Boogie Nights Analysis

Boogie Nights Analysis

At the beginning of the scene it is very silent, the characters whisper and hush each other, suggesting that they must be quiet whilst going through with their job.  As soon as they enter the house, we hear the music very loud coming from the drug dealer’s stereo, shortly followed by a loud bang from a firecracker. This sound is used to shock the audience, making them feel uneasy and tense. The music is diegetic, which we see by the characters interacting with the music itself (e.g. singing along).

The noise of the firecracker is repeated, making the characters and the audience feel uncomfortable by playing the sound with random intervals of different lengths, we cannot see the source of the sound therefore we do not know when to expect it. This sound along with the music also makes the atmosphere very uncomfortable for the characters and the audience.

The dialogue in the scene is almost unintelligible, making it hard for the audience to understand what is happening. The music, talking and banging happening at the same time makes the audience feel overwhelmed because they cannot concentrate on the characters who are the key part of the scene.

We know as an audience that the characters want to leave as quickly as possible, but they are stuck in the middle of all this action and sound in the scene. The sound makes us uncomfortable which would reflect how they are feeling, they feel tense because they know that one of them has a gun, and they are surrounded by danger and the sound of banging almost replicates the sound of a gun shot which creates a lot of tension for the audience.