Excellent film soundtracks?

[K.B.]

Just saw Rumblefish and Streets of Fire again, after some years, and was struck with just how rich and textured the soundtracks were.

These were films where the sound was taken very seriously - most of the music for both was composed before they were shot, and Coppola and Hill, the respective directors, obviously wanted to do something special. And they did.

I recommend them both, though regretably Rumblefish never seems to have been released on DVD.

In Rumblefish Stuart Copeland's soundtrack is right up front, and post-synced Mick Rourke appears to whisper his way through the movie. An extraordinary effect.

Streets of Fire is a Ry Cooder tour-de-force, and if Jim Steinman wasn't involved, his spirit certainly was.

My daughter (12) was knocked out by both, and wants the CDs, which shows just how enduring the music is (or how good her taste is. (Oh there I go again!))

But it made me wonder just how many other films there have been since with soundtracks like that. Have I missed them?

Any suggestions for further viewing?

[lightning ad]

Well its another Coppolla movie - The Conversation - its early seventies but i saw it for the first time last week on DVD. Thoroughly recommend it - a well paced and thought provoking intelligent thriller with a great plot twist. Such a shame that films of this quality are so rare to find.

[K.B.]

"The Conversation". A classic.

Remember "Klute"?

It's often the directors who edit themselves, or are very hands on that produce the richest soundtracks. Hence,

Talk Radio (Oliver Stoned / Stuart Copeland (again))

Saving Private Ryan (amazing effects)

I'll think of a few more, but it's tough!

Did you see the sequel to The Conversation - Enemy of the State? A Tony Scott movie (of all people). Rather enjoyable, but not a patch on...

I started a thread on this in the PTLE forum, and they've taken it in a different direction.

Keep 'em coming...





(I've got a really good quote from Bernard Hermann I'll post later)

[JKD99]

Two films, on opposite ends of the spectrum:

Fight Club: the best body impacts/punches etc I've ever heard

Amelie: No guns or car chases, but every sound is a gem.

OK, bonus round: any of The Matrix films. Beyond the flashy stuff, listen to the care and detail in the more "everyday" sounds (like doors, squeegees, John Roesch's excellent foley work, etc.). This is what happens when you have a sound designer like Dane Davis working with directors like the Wachowski brothers, who REALLY care about sound. Also, "Bound" to hear more from that combo.

Remember: the Academy Award is for "Best Sound" not "Most Sound"

my 2¢

[cq sound]

Most recent movies to listen to:
-Kill Bill Vol 1, excellent, clean and extremely supportive
-Pirates of the Carribean, just fun to listen to it
-Finding Nemo, if you're not aware of the excellent sound.... it's just plain good!

and btw. Karel, sound is taken seriously in most productions....with different results

BTW: The Academy recognises two catecories for Sound. Best Sound (prod. mixer and re-recording mixers) and Best Sound Editing (sound supervisor) and it needs a good collaboration of all of these people to create a good soundtrack.

cqsound

[Dan Pinder]

Uhh, are we talking about film score or sound effects?

[K.B.]

I meant the whole she-bang.

From well crafted soundtracks where music / dialog /effects are weaved together in some unusual, challenging, or particularly creative way, to films that are just a joy to listen to.

I was hoping for a viewing / listening list. And I know people like the challenge of compiling these things (like I do).

But did I somehow give the impression that I believed people working in film sound don't generally take their work seriously? I certainly didn't mean to.


That Bernard Hermann quote (taken from sleeve notes for the 'Citizen Kane' CD) You remember the scene where Kane's wife Susan is bullied into taking the lead in an opera she is incapable of performing adequately?:

The challenge was to "...somehow find a fragment of grand opera that would convincingly demonstrate that while Susan possessed a voice of a kind, it was not that of a grand opera singer. In addition the music had to reflect on its own terms Susan's hysterical awareness of her own inadequacy, her anguish, and the pandemonium raging around her... the 'realistic' music had to serve as a kind of abstract commentary on the action...
composed a ...fictitious opera called Salammbo. The style is intentionally that of the Franco-Oriental school of the late 19th century... loosely derived on Racine's "Phedre," the scene where the heroine begs her lover to kill her to deliver her from shame. The vocal line is consistently high, the orchestral accompaniment so full that only a powerful soprano with a strong top octave could do it justice (the aria ends in top D). For the film Hermann engaged a light lyric soprano, her best efforts proving so unnavailing against the Straussian power of the orchestra as to give the impression she was floundering in quicksand."

Wow.

[douglas roberts]

"Elephant" by GusVanZant
for the restraint shown in the sound editing and the genius use of silence as an effect, something we often forget

[K.B.]

I'll check Elephant out. I loved Van Sandt's My Own Private Idaho.

But silence in a cinema can be tricky - you become aware of the idiot eating popcorn three rows away.

"Come and See" by Ivan Klima. An unforgettable movie about what the Nazis did in Belorussia. At one point a grenade goes off close to our hero, an adolescent boy, and we then watch half an hour of war atrocities with tinnitus ringing in our ears, and watch threatening soldiers shouting at the boy that he (we) can barely hear. Very disorientating.

[ashish]

Saving Private Ryan, changed my entire outlook towards sound, and i watched it on VHS! the opening sequence? the sound of the bullets entering the water? drove me nuts! bloody fantastic!! I think.... I should get the DVD!

regards
Ashish