The Moonlight Scene Analysis

After viewing Moonlight, which was personally my favorite film of the year, I choose to analyze the scene when Blue takes Chiron to the ocean and teaches him to swim (17:20-19:30). This scene first drew my attention because of Blue’s character. The dynamic of a crack dealer with a heart-of-gold has this duality about it where my heart tells me to love him as a person, but my head tells me that this person is Chiron’s mother’s dealer, and I should despise him for it. Yet, when I watch this scene I can’t help but think of how much I love Blue as a character. He is able to fill in for the role of a father figure, and teach Chiron about life. When Blue teaches Chiron how to swim, it feels like it’s an allegory telling Chiron that he’ll either sink or swim, but if he just relaxes he’ll keep his head above water, and with a little effort he can fight the current that is life. As the scene goes on Chiron starts to thrive in the water, despite the fact that the skys start to darken, and the waves grow in size. The speed of the extra diegetic music in this shot is key, as the violin picks up pace, the waves grow larger, and the camera

First of all, this scene was filmed from a half submerged perspective that has a noticeable, but gentle sway to it that makes it feel as if the audience was in the ocean. As well this half submerged perspective has waves that continuously splash into the camera lens. What that allows for is the cuts from shot to shot in the water to feel seamless. When I rewatched the scene it got to a point where I could no longer distinguish what a cut was and what was just Chiron moving in the water. I also enjoyed how the scene begins with the diegetic sounds of wind and the ocean, but as Chiron and Blue get into the water all we can hear is a violin beginning to play, and as the violin begins to pick up Blue’s dialogue breaks the silence, and we regain the sounds of the