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

Arts & Entertainment
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Can we discuss how talkies ruined the true art of filmmaking?

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This is a cool discussion. If you think it’s dumb fine how about you just don’t read it.

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OK. I’ll bite. I know he drives some folks bugfuck, but here’s an aria from “Doctor Atomic” by John Adams. This is J. Robert Oppenheimer singing on, as I recall, the eve of the first test of the bomb. The lyrical parts are Oppenheimer praying for God’s guidance, while the more menacing music suggests the terror to be unleashed. You could even call it the “Bomb Motif.” I find it 100% effective though I know I lot of olds, the kind that think opera died with Puccini, who would disagree.

It’s set to one of John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, though I don’t remember which (Oppenheimer was a great fan of Donne’s.) The libretto, by Peter Sellars, is fascinating, if not always effective. You might call it a found libretto in that it’s a pastiche of existing sources: poems, declassified documents, the Bhagavad-Gita, the diary of Gen. Leslie Groves and a traditional song from whatever tribe is downwind from Los Alamos. Here’s Adams with something more traditional, if abstract:

This is from “The Death of Klinghoffer” based on the hijacking of the Achille Lauro. I find it some of the most thrilling choral music in the repertoire since Verdi.

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Pfft I’m still mad at books for ruining the true art of oral storytelling

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Kinda weird to interpret this as a call to return to the good old days or that change is bad. It’s an argument FOR change aimed at the FUTURE.

I’m the one who gets to OK Boomer people ITT.

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Lol no, wrong direction

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Worse than Orff’s O Fortuna?

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102

My favorite genre!

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Lars von Trier called. He wants his dogma back.

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This thread has caused me to listen to my film score albums. I have a lot of albums for movies I haven’t even seen lol.

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Your pony needs a laugh track.

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Thought you didn’t like cliches

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Went through some scores earlier. One thing about symphonic (aside from being stale in film) is that the dynamic range is enormous, and the way that’s exploited tends to be really exaggerated and annoying. The Matrix is a much worse offender than I remember in this regard–whisper quiet to blow-your-ear-drums-out obnoxious almost instantaneously in parts. Blade Runner, on the other hand, has a flatter dynamic range, is entirely electronic, and is absolutely amazing.

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Cool video. But it feels a bit unfair to Marvel. You could almost replace every time he mentions “Marvel movies” with “movies in the 21st century.” He opens with memorable scores like Star Wars and James Bond as though that’s the standard and Marvel is the exception. But how many movies actually have memorable scores that randoms on the street could hum? 5 movies total? I think he hit the main ones all in the first minute.

edit: Ok, I grunched too early. It gets more interesting and the title is mostly click bait.

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111

Through this one on the pile. The foley is outrageous* as well.

*in a bad way.

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I don’t like the song choice. You do hey? Seems like the wrong tone to me.

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No, I think it’s awful. I’m the OP.

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Right lol me.

It’s weird they chose a sort of campy song given the reputation of the lynch version. You’d think they would avoid that vibe at all costs.

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Id love to buy the Northern Exposure box set but it’s hard to get with the original music. Completely changes the show without it…so no.

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