Nature is the mother figure of all living and
non living creatures. We live within nature and nature moulds us. It also acts
as the ever ending source of inspiration and the canvas of nature is filled
with different shades. Nature has the astonishing ability to evoke emotions and
becomes the initiator or the trigger to all humanly feelings. Here comes the
importance of two major specialisations in the study of ecology.
I.
Acoustic Ecology
II.
Soundscape Ecology
The evolution of these two branches of
ecological studies started in late 1960s with R.Murray Schafer and his team at
Simon Fraser University (Canada) as a part of the World Soundscape Project. The
first study produced by WSP was titled ‘The Vancouver Soundscape’. An important
outcome of the evolution of acoustic ecology is ‘Soundscape Composition’.
Acoustic
ecology is a discipline studying the relationship between living beings and
their environment mediated through sound. On the other hand Soundscape ecology
is the study of sound within a landscape and its effect on organisms. These
sounds can be generated by Organism (bio phony), Physical environment (geo
phony) and humans (anthrophony). The major reason behind initiating a study of
acoustic and soundscape ecology is to understand the impact of nature and its
attributes over human being, especially the emotions. It draws a parallel
between nature and emotions. The study bought out some enduring facts related
to the nourishment of cognitive abilities through nature and its sound. The
developmental stages of sense to sound sound to visual and the extreme peak of
finding sense of art in nature was the initial result of the explorations in the
study.
Thus
the paper concentrates on how nature had influenced humans and evoked their
emotions through four famous Hollywood movies. Chosen from different periods,
these four movies had beautifully captured nature and its attributes.
The Sound of Music
is a 1965 American musical drama film directed by Robert Wise. It was based on
the memoir The Story of the Trapp Family
Singers by Maria von Trapp. The film is about a young Austrian woman studying
to become a nun in Salzburg in 1983 who is sent to the villa of a retired naval
officer and widower to be governess to his seven children. After bringing love
and music into their lives through kindness and patience, she marries the
officer and together with the children, find a way to survive the loss of their
homeland through courage and faith.
Even
though not sound, the role played by nature in uniting the broken relationship
of Von Trapp family and the sense of realisation given to the nun in making her
understand the real destiny is supreme. Maria the nun was a free spirited girl
struggling to control her emotions. She was aspiring to become a nun and joined
the convent. But Maria found it difficult to ignore the blooming nature in
front of her which was forcing her to break free. The mountains waited for her
songs and the trees called her out to join them. She was in a paradoxical
situation calling herself a sinner as she was not able to totally surrender
herself to the lord almighty. The mother supreme understands her situation her
sends her to a mission where she can find out her real destiny. The Von Trapp
family was broken without life and love. The children were attention seeking
and their father was cold hearted. Maria tries to merge them with nature to let
them break the coldness of hatred and ignorance. They never knew that nature is
welcoming and lovely. The children found their real happiness in the various
attributes of nature. The mountain, rivers, flowers, and trees showed them what
life was all about. On the other hand Maria was evoked by nature’s call. She
realised this was her destiny. Her feeling for the captain grew stronger and
she decided that she could never leave that family. Nature had decided her
destiny. She was meant to be a part of Von Trapp family making them understand that
life without nature is cold and grey. Life of Maria began with the mountains
and the movie ends with the same mountains providing shelter to the Von Trapp
family in order to fight against the Nazi capture. Nature never leaves us. It
is we who ignore her tender hands.
The
second movie Return to the Blue Lagoon
is a 1991 American romance and adventure film directed by William A. Graham.
The film was marketed with the slogan, “Return to the Romance, Return to the
Adventure...” referring to 1980s The Blue Lagoon to which this film is a
sequel. The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical
island paradise in the south pacific. Their together is blissful but not
without the physical and emotional changes, as they grow to maturity and fall
in love. Nature plays an important role in teaching them the lessons of life.
They were all alone in the remote island but never felt lonely without any
human company. The movie beautifully captures the developmental stages of Lilli
and Richards and how nature makes them understand their physical and emotional
changes. When the kids were at their adulthood, they had to experience bodily
changes which were really a cause of anxiety for them. When Lilly awakens one
day with her first menstrual period she automatically understands the fact that
she had reached the threshold of womanhood. At the same time Richards
experiences erection and followed mood swings. Both of them were finding it difficult
to share their changes to each other and reduce their tension. But gradually
they realise that everything which had happening to them were natural and an
indication of their maturity and falls in love. Things changes when a group of
travellers arrives at their island and disturbs their natural way of living
with their so called civilisation. The movie ends in a positive note where
Richard and Lilly decided to lead their life in the island itself without any
intervention of civilised people. Lilly gives birth to their son and the nature
again takes the role of teaching the next generation.
The
third movie A beautiful Mind is a
2001 American biographical drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel
Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and it was also
inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize nominated 1998 book of the same name
by Sylvia Nazar. The movie deals with
the life of John Nash collaborated with the disease Schizophrenia. Nash had a
feeling that people don’t like him much and he consciously avoided all kinds
social contacts where felt to be ignored and insulted. So his mind created some
imaginary people with whom he can be comfortable. He was falling from the
reality and we see how tactically nature calls him back to life. His wife
Alicia was the one who stood with him in all his sufferings and we see that she
herself was nature. She used the attributes of nature to make him understand
what reality was. Whenever he slipped away from reality, she bought him back
with the help of nature. Nature proved that something extraordinary is always
possible when you really believe in what you do.
The
last movie Life of Pi is a 2012
American adventure drama film based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same
name. The story line revolves around an Indian man named Piscine Molitor Pi
Patel living in Canada and telling a novelist about his life story and how at
16 he survived a shipwreck in which his family dies and is stranded in Pacific
Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. In the beginning
of the movie we see a raged nature. Richard Parker is a personified form of
nature. But later it is visible that caring for Richard Parker is keeping him
alive. The movie beautifully reveals the secrets of nature showing a floating
island of edible plants, supporting mangrove jungle, fresh water pools and a
large population of meerkats. Pi forgot the loss of his family at least for
some time when he was with the tiger. He calls the tiger with its name Richard
that again proves the relationship between man and animal. Once we are away
from the civilisation, we gradually follow the course of nature and live with
its tune. Pi breaks down not when he lost his family but when Richard Parker
went into the jungle without acknowledging him. Sometimes our human qualities
fall futile in front the naturalistic emotions. We become feeble and child like
when we receive no attention from nature and its elements. At the end, it’s all
about nature having her dominant hands upon our actions.
From all these four movies, the supremacy of
ecology over the lives of characters is visible. Nature does have the ability
to evoke our emotions and guide us in the right path. Human beings cannot live
in isolation. We are largely influenced by the environment in which we live.
Nature is indeed unpredictable. We should be accepting the demands of
environment and adjust our lifestyle according to that.
Thanks to Neha Soman, India
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