When John Carpenter showed his movie Halloween to investors without a musical soundtrack, they were unimpressed. When he added that famous spooky organ music, the film became a horror classic.
When the producers of the movie Moonstruck used a Verdi opera for the opening credits, test audiences didn’t laugh at the comedy of the film for thirty minutes. When they substituted Dean Martin singing “That’s Amore,” viewers were cued that the flick was a comedy, and they started laughing right away.
John Williams composed a celebrated “heartbeat” score for Jaws. I saw the movie in 1975; when I stepped out onto 4th Street in Beloit, Wisconsin, I took my heartbeat with me and expected to see a giant shark swimming on dry land with its jaws open and eager to consume me.
We don’t go to movies just for sight; we expect our ears to be pleased as well —sometimes crucially.
