Don Satz wrote:

>Also, the music is too often used to "telegraph" coming scenes, and
>there's too much music in movies to begin with.  But, weak movies perhaps
>need a lot of music.

I share quite an oppostie opinion on this.  To me, the music makes the
movie.  Think about it: name me one movie that would have a strong
emotional impact if it had nothing but dialogue and normal sound effects.
It becomes nothing more than a documentary or a play on film.  If you want
to see a play, go to a play.  Movies are an entirely different form of
entertainment.

Movies are entertwined between plot, acting, visuals, and music to create
an all encompasing entertainment experience.  It is the music which pulls
all the others together to grap your psyche and help you forget it's just
a movie.  If you don't go to a movie to get wrapped up in it for a couple
of hours and forget the real world, you're losing out.

I'll cite the recent film "Prince of Egypt" based on the Exodus from
Egypt of the Isrealites in the Bible.  At the point where Moses stands
over the Red Sea and parts the waters, the music of course reaches the
usual crescendo with the sweeping melody, etc.  But it does the job.
That's what makes scenes like that so stirring.

The music moves the emotion, the emotion moves the soul.

Eyes Wide Shut takes the other extreme to great hieghts, using simple music
in key moments to acheive the same effect.  But that is a pyschological
film, and it works to use little music.  Silence creates suspense more than
sound.  That's why humans are uncomfortable in silence.  But movies like
that are few and far between.  For the rest, the music is just as important
as anything else in the film.

Alan Lynn
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