Debate Over Sound and Fury Continues

I too am troubled by the decibel level in films these days, but it seems to me that both your Counterpunch articles--”Sound Effects and Bad Editing Often Drown Out the Dialogue” and “Movies Are Turning Into Loud Theme Rides as Plots Get Flimsier” (Calendar, June 24)--miss the basic point. Which is that today’s young people--who make up the largest group of movie-goers--are hearing impaired due to listening to high-decibel rock music from an early age. Theater-owners are pitching the sound level so that the majority of the audience can hear, despite the pain this brings to older patrons whose ears have not been similarly abused.

I have a practical suggestion: Have the theater concession stands sell, along with the popcorn, candy and soft drinks, devices for the non-hearing impaired: Earplugs.

JUDITH SEARLE

Santa Monica

We couldn’t agree more with much of what both of the writers had to say about movie-going. We stopped going to movies as much as we used to because, for one thing, people just don’t seem to be able to sit there, watch the movie and keep their mouths shut.

For another, let me tell you about our last forays to see the latest “big pictures,” “Twister” and “Mission: Impossible.” The sound was so over-amplified that I covered my ears at times, and my husband, who wears hearing aids in both ears, was forced to turn them off altogether, but he left them in his ears as earplugs.

Is that much volume necessary? Surely not.

ELINOR LIBERTO

Sun City

While we’re discussing movie soundtracks so loud that dialogue is lost and the brain is blasted, the same horrible situation seems to exist in the theater.

I recently attended “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. The music was so loud it was impossible to even think. The words, both sung and spoken, were screamed at a decibel level that defies description, and any continuity or cohesion the play once had was lost.

I had never seen this stage show; in fact, I had never seen the movie. But my teenagers did when it first came out. My son was playing piano at the time, so he learned to play, and I listened to and appreciated, much of the music from “Superstar.” When it came around this time, I decided I’d like to see it.

I was so discouraged. The sound level made it almost an agony to endure. All the singers wore face mikes. It looked as though an army of aliens in space helmets was bouncing around the stage. With the music blasting so loudly, the cast had to scream, I suppose, in order to hear themselves think. It didn’t matter that the audience couldn’t understand a word. Why are we doing this to ourselves? We paid enough for these seats; we did not pay to be pilloried by the sound mixer.

We went home and rented a video of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It was great. You could understand every word. It was moving and believable. The music was wonderful. The satire came through. Thanks be.

MARY B. STEINER

Newbury Park

Isn’t the dialogue the essence? Used to be!

BILL & AUDREY SCHAEFER

Whittier

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