the scene seem as if everything is fine and nothing would go wrong. It is a diegetic sound, which is probably music playing on the radio to show the bonding between the father and daughter. They could have either been inserted during editing or played within the scene for the characters to react to.

The first set of dialogue is spoken by a little girl, where we get the sense that she will be an importance to the movie. We could hear her voice spelling out a word. Along with that we hear a Man’s voice – reassuring us he’s the father or is close with the child. It shows us that there is a connection between the two characters as they begin to condensate during the first scene.

Another Diegetic sound which was used was the sound of banging on the door for the characters to react to, which is a call for a change over in the location. It tells us that there would be another introduction of another character. As the banging continues the music soft country music fades out foreshadowing danger. A Ladies voice was presented straight after the sound of banging on the door, which had reinforced us that they are a complete and happy family.The sound of the door opening is also introduced to signify it would be an impact to the film as it is quite loud, straight after we hear a loud bang which is a hit from the baseball bat, along with that we hear groans to emphasise the pains and the power of the hit, from both the main character and the villain which had just entered the house.

A hard cynical music kicks in straight away as the bat is hit, the instrument that is used, sounds as if it is a piano but the notes which are played sounds distorted as the key notes are low. This is non-diegetic music to make the scene feel more disturbing and to continuously represent the danger which is present. In addition to this the sounds of the cable wire zipping on is used to signify to the audience that they are restricted to move and locked in danger.

We hear diegetic sounds of a Lady shouting and screaming repeatedly and this moment and also the sounds of a glass breaking which may have been sounds which were picked up during filming or Foley sounds as they may have been made in the studio, again these were used to emphasise a disturbing scene also the fear and struggles of the characters. Along with this the non-diegetic sounds are used to reinforce this as low long notes of the piano are repeatedly played. While this is happening we see the man is tied up, and hear muffled cries as the man struggles to break free in pain

As the scene goes on, a knife is introduced and as the characters are stabbed through the stomach we hear non digetic sounds which may sound like a knife sliding although it may be described as a silvery sound? A low slow tune is played really loudly reinforcing that the character might be badly injured or dead. The scene fades into darkness number of times but we still hear diegetic sounds continuing such as cries, shouting and loud banging which represent the character being unconscious.