Now I am going to talk about the music that I have analyzed in the film Sucker punch.

Before I start the topic, I will introduce a little bit about the background and the plot of
this film. Sucker Punch is an American psychological fantasy action film directed by
Zack Snyder.
It is about a young girl, she was called Baby doll in this film, she gets committed to a
mental institution and arranged to have her lobotomized by her villainous stepfather
after she accidentally shot her beloved sister to death while baby doll and her stepfather
were quarrelling.
To escape her desperate situation, Baby Doll retreats into her mind, invents new worlds
in her mind, she imagined herself as a trapped sex worker in a hellish brothel.
In this imaginary world, she teams up with four of her fellow friends. Together, they
hatch an escape plan and wage war against the forces of evil. The meaning of this film
is about the escape of the mind from an unbearable reality into a world of illusions or
escopism.
I have found three types of music styles used in the film, the first one is pop music,
there are 9 pop songs were featured in the soundtrack and these soundtracks are the
pop songs that have already been composed by other artists or composers long time
ago before the film showed up in 2011, the music producer of this film paid for the
copyrights and change the version of the song and put it in the film again, and then we
also have classical music, and dramatic orchestral music used in this film.
Now I will talk about the pop songs used in this film for underscoring the moods of the
scene.
1. “Sweet dreams” a pop music covered by Emily Browning, which is cast of the
protagonist, she sings for this version of the song, it used in the opening scene in
this film in a non-diegetic way, this is also a famous song which also used in
other few films as well………
As we can see, this music strengthens the audience’s perception of the mood,
underscoring the mood in this dark scene, which introduce the character as an
opening scene, and there is also an extramusical sound which is the thunder also
enhances the dramatic effect for it.

2. “Asleep” also an example to underscore emotion. starts to play when babydoll is

3. “I want it all/ we will rock you” mashed up remix starts to play when the big mob
guy walks into the club. And the beat of the music is supporting the rhythm of the
guy walking in. The lyrics here also again underscoring the mood, it brings out
the contrast of the power and wealth of the big guy.

Next, we have synergy of using music for connecting different times and locations. Here
I have an example, a song called “Love is a Drug” used in this film.
 4. In the scene the song played diegetic for the performance on the stage, and the
music is also connecting different locations in the club, such as the people are
gambling, fighting around, shooting with the gun, people are doing make-up on
the backstage etc. and I think it also shows a little bit of counterpointing effect in
this case, because when there’s a scene of people fighting, this romantic music
is still being used instead of using dramatic music.
Now I am going to focus on diegetic music and non-diegetic music used in this film, so I
will show you 5 scenes with 5 different music using in the way of Diegetic music to non-
diegetic music and non-diegetic music to diegetic music. And I will also talk about the
music styles and synergies between the music and scenes in each scene.
1. The first example will be another pop music “Where is my mind”. First its intro
has been played by the therapist on the music player which is diegetic at first
then later the music become non diegetic, and its start singing when the
protagonist was being brought into the mental institution which also means that
she is going to start her life there. And the lyrics of this song also support the
scene and reflect the situation and the thoughts of the protagonist which makes a
synergy of underscoring emotions. In the end of this scene, the music stops in a
way of non-diegetic music to diegetic music.

2. “Army of me” this remix is based on a trip hop production, it starts to play diegetic
at first when the woman asks the protagonist to dance along with the music, and
then the scene turned into another fantastical world, here the music turned to
non-diegetic music from diegetic music. And the lyrics also underscoring the
situation of the scene, it says something like you have to stand up and manage
the problem you are facing it, which is also matches the scene very well.

3. “White rabbit” uses exactly the same way as the previous scene, the music
turned to non-diegetic from diegetic, the lyrics of “white rabbit” is also
underscoring the mood of the scene.
We can hear this music starts out very ethereal, and the later the song starts to
bloom into rich and full orchestral choral fanfare. It also includes a Middle
Eastern-style outro with guitars.

4. “Search and destroy” starts to play diegetic when the protagonist starts to dance
and then again, they were set to kill the dragons, the music turned to non-
diegetic again.
- Non-diegetic music to Diegetic music: as we know before the music is turned on
for the dance and now when the scene changes from the dragon scene back to
the dance room the music also turns non-diegetic music to diegetic music.

5. Here is the last example of this film using diegetic music to non-diegetic, we have
“Tomorrow never ends”.
Musically, the songs used in these scenes are highlighted with orchestrations and
a rock edge. The composer and music producer of this film expand the scope of the
songs in a way people never heard before", with "crazy electronic" and "alternative
guitar work". So, the versions of the songs could match the action on-screen.
Nearly every track here pits female vocals, mechanical instrumentation, to underscore
the plight from which the film’s characters must rescue themselves.
The use of these music styles in these 4 scenes also has a function of characterizing
the film characters, because rock music has always been used when baby doll starts
dancing and gets into her imagination world.
Classical music in this film has only been used in the kitchen scene, whenever there is a
scene in the kitchen, the chef will play the classical music on the radio, so in this case,
the music here is used for characterization. Here I have two examples.
6. “Mozart: Requiem in D Minor” starts to play in the kitchen on the radio by the
chef, and when the music starts to become louder when the girl is stealing the
chocolate and by the music, we know that something is going to happen, and
then something happened the chef and the girl start fighting. So here they use a
type of synergy which is the music is anticipating the action.

7. An opera aria has been used in this scene, which also characterizes the scene of
kitchen.
The orchestration music is always used in the dramatic scene to underscore the mood.
8. Robot scene.
9. Dragon scene, during the climax of this scene where the dragon spewed fire
from its mouth, and after that the music changes its mood quickly to
suit the dragon’s mood.