Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam

Decker doesn’t merely describe how music, voice, and sound work in these films (although he does do this, admirably); he also helps us understand how these films work on us. This is extremely important work, because these hidden structures are subtly shaping contemporary attitudes to war, and to violence more broadly. He reveals the sonic elegance behind the tragic despair."—Vanessa Theme Ament, author of The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation "By undertaking a meticulous and far-reaching sound analysis of a broad array of war films, Decker reveals hidden continuities that a normal audience member could never discern. What the audience hears is key to evolving narrative and political strategies, and the insightful holistic focus on all soundtrack elements—dialogue, sound, and

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. Ever a noisy genre, post-Vietnam war films have depl