The Kite Runner

The movie the Kite Runner is very inspirational, and portrays tons of emotion throughout the dialogue, the plot, and also the music. The movie starts off, as the older movies did, with the credits at the beginning, setting the tone of the move prior to setting the plot. The movie has a ton of underscoring with a small amount of diegetic music, although when the diegetic music is present it has significant meaning. For example during Amir's wedding there is diegetic music, and it shows the happiness that all of the characters seem to possess at that moment in time. The music, when the kites are flying at the beginning, has a variation of string instruments, and as Hassan is running after the kite the drums seem to come in and it gives the scene emotion by mocking his motion of his feet hitting the ground, and him running to fetch the cut down kite. When the movie is trying to express a sad moment there tends to be more strings, but also the piano plays a huge role in getting this accomplished. For example when Hassan is talking to amir when they are younger, saying he would rather eat dirt than lie to him, the strings and the piano come together to show the sincerity of that conversation between the two boys. Also, When Amir wakes up in the morning and can't find Sohrab, he goes looking for him on the streets and at first the music seemed to mock his heart beating faster and faster as he panicked that he may have lost the boy, this is also a point in the movie where you really feel what the character is going through, perhaps through experience or through the music itself. Although there is sadness throughout this entire movie, there is however happiness portrayed at 3 diffferent times,when Amir and Hassan win the Kite tournament, when Amir gets married, and at the end of the movie when Amir and Sohrab are flying a kite together, and he says the same thing that Hassan, sohrabs father once said to Amir, "For you, a thousand times over."

Big Fish

Big Fish is a funfilled movie that includes many different types of stories and scenes which come alive in the music. When the father is born and he is sliding down the hallway Jazz-like music is playing as underscoring. Moving throughout the entirety of the film the use of a piano, and the strings is often heard, although there is some percusion and bass but they are not used as frequently as the other two. The strings tend to be softer but get deeper when there are intimate moments or when Edward is telling his stories. There is some micky mousing when the giant is walking out of the cave mimicking his footsteps and then when he thros a rock at Edward, it sounds like drums. Diegetic music is also used in this movie, for example when they have the parade for Edward giving him the key to the city right before he leaves, and also when he is dancing with all of the people, it almost sounds like a guitar is playing, possibly the bango. This movie has a lot of different variations of music yet the combination of the stories and the music in this film is what makes it so great.

Titanic

Ofcourse when one thinks of the Titanic they think of the theme song sung by Celine Dion, "my heart will go on," given the plot of the film it fits perfectly given that although Jack is dead, Rose still has faith in love. It is a song that keeps the viewers coming back and wanting to watch the hopeless love story for a second time. 

There are however, many other leitmotif's that are present in the film. The love between Rose and Jack is expressed in a leitmotif, it is softer than the other music expressed in the film and is played usually when the two are alone together. The Titanic itself also has it's own leitmotif, portraying its greatness and its magnificance considering it was to be the ship that would never sink; and then once the Titanic actually did sink, so did the leitmotif, given that it is no longer as great as it once was, and it is no longer in existance.

Along with some underscoring there is also some diegetic music being played in the film, for example when the ship is about to sink and the violinists are still playing on deck even though they know that they are about to die. Also when Rose and Jack go down to the lower deck and dance an Irish jig with the people on the 3rd class level.

The Color Purple

There is a lot of music in this film although it is not wall to wall. The music is mostly orchestra and strings. There is a lot of imitation where the music goes along with the actions of the characters in the movie. Although the theme and the mood of the characters is portrayed as sad, and lonesome the music however is playful, possibly showing that Celie's isn't always in a low state of being, but has high spirits when the time is right. There is plent of underscoring and Diagetic music is played every time they have a church scene, showing the involvement of the characters with religion. Usually you would find a movie portraying the same type of sound, or musical background but in the color purple the music varies and tends to be more diverse than other films we have watched. 

E.T.

