Film scores are just laugh tracks for people who went to college

Arts & Entertainment
45

I disagree.

But how am I going to argue with that?

46

Musical score and sound[edit]

The Coens minimized the score used in the film, leaving large sections devoid of music. The concept was Ethan’s, who persuaded a skeptical Joel to go with the idea. There is some music in the movie, scored by the Coens’ longtime composer, Carter Burwell, but after finding that “most musical instruments didn’t fit with the minimalist sound sculpture he had in mind 
 he used singing bowls, standing metal bells traditionally employed in Buddhist meditation practice that produce a sustained tone when rubbed.” The movie contains a “mere” 16 minutes of music, with several of those in the end credits. The music in the trailer was called “Diabolic Clockwork” by Two Steps from Hell. Sound editing and effects were provided by another longtime Coens collaborator, Skip Lievsay, who used a mixture of emphatic sounds (gun shots) and ambient noise (engine noise, prairie winds) in the mix. The Foley for the captive bolt pistol used by Chigurh was created using a pneumatic nail gun.[47]

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker states that “there is barely any music, sensual or otherwise, and Carter Burwell’s score is little more than a fitful murmur”,[48] and Douglas McFarland states that “perhaps [the film’s] salient formal characteristic is the absence, with one telling exception, of a musical soundtrack, creating a mood conducive to thoughtful and unornamented speculation in what is otherwise a fierce and destructive landscape.”[49] Jay Ellis, however, disagrees. “[McFarland] missed the extremely quiet but audible fade in a few tones from a keyboard beginning when Chigurh flips the coin for the gas station man”, he said. “This ambient music (by long-time Coens collaborator Carter Burwell) grows imperceptibly in volume so that it is easily missed as an element of the mis-en-scene. But it is there, telling our unconscious that something different is occurring with the toss; this becomes certain when it ends as Chigurh uncovers the coin on the counter. The deepest danger has passed as soon as Chigurh finds (and Javier Bardem’s acting confirms this) and reveals to the man that he has won.”[50] In order to achieve such sound effect, Burwell “tuned the music’s swelling hum to the 60-hertz frequency of a refrigerator.”[47]

Dennis Lim of The New York Times stressed that “there is virtually no music on the soundtrack of this tense, methodical thriller. Long passages are entirely wordless. In some of the most gripping sequences what you hear mostly is a suffocating silence.” Skip Lievsay, the film’s sound editor called this approach “quite a remarkable experiment,” and added that “suspense thrillers in Hollywood are traditionally done almost entirely with music. The idea here was to remove the safety net that lets the audience feel like they know what’s going to happen. I think it makes the movie much more suspenseful. You’re not guided by the score and so you lose that comfort zone.”[47]

James Roman observes the effect of sound in the scene where Chigurh pulls in for gas at the Texaco rest stop. “[The] scene evokes an eerie portrayal of innocence confronting evil,” he says, “with the subtle images richly nuanced by sound. As the scene opens in a long shot, the screen is filled with the remote location of the rest stop with the sound of the Texaco sign mildly squeaking in a light breeze. The sound and image of a crinkled cashew wrapper tossed on the counter adds to the tension as the paper twists and turns. The intimacy and potential horror that it suggests is never elevated to a level of kitschy drama as the tension rises from the mere sense of quiet and doom that prevails.”[51]

Jeffrey Overstreet adds that “the scenes in which Chigurh stalks Moss are as suspenseful as anything the Coens have ever staged. And that has as much to do with what we hear as what we see . No Country for Old Men lacks a traditional soundtrack, but don’t say it doesn’t have music. The blip-blip-blip of a transponder becomes as frightening as the famous theme from Jaws . The sound of footsteps on the hardwood floors of a hotel hallway are as ominous as the drums of war. When the leather of a briefcase squeaks against the metal of a ventilation shaft, you’ll cringe, and the distant echo of a telephone ringing in a hotel lobby will jangle your nerves.”[52]

I’m just a dude that likes movies. NCFOM is my all-time fave in-theater experience, I’ve cited it as my fave movie. Watev, I guess my taste agrees. I like old black and white movies that are heavy on dialogue and have the crackle similar to vinyl.

In general, I can experience ASMR so some of my fave scenes have involved a lack of music (it’s weird and unrelatable to most).

I think it’s a broad brush as other things can be enjoyed but it’s probably meant to be hyperbolic and not literal.

