Svetlana SolovyevaHONORS 102Professor PomoMarch 28, 2016

In America: Editing Reveals Internal Struggles

The physical, emotional, psychological and mental aspects make up each

individual human being, often seemingly at battle with one another. Art is a means

of making sense of these, with film being the perfect facet for the portrayal of the

complexity of the internal struggles of the human heart and mind and the outward

depiction of them. In his film, In America, Jim Sheridan skillfully uses editing

techniques such as camera angles, hand-held shots, framing, rhythmic relation

between shots, cross cut scenes and eye-line matches to illustrate and draw the

audience’s attention to the unsaid internal struggles of the film’s characters.

The core cause for the internal struggle of the main characters is grief. Anne

Lamott summarizes the essence of the film in the following quote: “You will lose

someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad

news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also

the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And

you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still

hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp” (Lamott).

The death of Frankie, a beloved son and brother, invisibly stopped the lives

of Johnny, Sarah, and their children, making it seemingly impossible to go beyond

death. As the family moves to America, and faces the challenges of immigration,

their lives are intertwined with Mateo, who teaches them to love life and not be

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afraid of death, ultimately overcoming grief and learning to “dance with the limp”

(Lamott).

Throughout the film, Sheridan, through the use of a variety of camera angles

highlights the symbolism within the film. One such camera angle is a crane shot,

which provides a bird’s eye view of the subject below. The family experiences the

unbearable New York heat upon their move to America and face the challenges of

immigration, such as poor living conditions. By filming a crane shot of Johnny

hauling the AC to their apartment across the busy New York streets, the director

emphasizes the minuteness of their existence in comparison to the city and

furthermore, the world that they live in. The crane shot also provides a feeling of

isolation for the character, and as such serves as one of the earliest indicators to the

internal battle that Johnny deals with on a daily basis. Additionally, the heat and

frustration that the family is experiencing is not limited to physical exhaustion; this

scene, which occurs fairly early in the film, foreshadows the internal turmoil and

frustration caused by the escalation of unaddressed issues and events all

throughout the film.

In another scene, the family is at a carnival and Johnny is trying to win a doll

by making seven balls into one hole. Throughout the whole scene, the camera moves

from one close-up shot to another. Usually, it is single person close up shots of the

main characters’ faces. A close-up shot isolates the image on screen making it seem

unusually large and bringing all of the audience’s attention to it. In this case, the

close-up shots are utilized to emphasize the emotion, first of joy and excitement, and

then later on of great anticipation mixed with desperate hope, shown on the

characters’ faces. However, towards the end of the scene, when the suspension is

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high, the camera goes out into a wide, medium shot that shows all the surrounding

people, creating great pressure and intensity within the scene. The scene is shot in a

hand-held shot manner, with the camera moving swiftly to follow the ball throw,

thus creating a blurred action image. Shooting this scene as a hand-held shot results

in jarring images, which create a sense of realism within the scene. And by mainly

focusing on the face expressions of those within the scene, the editor of the film

reveals more of the character’s internal state of being. Johnny’s need to win that

doll, portrayed by his straining face seen in the close-up shots, point to his deeper

need to redeem himself for his son’s death. There is a need for him not to let down

his girls and to prove himself as the man of the household, and he places that need

as more important than all the money the have earned up to that point, for he is

willing to bet it all just so he could try “one more time.”

Another example of a great, emotionally vested shot is the close up of Ariel’s

gentle little hand on Mateo’s big, muscular shoulder. Again, Mateo is initially

portrayed as this tough, big, African man who yells and screams at everyone in his

building. Yet, at the touch of a little girl, he breaks down and cries. His vulnerability

and open, raw external expression of it contrasts greatly with Johnny’s inability to

feel. In size and demeanor, Johnny does not look as intimidating as Mateo; yet, the

build up of grief and pain that Johnny is dealing, or rather failing to deal with, causes

him to serve as a threat to everyone’s wellbeing. Once again, Sheridan intentionally

uses a close up shot to place emphasis on the subjects on screen.

