What Was With The 1970’s?

When Silence Is Golden…and When It’s A Clear Miss

In a previous blog we mentioned the brilliance of The French Connection and Director William Friedkin’s excellent use of sound design to underscore a chase scene. And another film of that era, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation utilized music sparingly to heighten the story’s tension.

But one that could have been seriously enhanced with music was Al Pacino (first starring role) in Panic In Needle Park. This story of a affable heroin junkie had absolutely no music. In fact, there was no composer listed in the opening credits! And quite honestly, with it’s tragic story arc, we at CSS Music believe this movie would have evoked a lot more emotion had they scored it—even sparingly, with music.

Perhaps the problem with Panic in Needle Park may have been in editing. As we noted with The French Connection, the action was quickly edited and the street/train sounds made the tension so palatable you could taste it. The action in Needle Park was edited in a more traditional fashion and without music to literally move the movie along, it sometimes felt like more of a documentary.

Now, we at CSS Music are huge Al Pacino fans and his performance was outstanding. In fact, Francis Ford Coppola was so impressed that he hired Pacino to play the iconic role of Michael Corleone, his next film, in one of the greatest films of all time, The Godfather.

Your mission as a music editor or supervisor is to decide when music should be used and when natural ambiance better serves the scene. We know that editing to a music track makes your work go faster, but maybe take a cue from the 1970s and try creating tension or excitement by using fast edits and let the background sounds be the underscore. Not that we’re suggesting not incorporating the excellent music from the CSS  Royalty Free Music library! Just put the idea in the back of your mind when you need a fresh take on something that was popular in the 70s.