Time has gotten away from me and this blog over the past few weeks, thus I’ve had a hard time updating as much as I’d like. My review of Les Miserables is forthcoming (I didn’t love it), but for now here’s a short video about the sound work in Zero Dark Thirty. I know I say this a lot, but the sound – along with the pitch perfect editing – of this movie truly was the one aspect that stood out. From the terrifying gargling sounds of a detainee being water-boarded to a Black Hawk crash landing into the Bin Laden compound, the soundscape did for me emotionally what the writing didn’t: grabbed me and held me there. Likewise, the mid-section of Zero Dark Thirty is the weakest and it’s there where the sounds take a backseat to character development. Though this video illuminates Kathryn Bigelow’s interest in limiting her music use, I also thought the score to this film was incredibly effective. If you haven’t seen it yet, see Zero Dark Thirty in a theater with appropriate acoustics.

SoundWorks Collection – The Sound of Zero Dark Thirty from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.