Later on in the film, after a fervently intense argument with his wife, Johnny

storms down the stairs and sees Mateo in his doorway. Johnny, in an emotionally

unstable manner lashes out at Mateo; as a result of his outburst the audience

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receives a deeper insight into the struggles of both of these characters. The long,

framing shot of Mateo standing in the doorway establishes him as an overpowering

image on the screen, symbolic of his overpowering place in the film. As Johnny

storms into Mateo’s apartment, the camera moves into an over-the-shoulder shot

with Mateo’s back to the camera. Although this shot is filmed at eye-level, due to

Mateo’s placing in the foreground and Johnny’s in the background, the audience is

left with the impression that Mateo is much bigger than Johnny. Johnny’s frantic

pacing and jolting body language reminds one of a mouse caught in a trap, as

compared to Mateo simply standing there, rooted like a tree. Once again, the

director of the film uses this scene to reveal Johnny’s internal state. Johnny declares

that he feels dead, as a ghost without feeling although he is perfectly healthy and

alive, compared to Mateo who feels and has hope, even though he is actually

physically dying. Mateo’s love for life juxtaposes Johnny’s inability to feel and enjoy

it, thus alarming the audience to the future struggles to come.

Several scenes later, these same two opposing characters are now bonding

by having a snowball fight. However, the series of long shots of Johnny and Mateo

snowball fighting are filmed through bars. By doing so, the characters are framed

and also bordered off by a random object, in this case it is playground bars, thus

obscuring the audience’s vision of what is going on in the scene. These bars are

symbolic of the prison cells that humans often confine themselves to, whether that

is a prison cell of grief, or anger, or lack of forgiveness, heartache or hopelessness.

These bars also foreshadow to the future of these characters. Although the action in

the scene is joyful, the bars steal away from the joy by serving as a constant

reminder of the individual internal struggles of both Johnny and Mateo. The

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shortness of life is also emphasized in this scene. Both of these characters have and

will again in the future encounter death. How they cope with it and the lessons that

they take away from those who have passed away, will impact greatly the rest of

their lives.

Furthermore, the internal struggle of the parents is first vividly revealed in a

rhythmic relation shot of Johnny and Sarah making love and Mateo raging during a

thunderstorm. A rhythmic relation shot is a shot in which the editor edits the cuts

according to a rhythmic pattern, usually accompanied by a musical soundtrack. This

is used to move forward the scene in a choreographed manner, emphasizing the

tension and climax that it leads to by speeding up the tempo. In his book In the Blink

of an Eye, in regard to editing scenes, Walter Murch states that “suggestion is more

effective than exposition” (Murch). In this particular scene, the rhythmic sound of

African drums, the jarring cutting of shots back and forth, the rhythmic flashes of

lighting and the parallel shots of Mateo’s rage perfect this concept. As the action

escalates, so do the sound, lighting and the change of frames within the scene. These

editing techniques climax the scene to an intense feeling of passion, but also turmoil,

thus vibrantly implying to the audience that there are deeper issues that the

characters are dealing with than one of physical passion for one another or the

angry rage of an artist without a muse. In regards to the essence of montage, the film

theorist André Bazin once wrote that montage constructs “the creation of a sense or

meaning not proper to the images themselves but derived exclusively from their

juxtaposition” (Sikov). Mateo is an artist who strives to express his internal turmoil

externally through his art. However, the director uses Mateo as a foil to Johnny and

Sarah in order to represent Johnny and Sarah’s internal state of being by paralleling

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shots of Mateo and the couple. Thus, the underlying meaning is derived through the

careful juxtaposition of images within the scene.

Crosscut shots are another editing technique used by Sheridan to intertwine

and parallel Mateo’s and the Sullivan family’s lives. Crosscuts are characterized by

the cutting from one scene of action to another, thus tying or paralleling the two

scenes. Crosscutting allows for the two scenes, taking place in two different places,

to be tied together which can suggest simultaneity.

