21 thoughts on “Five Favourite Films for Sound”

1. admin Post authorJuly 13, 2009 at 12:37 pm

   Its interesting thinking about what makes a film have “good sound” – undoubtedly it involves a lot of skill & creativity on all of the sound crews part, but I think more important is:
   – the script
   – the director

   Its interesting to note recurring names in the above list in the role of director (eg David Lynch, PT Anderson, George Lucas, David Finch, Gus van Sant) and perhaps more predictably, in the role of sound designer (Walter Murch, Ben Burtt, Randy Thom)

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   1. brendan j hogan August 24, 2009 at 5:16 am

      Along those lines, is our perception of “good sound” tied up with our perception of a “good movie”? Are there movies we don’t like but still consider to have good sound? There are movies I can think of that I appreciate the technical excellence of the sound (mostly blockbuster action movies) but I don’t love the sound the way I love the sound in movies I connect with.

      Reply
2. admin Post authorJuly 13, 2009 at 9:31 pm

   updated 13th July with votes from Greg Sextro, Phil Benson, Steve Gallagher, Buck Sander, Peter Albrechtsen, Sonal Dsliva, Mike Peter Reed

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3. admin Post authorJuly 14, 2009 at 11:07 am

   updated 14th with votes from Rene, Svenn Jakobsen, Sebastian Orban, Tae, James Hoskin, Ayush Ahuja

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4. admin Post authorJuly 14, 2009 at 11:50 pm

   updated 14th July with votes from: Sebastien Orban, Svenn Jakobsen, Rene, Markus, John Evans, Gustavo Costantini, Ryan Wrubleski, JR Fountain, Enrique Deschutter, Paul Neyrinck, Andy Brannan, Beni, Carez, Andrew, Matt Cavanaugh, Elliott Malone

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5. Danijel Milosevic July 15, 2009 at 3:47 am

   Hmmm, isn’t it incredible that “Touch the Sound”, a small documentary with arthouse-only distribution, is currently in front of the likes of THX-1138, Fight Club, Terminator 2, Exorcist, and another hundred of finest-sound movies of all times!?

   If someone can enlighten me, how come so many people have seen it?

   For those of you who haven’t, there’s the whole thing on youtube, but consider it a preview only, because a movie such as this suffers a lot from low fidelity, even if you watch it in “HQ”:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_l7kRDv9c8

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6. Danijel Milosevic July 15, 2009 at 4:09 am

   Oh, never mind – I see it has been featured on this very blog in February….

   A piece of trivia (and this is not even listed on IMDB):
   Fred Frith, a musician featured in this film has provided ambiental music which has become an interesting part of sound design for Gerry by Gus Van Sant.

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7. jayadevan July 15, 2009 at 4:21 am

   i would like to draw your attention to the Indian films. There are very good works of film sound in India. To name a few sound designers here who really excel in their craft like Dwarak Warrier, Resul Pookkutty, Dilip Subrahmaniam and many more. After this years Oscar, Bollywood is understanding the scope of sound design in film.

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8. admin Post authorJuly 15, 2009 at 10:22 am

   Thanks Jayadevan, thats exactly what I feel this list is for ie making us all aware of films we should see/hear. And thanks for your votes – I’ll be checking out the films I havent seen too!

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9. admin Post authorJuly 15, 2009 at 11:29 am

   updated 15th July with votes from: Tom Ackroyd, Nick Read, Manuel Laval, Jen Ralston, Olivier Calvert, Ian Palmer, Jfriah, Jayadevan Chakkadath, Daniel Colman, Jeffrey

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10. admin Post authorJuly 20, 2009 at 11:55 am

    updated 20th July with votes from Miguel, Phil Valera, Tim Chaproniere, Olga Bulygo, Vicente Villaescusa, Vytis Puronas, Steven Ghouti, Matteo Millani

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12. James Sutcliffe October 17, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    hello. I’m not sure if you’re still adding to the list but thought I might as well put mine forward any way…

    1. Apocalypse Now

    Barton Fink

    Ali

    Raging Bull

    Terminator 2

    Reply

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14. tim Post authorOctober 24, 2009 at 9:37 am

    just a note for anyone submitting films from now on – I will add your selection, but will wait until I have a dozen or so new submissions to recompile the list – apologies for the delay in your votes appearing. Feel free to paste them here as a comment in the meantime…

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16. robin November 3, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    Hmmm… is this supposed to be a vote for sound effects, sound design, music or all three? Because there are some entries I am quite sure would not have been chosen unless music was the main criteria. For example Forbidden Planet and The Shining are dominated by their music (in a good way, of course).

    And if that is indeed the case, has everyone forgotten The Andromeda Strain?

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17. paulofilmo June 30, 2010 at 1:06 am

    Just made a collection:
    http://www.criticker.com/?fl&filter=e10780

    NYT article about No Country:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/movies/awardsseason/06lim.html?_r=2&oref=slogin

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20. tmsky June 26, 2017 at 2:09 pm

    many thanks

    Reply