1 Like
47

Seinfeld episodes were a hybrid of live audience and laugh track.

48

Film is already a blend of images and language. Would anyone argue that silent film is a higher art form than “talkies”? Is mime a higher art form than theatre? Genuine questions about the nature of Art which interests me a great deal.

49

Interesting discussion, but I think it’s starting off with a couple flawed assumptions.

  1. there is something wrong when the director is telling the audience how to feel. I’d argue that is the entire raison d’ĂȘtre of film. The mediums purpose is to elicit an emotional response from the audience. The narrative, acting, cinematography, lighting, sound, editing and score all serves this purpose. The directors job is to create that emotional response.

  2. because some films do a poor job of using score you are condemning score in general. There are a lot of bad films and bad score. I’d argue a film like Interstellar was ruined single handedly by a horrific score. But many other examples already cited show how score enhances film.

I also don’t think the comparison to a laugh track is fair. A laugh track never creates an emotional response. It simply marks a time when one is suppose to occur. Good scores never serve this purpose.

51

This is how I have always felt about music too. I never pay attention to lyrics. To me they are just other sounds that work in the composition. Like you say it could be random gibberish and it wouldn’t diminish my enjoyment of the song.

52

Agree 100%. So many great songs used very well in movies and they can set the scene or bring you back to the moment.

IIRC somebody you are close to was involved in selecting songs for one of the greatest movie soundtracks ever.

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53

All I need to say is Jaws and BUD UM.

Anyone who has ever seen that film will have an instantaneous emotional reaction and be brought back to the film. It’s impossible not to see the shark in your mind. Those two notes are a character in that film no less important than the shark itself. It would be a measurably worse film without those two notes.

I don’t want to spoil because too few people have seen this amazing new film but find a way to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire. I’d be curious of your view of its score.

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55

Winger begs to differ:

Yey I saw sparks fly, from the corner of my eye
When I turned, it was love at first sight
I said please excuse me, I didn’t catch your name
Oh it’d be a shame not to see you again

And just when I thought she was comin’ to my door
She whispered sweet and brought me to the floor, she said

I’m only seventeen (seventeen)
But I’ll show you love like you’ve never seen
She’s only seventeen (seventeen)
Daddy says she’s too young, but she’s old enough for me

(This thread has turned out to be much more interesting and persuasive than I expected.)

3 Likes
56

The shark did it.

57

Isn’t Winger hair metal?

59

I think Rush has something to say about bad poetry. Those lyrics ZZ posted a few months back were something else. I believe it was The Trees.

There is a song about Evil Knievel from an '80’s Boston rock band with the line, “when the brains go spilling, the audience is willing.” That might be my favorite bad line ever. (I actually love the song, or did when I was younger. Even though all the lyrics are all super corny.)

61

Sadly, I don’t remember the artist’s name,but he was a Houston local who toured regionally:

She’s my lover, she’s my friend,
To any position she will bend,
She’s my inflatable doll.

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62

Well ok, I guess your approach as a musician is somewhat different to that of the composer of the music, whether good metal, punk or Wagner, who tries to use the music to augment the sentiments of the lyrics (which I assume cassette takes as emotional manipulation when applied to film, and I don’t), and your interest is inevitably triggered by the music not lyrics. Both my parents went to music school and would take the same line as you, quite naturally when you have an academic as well as practical interest in a subject or skill.

Im also more emotionally affected by music than the lyrics and I understand where you’re coming from, I think, but it’s not the same place as a composer or director.

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63

“The snot has caked against my pants, it has turned into crystal” is such an incongruously terrible line that every time I’ve heard it I’ve cursed Arthur Lee for part-ruining a wonderful piece of music.

64

Add me to the list of people who don’t really care for lyrics. I love the sound of human voice in many songs, but not the dumb crap being said.

Dead Can Dance had a fun solution to this problem by having Lisa Gerrard sing almost all her vocals in either obscure medieval languages or a completely made up one she invented as a kid.

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65

God knows how many times I’ve listened to Forever Changes, but I just had to Google to find out which Love song it’s from. I also rarely hear lyrics, though I do at least consider it a minor failing.

66

Also in Seinfeld.

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67

In the still of the night, I hear the wolf howl, honeyyyyyyy
Sniffin’ around your doooooo-eeeee-ooooor

All-time classic.

68

Like, just, what?