5 Best Movies for Sound

If you are into home theater like I am, you are always looking for reference movies that can help you determine whether your setup is calibrated properly and if it sounds as good as it can. Of course, when you're done setting up and you're ready to watch a movie that will flex your system's abilities, these movies are wonderful choices for bringing down the lights and absorbing all the aural pleasure your 5.1 and can muster.

Here is a top 5 list of my favorites movies for sound and why. (Some of these are also on my all-time favorite movies list, as it so happens.)

1. War of the Worlds (2005)
Spielberg knows the value of sound for making a proper sci-fi. This genre of movies provides so many opportunities to juxtapose natural sounds familiar to us with artificial sounds that characterize things we have never seen before. Often, this lends the sound track a very wide gamut of frequencies to work with - from deep, explosive lows to ear-shredding highs - that will give your system a good workout. In this respect, War of the Worlds is exemplary.

In the first short sequence that begins the landing of the invading aliens, Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning are surrounded by gusting wind, punctuated by bolts of "lightning." The wind is mixed on all five channels and completely envelopes you. Each of the lightning bolts reach way down into the low frequencies and are intermixed with pitch-shifted lion growls (as many sounds in this movie are), which gives them a ferocious mid-range texture. You definitely want to make sure your sub woofer is correctly positioned and calibrated to take advantage of these morsels.

The next major sound scene in WotW involves the resurrection of a long-buried alien robot in the middle of a town center. When the asphalt streets break apart and begins to rotate, huge, snapping sounds will shake your room (building?). These seem to be created by the sound of pitch-shifted (down) cinder blocks rubbing against each other. Warn your neighbors about loose shelf items before you get to this scene.

This movie is full of wonderful sound stretching scenes throughout, so I will get into just one more. The next sequence immediately following the resurrection of the robot is the first we see of the robot's true purpose: the extermination of humankind, quickly delivered by death rays. The rays' pale blue beams sweep quickly from side to side across your front channels like a fire hose of arcing electricity and rely on your system's sound field and ability to render the popping grit of high voltage currents. The haunting screams of unfortunate victims are highly effective when all 5 channels are balanced and synced up. Don't be shy with the volume knob.

This is my current reference disc for sound. For me, it is an extremely reliable judge of the quality of a home theater set up. I am eagerly awaiting the high definition version to come out.

2. Touch the Sound
Touch the Sound is a documentary about acclaimed percussionist and musician Evelyn Glennie. It's a somewhat philosophical biography of this deaf musician's world and how she experiences sound. It is entirely focused on the idea of sound as a transcendental medium for communicating ideas that are beyond the realm of spoken language. As a result, its director went to great lengths to capture the sounds Glennie makes as accurately and naturally as he could to convey the importance of sound, which he makes a principle character in the film.

One of the early scenes of Glennie playing a beautiful snare solo in the middle of New York's Grand Central Station simply saturates you in the location's natural reverberation. Even the train riders in the station are captivated by her performance and the soundscapep it creates. The subtle texture the chains on her snare drum produces is recorded closely and makes the scene both visceral and immediate.

This film really emphasizes dynamics and clarity. In other words, breaths are as important as torrential drum runs. It's a movie that tests your system in a much different way than big budget action flicks. From the barely audible sound of a brushes on a metal drum to the monstrous impact of Japanese Taiko drums, the name of the game here is resolution. And it is rendered beautifully.

As an example, in the opening sequence, Glennie excites a massive Japanese gong with mallets in the middle of an abandoned, highly echoic industrial building. She brings it up to a crescendo and lets it ring off on its own. All the while, the camera is pulling back from the gong through the length of the building and out into the outside world. The effect takes you on the path the sound itself travels as it makes its ephemeral way away from the shimmering surface of the gong's golden platter and dies. Well positioned and synced speakers that produce a coherent sound field and do not develop too much mid-range build-up as a result of being too close to walls is important here. Glennie's fantastic musicianship and the director's attentiveness to sound quality show each and every minute.

3. Transformers
Back to the big budget, did-it-because-they-could flicks. I realize this is another sci-fi - but I wasn't promising variety was I? In all seriousness, when I saw this movie in the (digital) theater I was expecting a banging sound performance (after all, Spielberg executive-produced it). Sadly, I was sorely disappointed; the theater must have drastically compressed (in terms of dynamics, not bit rate) the sound to create the perception of volume. (As a side note, this is the same thing popular radio stations do, which really kills the aural quality of their material. Ever notice jazz/classical stations are much quieter?) All I could tell myself was that I hoped the DVD version would not be mixed in the way the theater portrayed the mix. Thankfully, my hopes were not subverted.

For the same reasons War of the Worlds was such a fantastic sound movie, Transformers will rock your amp(s). Huge sounds coming from giant warring robots flying every which way and crashing into everything creates a fantastic aural experience that will make you grin from ear to ear (not to mention the fact that it's Transformers!). There is enough variety here to really push your system. A quick, deep sub woofer is a must for this movie. The transients on the many, many explosions and collisions are extremely fast and full-bodied so your sub needs the mettle to keep up or you will miss out. Such a sub will also render the booming foot falls these massive robots make when they run around and enhance the perception of their size. Not to neglect the other important factor that contributes to quick and wide ranging transients (from low to high volume), you will want a receiver or amp that is equally quick on its feet. Dialog is well mixed on this film, but you won't be paying much attention to that.