The music in E.T. is mostly instruments that are in an orchestra, although some times the whole orchestra isn't used, the woodwinds seem to play a huge role in many of the themes. They tend to use the whole orchestra for more dramatic and overwhelming scenes, where a particualar message is trying to be conveyed. The mood of the music is more childlike and instead of using a bunch of different themes for each scene Williams does an excellent job of focusing on a single theme and using it in multiple ways, only changing it a little bit to give it it's own uniqueness. There is some Micky-mousing sound effects, for example when they are running away from each other at the beginning of the movie. There is a lot of underscoring in this movie, whether it be portrayed through the television, or a raidio it is often heard throughout the entirety of the film. There is what seems to be wall to wall music but there are scenes that do not have any music at all, and these scenes are trying to isolate a certain emotion that without music is better portrayed. For example when Elliot is sitting at the dinner table and he feels lonely because he just found out that his father had run off to mexico with another woman. With the sequencing, the underscoring, and the micky-mouse sound effects Williams work in E.T. can be comparable to the work of Steiner and the music in the film King Kong.

Sting

The movie Sting that is set in Chicago, uses music unconsistentely and not as frequent as you would think. It is mainly played during the transitions from scene to scene. However, there are instances where music is played during a scene and those are the more major scenes such as the scene where Luther dies. Most of the music in this movie is a piano, and most of it is underscoring there is some diagetic music in this film as well but not shown as much. It generally seemed to fade out some times when they would transition from scene to scene. Most of this music is considered to be rag-time music and it is a more up beat type of music which they seem to play often enough in the movie, and it kind of contradicts the whole idea and plot of the movie but at the same time it captures what is going on in each scene and gives the audience a better understanding and emotion as they watch the movie. Although music did not seem to play a huge role in this movie it definitely made up for it in meaning and overall was able to give the audience that feeling that was being portrayed in the film.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird does not follow the trend that many movies in the 1960's did, where they used minimal or no music during the story, i found that it used several different types of music, that which included piano music, diegetic music, background music that, and some typical theme music. To Kill a Mockingbid is typical courtroom movie, so in those types of scenes they did not have any music while in the courtroom. Music is used mainly to show danger, or to transition form scene to scene or from a certain emotion, such as happiness and transition it into anger. They had both diegetic music and underscoring throughout the entirety of the movie. I found that the kids theme music seemed to be lighter than everything else, and that was suprising given that the plot for the movie is quite strong and deep, and deals with such grave issues. I feel as if the movie was not entirely classical and it didn't completely follow the style of Bernard hermann, but rather I feel as if it is a mix of the two. 

Psycho

The movie Psycho, as portrayed from beginning to end, and also within the title shows the horror that should be instilled in the hearts of the audience through its music. It is different from your classic Hollywood films because it portrays a darker more omnious theme and gives the feeling of terror all the way through the movie, it does not give a little bit of horror and then switches to something more cheerful, like a typical hollywood classic may do with its music. In a Hollywood Classic the music tends to be happier and lighter and have a cliche happy ending, and with Psycho that is not the feeling they were trying to give off by any means. The music in Psycho is very similar to the Film Noir because they both are trying to give the audience that scared mentality, and they are both movies of horror that typically have darker music throughout the entirety of the movie. The only thing that I could think of that was cliche was the sounds that would be expressed to describe the knife noise before the knife is even used in the scene of the movie. Also, before anything actually happens in the movie there is darker music warning the audience that something is about to happen. Or the music at the beginning when the lovers are talking about their future together in the bedroom and the background music is very light and cheerful, almost like a love theme, saying that they will be together forever; very cliche. 

