In Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull(1980; sound:
Frank Warner), brutal tape-recorded sounds from
boxing matches are mixed with sounds created in
the Foley studio, with many different tracks—
including a fist hitting a side of beef, a knife cutting
into the beef, water (to simulate the sound of blood
spurting), animal noises, and the whooshes of jet
airplanes and arrows—all working together to pro-
vide the dramatic illusion of what, in a real boxing
match, would be the comparatively simpler sound
of one boxer’s gloves hitting another boxer’s flesh.
Today’s movies are particularly rich in their uses
of sound. That includes musicals: Bill Condon’s
Dreamgirls(2006); fantasy adventure films: Peter
Jackson’s King Kong(2005) or Michael Bay’s Trans-
formers: Revenge of the Fallen(2009); war films:
Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker(2008); dramas:
Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan’s Slumdog Mil-
lionaire(2008) or Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech
(2010); or animated features: Andrew Stanton’s
WA L L - E(2008). The artistry involved in using all
the various sources and types of sound has perma-
nently established the role of the sound designer
and exponentially increased the number of sound-
related job titles—and therefore new employment—
in the field of movie sound, all of which is reflected
in the large number of sound artists and techni-
cians receiving screen credit. Furthermore, it has
made necessary the invention and development of
new equipment for sound recording, editing, and
mixing and has also brought change to many the-
aters, which have had to install expensive new equip-
ment to process the superb sound made possible by
the digital revolution.Music
Although music is used in many distinct ways in
the movies, in this discussion we are concerned
principally with the kind of music that Royal S.
Brown, an expert on the subject, describes as “dra-
matically motivated... music composed more
often than not by practitioners specializing in the
art to interact specifically with the diverse facets ofMusic and dancing in Slumdog MillionaireAlthough
this social and romantic drama, which presents a harrowing
view of growing up in modern India, is a far cry from the
generic Hollywood musical, it ends happily as the hero,
Jamal, wins the grand prize in a TV game show and is
reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Latika, who has
escaped her criminal captor. To celebrate, the movie
concludes with a musical extravaganza of the entire cast——
led by Latika (Freida Pinto, in yellow, left) and Jamal Malik
(Dev Patel, in blue shirt, right)——dancing and singing “Jai
Ho” on the platforms of the Bombay train station. This
scene, made memorable by its vibrant sounds, provides a
very creative background for the closing credits.TYPES OF FILM SOUND 403