such as Paul Greengrass’s The Bourne Supremacy
(2004; composer: John Powell), could become rou-
tine if the music did not change significantly to suit
the participants, location, and outcome of each
chase. In The Bourne Supremacy’s spectacular chase
through Moscow traffic, Jason Bourne (Matt
Damon), whose own musical theme is played by a
bassoon, successfully eludes the Russian police but
not before many vehicles are destroyed. The sound
in this scene is a very expressive mix of ambient
sounds, Foley sounds, sound effects, and Powell’s
score. Indeed, it’s impossible to disentangle these
elements. The loud sounds of sirens, screeching
tires, shattered glass, gunshots, and revving car
engines accentuate the violent action, while the
music, which is softer in volume, is a full orchestral
score mixed with Russian folk themes and elec-
tronic sounds, including techno-music. The chase
ends with a final smashup and silence.
Many directors use music to provide overall
structural unity or coherence to a story, as in Otto
Preminger’s psychological thriller Laura(1944;406 CHAPTER 9 SOUND
135246Songs inspire a movieMiraculous things happen, and
people and events connect in unexpected ways, throughout
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia(1999; sound designer:
Richard King). Part of what inspired Anderson in writing his
screenplay was hearing then-unreleased recordings
by American pop-rocker Aimee Mann. In some cases,
connections between the songs and the narrative are
explicit, as when the lyrics to “Deathly”——”Now that I’ve
met you / Would you object to / Never seeing each other
again”——become a line of dialogue: “Now that I’ve met you,
would you object to never seeing me again?” At the film’s
emotional climax, [1] Claudia Wilson Gator (Melora Walters),
[2] Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly), [3] Jimmy Gator (Philip
Baker Hall), [4] Quiz Kid Donnie Smith (William H. Macy),
[5] “Big Earl” Partridge (Jason Robards, left) and his nurse,
Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman, right), and [6] Stanley
Spector (Jeremy Blackman)——all in different places and
different situations——sing along with Mann’s “Wise Up.”