Double Indenity

At the beginning of the movie, "Double Indenity," the overture plays and the music starts off at a slower pace and a softer tone, but as the illustrated man walks closer and he gets larger in size, the music shifts to a higher pitch and louder noises are expressed. When the credits finish playing, the music continues and rolls over into the next scene. There doesn't seem to be much music in this film but when it does play it gives the scene and the actions of the people a much more of a dramatic effect and really points out what seems to be important in the movie. For example, music plays whenever Walter is narrating the story, and confessing the murder that he had committed early that week and earlier that evening. When there is no conversation occuring and something significant is going on, the significance of those actions are expressed through the music. For example, when Mr. Dietrichson was signing the papers to get his "Car insurance" renewed, music was playing showing how important the act was for carrying out Phyllis' and Walters plan to kill Mr. Dietrichson and get money for it. Music also plays to show the emotional and internal feelings that the characters may be feeling at a particular moment, for example when they couldn't get the car started after murdering Mr. Dietrichson and setting everything up, the music expressed how they were worrisom, and unsure as to what they were going to do if they were stranded there. It also expressed to the audience that this could be a time of either triumph or a time of heartbreak. This occurs all the way to the end where Walter is lying on the floor dyingtrying to light a cigarette, and Mr. Keyes lights it for him, showing a sign of symbolism because that is what Walter always did for him considering he hated to carry matches. The music at the end seems to be louder and more of a triumphet feeling than the rest of the movie.

The Anatomy of a Murder

The Anatomy of a Murder is a film that I suprisly thoroughly enjoyed watching. I intend on going to lawschool and being a lawyer in the future and so anything that has to do with a court room seems to be interesting to see how everything pans out. Like other movies The Anatomy of a Murder did not have any muic plying during any of the court room scenes, which made sense considering in a court room you are supposed to be getting a strong intensity and almost an anxious feeling while awaiting the verdict, or seeing what things and facts will most likely suprise you or jump out at you without warning. There is both underscoring and diegetic music throughout the film, although underscoring seems to occur more in the opening credits than it did throughout the entirety of the movie. On the other hand, unlike any other movie the Jazz and the music in general seems to carry over from scene to scene, which is unlikely in movies now adays but it made things more interesting, considering when the music ends, it is a signal that the scene should end as well, but often enough the scene ended and the music carried over, and although there was not as much music in this film as the ones we have watched in class or even outside of class, it did make the mood of the film fit the plot that was overall being portrayed.

Robin Hood

Starting with the opening credits it seems as if the orchestra music dramatically gets more abundant and shows an increase in excitement. The instruments that seem to be present the most throughtout the film are the brass instruments and the percussion instruments. Marian and Robin hood's leitmotif is made up of violins and it gives it a more romantic feel, rather than extended excitement. Their leitmotif occurs often throughout the movie and appears again towards the end of the movie when he rescues her in the final scene. On the other hand while Robin hood and Marians leitmotif is romantic and has a series of violins playing, Robin Hood's indivudal leitmotif is more exciting and tends to be a lot faster than the leitmotif that he shares with Marian. His leitmotif seems to play whenever he gets into a fight scene or when he shows up and is introduced to a scene for the first time. Most of the music throughout the movie is underscored, but there is also some diegetic music as well. The film in general seemed to be overall filled with a lot of sequences, stingers, and leitmotifs.

Casablanca

Casablanca is a classical film, and the plot is very unexpected. The music however seems to go along with the same theme. Everytime Rick and Isla meet, the song "as time goes by" plays, and for most of the movie the music that you can hear coming from the television, the people in the movie can hear as well. Sam often plays on his piano different songs that go along with the theme of conversation while everyone resides in the bar. For example, at the beginning sam is playing an upbeat song, that has to do with knocking on wood, and being unlucky, which is suppose to cheer them up considering they are stuck in casablanca due to the war, and other authorities. Everytime that Rick enters the room the music that sam is playing tends to get softer; on the other hand when a tragic event occurs the music is more disjunct, and is similar to a horror film. This occurs when the bar is temporarily closed, and at the end when Isla pulls a gun on Rick. For the most part Casablanca is a love story, and the that is reflected in the music.