Film Music
Film Music
The role of the film music is one of the most essential details of the movie, as it exaggerates and enriches the context. The music is considered a soul of the picture creating in it special character, fresh mood and specific spirit. Additionally, music as well as sounds effects established a connection between motion pictures and their central ideas as well as themes. Music of the drama has a particular role, since it must exemplify certain emotions, psychological aspects and serve as a transition from one genre to another. The films Fight Club, The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption are famous not only for successful cinematographic work but also for their prominent music compositions. The music of these movies is the thematic drama music, which relates the idea of the analyzed pictures with the characters and contributes to their main themes.
Fight Club
It is a complicated drama with the elements of psychological thriller. The film evoked a variety of mixed emotions and different responses. Both negative and positive critics recognize that the picture is one of the most extraordinary and non-traditional dramas of the 1990th. A nameless narrator of the story tells about his sufferings and insomnia. However, in the general conception his anguish is relatively ridiculous, as he leads a monotonous life rather than has some problems. He has everything but for normal existence, and he is bored with it. He tends to subdue his insomnia and mixed emotional condition. Thus, he realizes that the sufferings of others make his challenges less painful. The people around change his attitude and his life becomes more bearable than before. The main idea of the movie is a problematic personality of the narrator and his real essence. Dramatic moments, intrigues and psychological tension are enhanced by the effective choice of music. Director of the picture David Fincher decided to enrich the film by electronic music of The Dust Brothers. The band was almost unknown during the 1990th, and it was the most attractive issue for the director, as the music made the movie fresh, alive and extraordinary. The hypnotic singles Where is My Mind and This is Your Life created a postmodern atmosphere with the help of drum loops, as well as computer and electronic components. The music is performed in the genre of alternative rock with the elements of Hip Hop, Pop Dance and R&B. It is a mixture of styles and music elements, which exaggerates and exemplifies psychological tension of the picture making dramatic content of the story even more complicated. The soundtracks underline the main dramatic theme and develop the character of the thriller.
The authors of the picture enriched the character and themes of the movie with postmodern electronic music, which contributes to the theme and stresses the relation of drama and tension. The music of Fight Club illustrates the theme of sufferings in the movie. The film as well as its music include both thrilling and dramatic aspects. The tempo is generally slow, but in some places it becomes more rapid and increased by drum machines. Computer drums and metallic elements also design the soundtracks. Beats and percussion elements create a specific mood in the soundtrack, which changes from complicated slow and dramatic into rapid, rhythmic and thrilling with metal aspects that make it intriguing. In such a way, these elements emphasize the central idea and the theme of Fight Club. Some sudden changes of rhythm exemplify changes in genre through the movie. The music used in the film is different depending on the mood and character of the motion picture. For instance, saturated drums make the compositions aggressive and reflect the idea of mystery danger, sufferings or other issues. Separate drumbeats are increased by complicated electronic details, which make the audience switch their emotions from calm to more tense or change the city place for the loneliness theme. The electronic music presented in Fight Club highlights the main ideas and themes of the film with the help of the character and elements of music.
The Godfather
The Godfather is a crime movie produced by Paramount Pictures in 1972, with the most prominent celebrities starring, namely Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. The motion picture describes the life of a famous New York crime family and the transition of the power from the father to his son. Despite all the criminal features of the film, it is presented as a drama with problems and collisions of character. In order to make the movie alive the directors applied specific music, which enriches the picture with traditional Italian spirit. The music was composed by Italian composer Nino Rota. The soundtrack was arranged and centered around the main idea of the movie, so that all the situations and heroes were related to some elements of the music. Therefore, the soundtrack became one of the most popular masterpieces in the history of cinematography as the film itself. A dark, obscuring and thrilling character of the music is directly associated with a core aspect and themes of the picture. The music in the entire film changes form the theme of fear to the one of love.