One example of crosscutting in In America, is a seemingly random scene of

Johnny in a cab with a young, white broker who starts to rap at which point the

scene crosscuts to shots of Mateo who has fainted on the stairs. The scene begins

with a two shot of Johnny and the broker guy in the cab, then a one shot of the

broker himself, it then transitions to a close up frame of Christy’s foot, a two shot of

the girls, then crosscuts back to a one shot of Johnny annoyingly sitting in the cab,

followed by a one shot of the broker rapping and then to a crane shot of Mateo

laying down on the staircase. The irony of this scene is embodied in the phrase that

Christy narrates in the beginning of the scene: “Sometimes it seems like everyone in

New York was an actor, even the stock brokers.” The significance of that statement

is found in the previous scene, in which Sarah asks Johnny to make-believe and

pretend to be happy and hopeful about the pregnancy and the baby. The sadness

and irony of that pinnacles in this crosscut scene where Johnny is not willing to put

up with the ridiculousness of a white, high, broker guy who randomly starts to rap

about the harsh reality of life. As the white broker seems to try to make sense of his

life through lyrical vomit, Johnny shuts him up by kicking him out of the cab, just

like he shuts and kicks out his feelings rather than dealing with them.

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Simultaneously, the director shows what is going on with the rest of the family and

Mateo by crosscutting from the cab to the staircase. Here, Mateo has fallen down the

stairs, just like Frankie their little brother fell down the stairs before he died. This

scene shouts déjà vu but with a major difference, where as the fall and death of

Frankie stole life, the fall and death of Mateo, through a series of events portrayed

later on in the film, will bring life back.

Another crosscutting scene is seen in the hospital scene that crosscuts from

Mateo on his deathbed to the baby in the nursery, whom comes to life as Mateo dies.

By crosscutting from Mateo’s face to the baby’s accompanied by Mateo’s mumbling

and the baby’s cry, the director not only parallels their lives, but also makes the

symbolism of Mateo’s presence in the life of the Sullivan family painstakingly clear.

As Mateo’s speaking ceases to heavy breathing and then the last breath, the baby’s

crying calms as it feels the love of the family that it is surrounded by, and as the

nurse lets go of Mateo’s hand, signifying his death, so the baby in a consequent shot

lets go of her parents hands, alive and ready to live on. The director suggests that

Mateo gave his life up so that the baby could live, thus providing the family with new

life and healing that came with the birth of the baby. Mateo’s image as a savior is

further accentuated in a later scene where it is revealed that the hospital bill for the

delivery of the baby is paid in full.

Lastly, Sheridan uses eye-matching as an editing technique to deliver to the

audience a unique perspective. Eye-matching is done by matching the camera angle

and direction with the gaze of a character. An example of eye-matching is the scene

where Christy gives blood. The camera pans up to her face and then zooms into a

close shot, it then follows the movement of her eyes around the room. The editor

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uses eye-matching to place the audience in Christy’s perspective. Her eye gaze leads

to close up shots of all the different people in the room, clearly emphasizing the

emotion on their smiling faces, providing the scene with a surreal feel. As Christy

looses consciousness, the shot fades out with her. Filmed in a hospital room, with

the overbearing uncertainty of the long-awaited baby’s birth looming over the

characters in the film, the scene provides hope and childish insight into the

complexities of life. Christy feels such a great connection to her brother Frankie, and

out of everyone in her family she has found a unique way of coping with the death of

her brother by allowing him to be ever present in her life. Contrasted with Johnny

who throughout the majority of the film stifles the grief, or Sarah who tries to

overcome it by placing everything on the line in order to give life to another child,

and thus in some way, bring her lost baby back.

Through the use of a series of editing techniques, Sheridan accomplishes to

reconcile the physical, emotional, psychological and mental dimensions of his

characters. He draws the audience’s attention to various internal struggles of the

individual characters by skillfully manipulating the images on screen. Christy

finishes narrating the film with the following: ”Do you still have a picture of me in your

head? Well, that's like the picture I want to have of Frankie. One that you can keep in your

head forever,” and so the audience remembers the Sullivan family, Mateo, their struggles

and how they helped one another make sense of the mess in their lives. In America teaches

its viewer the importance of enjoying life and reminds of the reality of death, allowing the

engaged audience to bring their own interpretations on screen, fill in the gaps and make

sense of their own realities.

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Works Cited

Lamott, Anne. "AN HOMAGE TO AGE AND FEMININITY." The Flourish Flash Blog. N.p., 11

Aug. 2009. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.

Murch, Walter. In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing. Los Angeles, CA: Silman-

James, 2001. Print.

Sikov, Ed. Film Studies: An Introduction. New York: Columbia UP, 2010. Print.

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