The Queen’s Gambit and the Three Fantasies of Filmic Media: Image, Narrative, and Sound

Two of the characteristics of peak TV are attention to detail in the soundtrack and an exploration of alternative subjectivities. Both appear in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit (2020). Carlos Rafael Rivera’s score sounds cinematic, while the story of Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) re-writes the Bobby Fischer story as one where a woman plays the chess hero. This approach to sound and subjectivity brings with it the ideological problem that Gorbman first discussed in her Unheard Melodies: movies create a narrative fantasy underscored by a bath of sound that makes us uncritical. From this perspective, I examine the three fantasies of The Queen’s Gambit: the image track, the soundtrack, and the narrative. The fantasy of the image is Beth herself, whose slim figure, piercing eyes, and red hair make her the target of the male gaze (Mulvey, Screen 16 (3): 6–18, 1975). It must be a beautiful woman who takes the place of Bobby Fisher in his reimagined narrative. The soundtrack supports the image fantasy by associating Beth with sexually charged songs from the 1960s and with music in a waltz style, which McKee (Decorum of the Minuet, Delirium of the Waltz: A Study of Dance-Music Relations in 3/4 Time. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012) argues prompts the male gaze. The soundtrack also supports a fantasy of the chess game as an action-packed battle. In reality, chess is a plodding game. Rivera’s score, though, gives each game in the series a sense of drama. Finally, the narrative fantasy involves Beth’s substance abuse as a sign of her family problems. In the series, Beth’s male opponents stand in for her father, whom she must defeat to attain an adult subjectivity. The soundtrack supports this fantasy in the final episode, where Beth magically gives up her former habits to win an international tournament. The three fantasies work together to create an impossible story that audiences nonetheless accepted, as indicated by the critical and public success of the series.