For sheer excitement and quality of the mix, this movie could probably compete with War of Worlds for #1 in sound, but I haven't seen it enough times to make that judgment quite yet. After a few more views, and maybe after watching WotW and Transformers back to back, I should be able to make a better comparison. So why didn't Transformers take the #2 spot? Well, I thought that it and WotW were too similar to occupy the top two spots. The current #2, Touch the Sound, is such a different movie and emphasizes completely different aspects of your sound system that I felt it deserves that place.

4. The Incredibles
When it comes to great sound, you can't do much better than Pixar movies. They really like to take advantage of all 5+ channels to create an immersive experience. To me, The Incredibles takes the cake for Pixar films. Why? Flying buzz saw saucers manned by laser blasting bad guys chasing super heroes through tropical jungles. Enough said.

One great advantage animated films like The Incredibles give film makers, and especially sound designers, is the absence of natural ambiance. When an audience watches a live action film (with real people and places as opposed to animated characters and sets), we expect that certain sounds correspond with things that happen in frame. For example, in the natural world, many things are happening simultaneously that we don't realize we are actually listening for; the sound of the breeze blowing the branches in the background, the neighbor's lawn mower, the footfalls of the family dog on the tile. In live action films, sound designers have to take great care to accurately reproduce these sounds because we have certain subconscious expectations of they should sound. For example, when we see a door close on a small sedan, we expect it to sound like the door closing on a small sedan; we are all familiar with what that sounds like. If it sounds like a truck door instead, our brains get confused and distracts us from the movie. With animated films, we are much more lenient with our expectations because the whole animated world is so obviously fabricated.

The Incredibles takes great advantage of this "suspension of disbelief," as all animated films do. However, what it does exceptionally well in the sound department is the variety and quality of the sounds it includes. From a fight scene with a crazy killer robot to a water crash scene to the rustle of jungle flora to the low underground rumble of a volcano, this movie goes everywhere. It's also great fun for the whole family - and a great way to introduce Jr. to the joys of home theater!

5. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
I need explain this selection a bit. First of all, it is one of my favorite horror movies because it relies entirely on psychological terror and plausibility rather than your standard slash tactics or spooky effects. The reason it is one of my favorite sound movies is that a good sound system makes this movie VERY scary. With a cohesive sound field, the intensity of the screaming and tormentation scenes are so real they pull you right in and forcefully extract from you whatever bravery you think you might have.

I have to be clear about this. This movie isn't going to put your system to the test like the other selections will, and that's not the point. While with the others you will likely be reveling in how great each huge explosion and clanging clash sounds, the objective of this movie selection is for you to be so frightened because of its immersiveness that you forget about sound quality. I like this movie for sound because it is just such a good movie when the sound system is set up right. Although my wife and I watch this movie on a somewhat higher-grade system, I don't think you really need a high quality system to get a lot out of this movie. You just need to set it up properly. Let me elaborate a little.

This is a completely dialog-driven movie. Mid-range resolution and sound field cohesion are the most important things to consider when watching this movie. The sound field puts you in the middle of the terror, which is important for making you feel like you can't get out of it - and adds to the fear factor. The mid-range resolution is important because the vocal performance of the main character is what makes it so terrifying. At some points, you feel like you could be watching a sanitarium's tape of a recently deceased tenant.

Batman Begins: Honorable Mention
Unlike the top 5 movies, Batman Begins does not have enough truly special sound sequences that propel it to make the cut. However, it is nevertheless one of the best all-around sound movies you can watch. It is solidly mixed from top to bottom and reaches deep enough and soars high enough to keep any home theater enthusiast happy. There are plenty of action sequences and very good dialog to

Sunshine: Honorable Mention
My wife and I just saw this movie a few days ago. I thought the sound was good enough to warrant an honorable mention. Yet another sci-fi (see a pattern here?), this one features some truly impressive sound moments.

The movie (quite literally) revolves around the death of our sun and the journey of a crew in a unbelievably massive space ship to restart it. Already you get a sense of the kind sound palette this movie serves up. The roar of the sun is probably the most memorable. It is imposing and crushing and makes for good drama. One thing I did notice, however, was that the dialog was not mixed very well. To my ears, it was much too mid-low-rangy (even for the females), which made a lot of the words unintelligible. This was a movie we had to turn the sub titles on to understand. However, the ship's on-board computer and the sounds its various interfaces make when the crew interacts with it is rather well done. This was a small detail but the fact that I remember I think made it worth mentioning. So if you are shopping for a decent sci-fi movie for sound, and have already seen WotW and Transformers, check this one out.

300 (IMAX): Honorable Mention
I'm not sure how this fits in my top list of movies for the home theater enthusiast, but I really needed to include it anyway. Quite simply, you don't have a better sound system than an IMAX sound system. And if you do, you probably have your own power plant, too. The sound from 300 on a even a good home theater system is pretty engaging but once you watch (listen to?) it on IMAX, you will never see (hear?) it the same way again. This movie was mixed so well on IMAX's 12,000-plus watts that you cannot help but be humbled. The throbbing music synchronized with the sheer weight of in-your-face, hand-to-hand battle threatens to pulverize you where you sit. Even if you don't like this kind of ultra violent flick, I would suggest it to you if for nothing else but the sound alone - just close your eyes and enjoy.