ABSTRACT
In many of Hawks’s films, male groups sing to demonstrate their solidarity and to reinforce their common goals. In The Dawn Patrol aviators sing with each other to bring their group together and to express sentiments they are unable to express in speech. The offscreen choruses in Red River and Land of the Pharaohs stand in for the non-singing men we see working on screen, in the former film signifying the harmonious ordering of American society staged by the film’s narrative, and in the latter standing in for the voices of the oppressed.