The music of Nino Rota generalizes the major themes of The Godfather reflecting the essence of crime family, their ability to love and hate, hide their true nature and danger. Hence, the compositions of the picture illustrate the themes of crime and love. The music displays the transition from drama to tension through particular elements. The latter are represented in the themes, namely the waltz, which is slightly aggressive and ominous, and the theme of love demonstrated by mandolin at the end of the picture. The film uses both the score music and the soundtracks. Moreover, it is complemented by the variety of additional sounds such as gunfire in the background of the opera instruments. Thus, this element exemplifies a traditional Italian gangster theme. The presentation of such a musical mixture with the variety of technical sounds makes an impression of the authentic Italian crime world. The producers of the motion picture applied quite an interesting technique when the music becomes more aggressive changing into a loud scream. For instance, when Don Corleone wakes up, he finds the horses head in his bed and blood on his hands. The scene starts with pleasant birds songs and slow instrumental music, which turns terrifying and dynamic ending with the shriek. It represents everyday life of Italian delinquents, who lead casual life, which may result in the bloody bed. It is believed that efficient choice of music compositions and soundtracks made the film successful. Therefore, these elements not only enhance the movie but also contribute to its theme and relate its character with the main idea luxurious life within crime tension and fear to be killed at any point. Additionally, the picture is rich in its sound effects, which reflect the theme of violence in the world of organized criminals. Every sound effect stresses some information, tension and idea. The drama changes into the thrilling crime moment. For instance, the speech of Sollozo is accompanied by the sound of train, which becomes louder as well as exemplifies aggressive and hopeless situation. The music of the film is not traditional for drama, but it is a successful presentation of the criminal movie with both dramatic and thrilling episodes exhibited by music.
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption is a famous American drama movie adapted from the Stephen Kings novella. Andy is convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover. Although he claims his innocence, he is sentenced to a life term. The hero faces all the terrible and ugly prison realities such as disgusting intimate desires, sadistic and rough guard, as well as corrupted ward. Nevertheless, he still believes in his guiltlessness and wants to escape. The picture presents the variety of essential themes, in particular friendship, hope, desire to survive, patience, redemption and personal emancipation. Consequently, these patterns are reflected by sound effects and music.
The music for the movie was composed by Thomas Newman. The drama evolves numerous deep and complicated emotions even without music. That is why the music for the film rather additional functions instead of the autonomous one as in other motion pictures. The music does not exemplify ideas of the film in the same way as it was displayed in The Godfather or Fight Club. Hence, it is necessary to admit that the film music does not distract attention of the audience from the main events but rather elevates the latter. Nevertheless, the music of the picture illustrates the theme of freedom. The composers introduced a short soundtrack during the scene of redemption from the prison. Thus, this composition has a motive of one-note. Therefore, the sound does not change the essence of freedom. The music of harmonica is used in order to relate the moments with the concept of hope. It is hard to acknowledge that the music for the movie embodies the themes and ideas. It is only a part of the motion picture. The music does not live its particular individual life in the film; it only accompanies the most significant details. In the majority of cases, the composer applies one to three notes to present some aspects in the picture in such a way that visual effects are more important than sound effects. The main soundtrack was nominated for an award but did not get it. The soundtrack can be characterized as a contemporary classic music, which combines the elements of electronic, modern, postmodern and popular styles. Although the picture includes more than 20 tracks, they are almost not noticeable. The music consists of piano compositions, which serve as an accompaniment for the personality of protagonist. His personal drama as well as power are slightly enriched by this music. Nevertheless, the music performs the role of a transition between the motives, namely dramatic, romantic, thrilling and inspirational ones. A romantic picture turns into action, which is accompanied by the classic composition of Mozart. The music exemplifies deep emotional context and philosophical essence of the picture. Thus, the soundtracks in The Shawshank Redemption are not as impressive as in other pictures, and they slightly underline the emotional aspect of the movie. However, they do not have such explicit relations with the themes and ideas of the film.
Conclusion
In conclusion, music stresses the major dramatic aspects of the motion picture, demonstrates and contributes to the themes, ideas, motives and associates with the characters. It makes the movie accomplished and alive. Moreover, the music can serve as a transition of themes and genres, and the means for spiritual enhancement. Nevertheless, music as well as sound effects should not deviate from the central idea. The composition should not divert attention from the key concepts and emotions of the heroes. The analyzed motion pictures are successful with regard to their music because it exemplifies the main ideas, spirit, character and themes. The music of the given films reveals the themes of love, crime, sufferings and freedom. Although these movies are dramatic, they have different elements of thriller, psychological drama, criminal movie and action, which are reflected in the musical illustration.