Your task in rush 2 is to consider how sound is functioning in the opening sequence in relation to the film's staging of "homecoming" (a form of narrative which we've now begun to trace from the poetry of Homer to the films of Eisenstein and Ford). Don't worry so much about dialogue. Focus more on the music and the voice on the radio at the end of the segment (and in doing so, try utilizing the conceptual distinction between diegetic and non-diegetic).
I fear my response to this is not going to suffice, as I essentially have very little idea how the intro relates to "homecoming" and I also barely remember World War I history and I'm not sure where this intro is taking place geographically which I imagine is important. But, I am going to brainstorm here and hopefully come up with something. This film was easier for me to follow than the last, but it was still extremely slow. I understand that it's a classic and groundbreaking for it's time, but I was struggling.
As far as diagesis, all of the tribal music and chanting was within the film, and being experienced by the characters. It is only of the only times in the film, other than the last 20 minutes, when land is even referenced. I believe that is how it relates to "homecoming". As the characters experience sounds and sights from the shore, they are reminded of their homes on land. The radio heard at the end is the a swift departure from the melancholy experienced by the men on board as the voice delivers news of prisoners.
You make a number of pertinent connections here. As you suggest, the combination of land and plaintiff musical tones in this segment is significant (in that it connotes a sense of nostalgia that's almost mournful). That's very much a part of the dimension of "homecoming" that we're concerned with this semester: an element of one's past that's longed for in a manner that's inherently painful. The radio broadcast contributes to all this: It's the one sound in this segment that could in any sense be said to come directly from the crew's collective homeland(s) (in that it's a distinctly Western voice)--and yet it's a voice disembodied form its source (and what's more, its a voice conveying news of warfare, as you point out). In terms of diegetic status, the sounds in this segment are kind of slippery. But this slipperiness ultimately points to a common thread: an element of angst or anxiety at the prospect of going home (combined with one's overpowering desire to do just that--to go home, in all the connotations of the phrase).
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CS