secondfiddle:

I’m gonna talk about how the character of the Winter Soldier relies heavily on sound throughout the film because it’s one of the first things I picked up on during my numerous re-viewings and I think it’s one of the strengths of the film in terms of film technique.

For starters, the Winter Soldier is a really interesting character because he’s one of the titular characters and he’s key to the plot, but he has hardly any lines of dialogue and he’s only in it for maybe a third of the film. But the reason the Winter Soldier has such a presence in the film is because of the strength of Sebastian Stan’s ability to act using just his face and body and also the techniques that the film uses to establish details about his character that aren’t revealed through plot or dialogue. WS has only six real scenes in the film, which are:

1. First encounter with Nick Fury on the streets of D.C.
2. Shooting Nick Fury at Steve’s apartment
3. Speaking with Alexander Pierce
4. The Causeway
5. The Bank Vault (”But I knew him”)
6. Final Battle

So how do you establish the presence of a character who has six scenes during the film? The answer is to use every film technique at your disposal, and this film especially relies on sound. The Winter Soldier has to be one of the creepiest themes I’ve ever seen for a character because it utilizes a lot of metallic noises, robotic clanging, and inhuman screaming, which matches perfectly the visceral diegetic sounds of WS during the film, like the sound of the metal arm. It’s a far cry from what a normal character theme would be, because The Winter Soldier theme is for a presence, not for a person, which works so well given his legendary status as an assassin (“most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists”).

The film uses sound in a major way to fill in the details about his character that can’t be shown on-screen, as well as to establish him as an inhuman figure that has the ability to morph what goes on around him, adding to his threatening presence. Firstly, when he’s first introduced to the audience and to Nick Fury on the streets of D.C., the music, which had been an exciting combat theme mirroring the action, suddenly goes very quiet and what you hear is what I can only describe as a hollow sound, a few notes of the WS theme. It’s a sound very evocative of a desolate wasteland. WS is unique because you never see him ‘enter’ a scene; he’s always there, and as soon as he appears, the sound in the film changes to mirror his presence. This happens when he appears and ambushes Fury’s car and the sound grows very quiet and haunting, and also during the scene where he appears in Alexander Pierce’s kitchen, but it also happens in a much larger way when he gets the shot at Steve’s apartment.

When Steve and Fury are talking, the song It’s Been a Long, Long Time is playing as diegetic music in the background to mask their conversation. It’s symbolic, because the lyrics mirror Steve and Bucky’s relationship, but it also serves a practical function within the storytelling. However, as soon as WS takes the shot and Fury goes down, the music very obviously warps in a really horrifying way that is more psychological. As Steve and Sharon and Fury are talking, their voices still sound normal, but the music playing, which logically should sound exactly the same, suddenly takes on a chilling, haunting quality. All because WS has appeared and distorted the scene. Essentially, the Winter Soldier is a character that is able to distort the reality of every scene in which he appears, because he’s a character that stands outside of reasoning and the fabric of reality itself. (Which makes a lot of sense given that he’s a character who was thought dead, but has in fact been alive for seventy years and has become the world’s deadliest assassin). Even when he doesn’t appear, such as when Steve and Natasha and Maria are watching Fury in the ER, as soon as Steve mentions “he’s fast; strong. Had a metal arm,” the WS music creeps back in because the Winter Soldier doesn’t need to be on the screen in order to ‘be’ there. 

The causeway sequence is probably my favourite in the entire film, because it expands on what we’ve already learnt about WS through sound. The theme appears instantly as soon as he lands on top of Sam’s car, and then goes into a very metallic, action heavy piece of music. What’s really interesting, however, is what happens when Natasha draws WS away from Steve and Sam into the streets. As WS is walking down the street (and another thing to note about WS; he’s threatening because he never runs, only walks), the sounds of screaming and sirens are deliberately pushed far down on the sound hierarchy because what’s actually happening is that the audience is being given a rare glimpse into his point-of-view, which is incredible given that he’s a “villain” and not one of the protagonists. It offers the audience a view of how the Winter Soldier’s mind works. He’s focused solely on the mission, which in that moment is to listen for Black Widow, meaning all other superfluous background noise is deliberately muted because it is irrelevant to him. Then, we hear what he hears: the sound of Natasha speaking, which of course turns out to be a recording and not actually her. Later, after Natasha gets shot, the camera does a pov shift to Natasha and the music pretty much cuts out, which helps to show the audience just how terrified of WS she is (the shaky, handheld pov camera shot), which is something incredibly rare for this character because the only other person we’ve ever seen Black Widow scared of is the Hulk. Then WS jumps back into the shot on top of the car, rifle pointed straight at Natasha in what I personally consider to be the single best shot of the whole film, and the WS theme surges back in in a really terrifying way, because both Natasha and the audience know in that instant that if Steve hadn’t appeared at that very moment, Black Widow would be dead.

All of this is great stuff, but the cincher for me in why this film is superior to every other superhero movie in terms of technique is that in addition to establishing the Winter Soldier’s inhumanity through sound, sound also plays a huge role in establishing his humanity, which happens almost at the very instant Steve mentions the name “Bucky.” At the bank vault, when WS is asking who the man on the bridge was, the sound of the robotic, metallic WS theme is deliberately pushed back in favour of an emotional note that is clearly evocative of Steve. 

All of this culminates in the scene of the final battle, which takes the established haunting Winter Soldier theme and plays that out while Steve and WS are fighting, until the instant Steve tells him “you know me.” As soon as Steve engages him in conversation, the Winter Soldier theme disappears and instead you get a piece of deeply moving music playing as Steve tells him that he’s not going to fight him, that he’s his friend, and that “I’m with you till the end of the line.” Then it goes into that emotional piano piece as Steve falls into the Potomac and Bucky dives in after him. Essentially, what’s happening here is that for two hours this character has been crafted as a robotic, inhuman assassin who distorts the fabric of reality and morphs every scene he’s in simply through his presence, but suddenly he’s now being treated like a character; an actual person. All because Steve Rogers is treating him like a person. Steve Rogers is the one thing that keeps the Winter Soldier human, and the film manages to tell us that simply through sound.

And this is why CA:TWS stands above every other superhero movie in terms of technique, in my opinion.