Reel Tracks: Australian Feature Film Music and Cultural Identities

Rebecca Coyle, ed.  Eastleigh, UK: John Libbey Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 0 86196 658 9 (Paperback)

Reviewed by Anthony Linden Jones

This collection of essays focusing on music and sound design in Australian film is the second produced by Rebecca Coyle, currently the course coordinator for the Media Programme at Southern Cross University. It is a welcome addition to her earlier excellent collection, Screen Scores: Studies in Contemporary Australian Film Music, published in 1998, with many of its contributors also featured in this new collection.

Academic research on music and sound design in cinema has been relatively under-represented, by comparison with other fields of study in cinema. In Australia, a focus of interest has been the Cinesonic conferences put on in Melbourne by Phillip Brophy and RMIT, commencing in 1998. These have featured many internationally renowned researchers and practitioners, including Claudia Gorbman, Howard Shore, Yasunori Honda, Roger Hillman and Randy Thom, and have been successful in inciting interest in music and sound design as a rich field for research. But the films discussed in Cinesonic have been predominantly from outside Australia – important for the discussion of global developments in new or historic practices, but with less emphasis on highlighting new developments or giving a historical perspective of Australian practice. For that reason alone, Coyle's two collections of essays can be seen as an important resource for further research. The newer collection accentuates this benefit by featuring an in-depth collected bibliography of nearly 300 references.

A common theme in the essays for both collections is the ability for sounds and music to represent culture and place. The earlier collection explored the representation of Italo-Australian culture (author Tony Mitchell), and indigenous culture and its representation by the digeridoo in cinema soundtracks (authors Marj Kibby and Karl Neuenfeldt). This last followed on from the work done in the US by Claudia Gorbman on the representation of US indigenous peoples in Hollywood cinema. The present collection broadens the scope of this theme, discussing the representation of multifarious cultures, more closely mirroring the cultural 'melting-pot' that is Australia in essays by Jon Stratton and Tony Mitchell. Representation of masculinity and Irish heritage are discussed in essays by Shane Homan and Helen O'Shea.

Another major field of inquiry in this collection is the role of sound design in the narrative process – where clear distinctions between music and sound effects break down. – with an essay on the representation of sexuality by Bruce Johnson and Gaye Poole, and fascinating analyses on the films Bad Boy Bubby (Melissa Iocco and Anna Hickey-Moody), Chopper (Mark Evans), Rabbit-Proof Fence (Marj Kibby) and Lantana (Rebecca Coyle). I was particularly pleased to see an analysis of the sound design in Bad Boy Bubby – aurally, one of the most interesting films I have experienced – although Iocco and Hickey-Moody failed to acknowledge the debt due to the influence of the sound design of David Lynch's Eraserhead when Bubby is trapped in his room. Emphasis is given to a discussion of the technical processes used in the dummy-head microphone technique – perhaps spurring on more use of the technique, which really puts the viewer 'inside the head' of the character.

A shot from the film Japanese Story features on the cover of the collection – the film is discussed in relation to its representation of sexuality, but I found the film disappointing on many counts, not the least of which was the music, despite the number of industry awards the film attracted. A folk song from Okinawa was used to represent a man from Kobe – as culturally different as Maori culture to mainland Australian indigenous culture. My wife, who was born in Kobe, was particularly offended. In fact, on first hearing she did not recognise the language as Japanese, being of such a strong dialect. It is a shame that such mis-representation could not be highlighted in this collection as openly as other areas of exploration.

But this is only a small blemish on an otherwise superb collection of academic writings that is sure to serve as an important resource for future research. I highly recommend the book to students of media in secondary or tertiary settings.

Music Forum Vol 12 No 2