The theme music in recent movies

@suspenseful (40193)
Canada
December 29, 2008 10:20pm CST
We were watching the recent remake of The Four Feathers, and even though part of the movie was in England, and not all of it was in Egypt where the one lost his eyesight, all the music was played to invoke sympathy with the Dervishes and other Muslims who were fighting the English at that time. Now in my mind, if the scene is set in England, you play the appropriate music of England - I guess Gilbert and Sullivan would come to mind - and if you are in Egypt, and the Pasha and his men are together the theme music then becomes Egyptian, but you do not play songs to invoke sympathy of the Muslims when the scene is in England. And the movie was based on a story about an English man who refused to fight, but then later changed his mind, it was not about an Egyptian who was called by the Pasha to fight the infidels, refused, and later changed his mind, yet if someone were blind and listened to the music at first, that is what they would deduce. Music should reflect the plot, it should not reflect sympathy or the beliefs of a certain group.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
30 Dec 08
I agree to that now I will have to watch it and the old one too to see the differnce1
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
6 Jan 09
I used to know when I was not in the room when the cowboys road into an Indian village, then you would hear the drums and tom toms and when the gangster bad girl came into the speak easy, you would hear this really seductive bad girl music, but now you are not too sure. The music does not give you any clue. It is a theme music all the way through.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
7 Jan 09
sad so sad isnt it!?
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
10 Jan 09
It is. I like the old movies. Even if someone was blind, they knew what was coming on, but now they have to have someone describe the scene. (Yes they had a demonstration of it once on our movie channel.) It drove me nuts.
@LittleMel (8742)
• Canada
30 Dec 08
do you mean the one with Heath Ledger in it ? I think the music is beautiful. the settings were half England and half Sudan if I remember correctly. how would that music represent certain group? maybe someone thinks it does somehow, but if they listen to the entire movie (let's say they're blind) they would know what is it about
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
30 Dec 08
What I am getting at is the music represented all Sudan even when they showed the scene in England. It used to be if a scene was shown in the Congo, they would play all this African drum music, if a scene was shown on a seventeenth century pirate ship, they would play sea chanties, and if a scene was shown in nineteenth century England they would play music heard in 19th century England. Even though the music is beautiful, why would you want to hear music that invokes the plight or is native to the Muslim experience if the scene is, perhaps, in an English countryside? I have watched many music and do get TCM and have watched the documentaries where they showed how they choose the music for certain scenes and the ones nowawdays are not doing it for the scene but to engage a certain mood.