Sound Analysis of Sherlock Holmes scene

Sherlock Holmes- 'That's the Irene I know'

Official Film Poster

I will be analyzing an extract from 'Sherlock Holmes', the film released in 2009 and directed by Guy Ritchie. The soundtrack for the film was composed by Hanz Zimmer, who is well known for his compositions for films such as the Lion King, Gladiator, The Dark Knight and Twelve Years a Slave.

Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Robert Downey Jr, Guy Ritchie, Hans Zimmer

In this scene Irene, played by Rachel McAdams, defends herself from muggers and in turn ends up mugging them, whilst Sherlock, played by Robert Downey Jr, watches on. This scene uses a mixture of diegetic and non diegetic sounds to create suspense.

An example of diegetic sounds is a door slamming and quick footsteps down the stairs, which immediately creates a sense of rush and panic. There is dialogue between Sherlock and Watson, which leads to Sherlock jumping out of the window. His yell and crash landing on to the bin is another example of diegetic sound. The audience can physically see his jump, and the noise is one which the character would hear itself therefore making it synchronous. In the background a track is playing, which is either made up a violin or panflute. This is non-diegetic as the track has been edited on top. The mood that Ritchie, the director, is trying to convey is one of suspense and anticipation. The violin track is an excellent choice for this genre of film as it's increasing pace and high pitch evokes feelings of anxiousness and apprehension in the audience.

The music abruptly stops as it cuts to Sherlock hiding from Irene. The strings (or flute) then start up again, gradually building in volume. It is then layered with another violin/panflute which creates a polysemic effect. The track is foreboding, as the audience have a feeling that something bad might occur. Two men on the street attempt to make an attack on Irene but she manages to defend herself. In one sense the track is parallel to this sequence as it never reaches a climax, and neither does the actual action of the film because Irene prevents the attack.

On the other hand it can be argued that the non-diegetic track, orchestrated by Zimmer, is in fact contrapuntal. Majority of the music used in Sherlock Holmes is under the genre of Gypsy Polka music. This in itself greatly contrasts the setting of the film. Sherlock Holmes is based in London in the year 1891, whereas Gypsy music derives from Romani music which is mainly found in Eastern European countries. 

Overall Ritchie and Zimmer succeeded in grabbing the viewers attention, and evoking feelings of anticipation and suspense. This was done by their expert use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The Gypsy-inspired backing track for this scene worked well as it created a mysterious, uneasy ambience. The asynchronous of the music worked well as it signified the hectic atmosphere in the scene. There is a lot going on, and the audience has many questions in mind such as; why is Sherlock disguised? How does Sherlock know Irene? Who is Irene? Because of this, the irregular beat matches the dysfunctional atmosphere which is represented in this scene.

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