Music In Thriller Films

In this post, I will examine music from the soundtracks of three thriller films and then draw a conclusion based on my findings. Click "Read More" to see it!

1) The Bourne Supremacy

The first is a track from The Bourne Supremacy. It's an orchestrated piece of music, and features a low, rumbling string drone in the background, as well as some high-pitched, repeating violin melodies running over the top of it. It's clearly attempting to create a sense of paranoia and suspense, and this is shown further by the fact that it layers up and increases in volume up to a climactic point at around three minutes; the violins and strings build up to a series of very loud and impacting drumbeats. What's interesting here is that the drumbeats clearly have artificial, synthesised elements to them; they're not just natural "drum" sounds. This is a kind of an allusion to the film's techno-thriller themes, as well as providing a dramatic break in the flow of the music.

2) The Da Vinci Code

This track is, once again, orchestrated, though has a distinctly regal theme to it; it's more like a traditional piece of classical music as opposed to film music. It's not quite as mysterious and foreboding, and carries a feeling of power and grandness; this, I believe, links to the film's religious themes, as well as the fact that it is set mostly in Europe (where classical music as we know it originated). This isn't to say that it has a happy sound; it's actually a very sad-sounding and melodramatic piece that builds to a climax much in the same way that the track from The Bourne Supremacy does, though it's a little more musical, flowing and romanticised. It's said that Leonardo Da Vinci was something of a romantic himself, so this characteristic of the music probably pertains to that.

3) The Matrix Reloaded

This one stands out from the other two quite distinctly; it's not orchestrated, but rather fuses a sort of tribal world-music type sound (drums and choral singers) with synthesised melodies and rhythms. It's almost like a piece of techno or dance music, though has the human element of drumming to symbolise the film's themes of conflict between man and machine, and between "real" and "fake". It's action-packed and fast-paced to go with the film's more action-orientated style, though still has the air of tension of the other two pieces - and is progressive and builds up in layers in exactly the same way.

CONCLUSION:

The patterns I noticed across all three pieces of music were that they needed to contribute to a tense (or even eerie) atmosphere, reflect some of the themes of the film in their style, and build up in layers to the climax of the scene that they're accompanying. They also need to reflect the film's genre, and have appropriate instrumentation and arrangements.