MovieChat Forums > A Bridge Too Far (1977) Discussion > The sound makes it unwatchable

The sound makes it unwatchable

posted 9 years ago by dtmuller
18 replies | jump to latest

Anybody else have this problem? This is the only movie I've ever seen that has such a variation in sound level that it's just too annoying to watch. I'm constantly adjusting the volume.

Turn the volume to a good level to hear the dialog, and the explosions blast you out of the room. Adjust it for reasonably loud battle sequences, and you can't understand the dialog. But then, there's no one level that's good for dialog either. There's a vast difference just from scene to scene where people are having normal conversations. I just ripped it, aggressively compressing the audio dynamic range, and it's still too much work to watch and enjoy.

OK, yes, I wear hearing aids, but had this problem with this film long before I needed them. (I'm not one of those people who needed them for 20 years before admitting it.) And I've watched many, many war films with lots of loud battle scenes without having this problem. (Patton, Saving Private Ryan, Tora! Tora! Tora! are a few that come to mind.)

So I ask again, does anyone else notice this? Or do I have an odd DVD copy? Or is it something else?

[–] Hotrodder 9 years ago

A lot of it is down to lousy sound mixing when the DVD (and even the video tape before that!) is produced- a common problem these days. The film companies don't seem too concerned about making a quality product.

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.

[–] WatchCat 9 years ago

👆

👏

[–] TerraFirma69 9 years ago

Watch Looper:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276104/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The sound mixing, as far as levels go, is truly, truly awful.

I can't say I noticed much of a problem in this movie though, hard to say why you might have found it so bad.

...then whoa, differences...

[–] Rob-O-Cop 9 years ago

Just saw this on tv and agree with you. Over dynamically mixed for sound impact at the expense of the bigger picture, ie the sound mixer is trying to make the sound a key feature instead of making their mix work to the greater good of the movie.

[–] dtmuller 9 years ago

Thanks! At least I know I'm not the only one bothered by this. But since some people don't seem to notice it at all, I wonder if perhaps there are a couple of different sound mixes out there.

[–] Rob-O-Cop 9 years ago

They have 2 dubbing mixers listed in the credits, who mixed it.
I wonder if they did one each. dubbing mixer is the European version of a post sound mixer. The only version I've seen is the overly dynamic one and the person I was watching it with was busy turning it down in the loud parts and up in the dialog parts to try and hear it.
There is a technical flaw in making it a tv mix from a 5.1 surround mix that can cause the dialog to almost disappear. the center channel normally holds all the dialogue and the left and right only has a little in it. if the dropped out the center channel or mixed it low in the bounce down to stereo (2 channel) then you lose all the dialogue and what's in the left and right and rear tracks is normally sfx and music, and a lower amount of dialogue, so it might not have been the mixers fault but an error in transfer to stereo, or it might have been one mixers fault, in their pursuit of an ego stroking over demanding sound mix.

[–] michaeldecker 7 years ago

You might well be right - I thought the dialogue was low throughout, but noticed one scene where there were three men in shot that the guys on the left and the right of the picture were loud and clear, while the guy in the middle was much quieter.

[–] Will1988 9 years ago

Yep, I have this problem with the DVD.

[–] bmusler-1 9 years ago

My guess is that is a legacy of recording it with Sensuround but when I look for a list of films recorded with that I find Midway but not this film. Does anybody know if Sensuround with this movie?

[–] wwestar 8 years ago

It wasn't recorded in sensurround. When they did the 5.1 mix in 1977 they would also have done a stereo mix and a mono mix as most cinemas didn't have 5.1 sound back in 1977.

In cinemas all sound is set on dialog or to Dolby fader 7. Once you can hear the dialog clearly you don't touch the sound again regardless of how loud the SFX are. The mixers may have used compression techniques to get greater impact but that was nothing new Hitchcock was one of the first to use the technique in the 1950's.

I don't use a 5.1 system at home but the stereo version sounds fine to me.

[–] huwdj 8 years ago

No. The volume seems OK to me on the DVD I've just watched on a lap top. But interestingly, looking closely for the 1st time at the slightly blurry picture on the DVD, I'm wondering if I have a pirate copy.

[–] gtbarker 8 years ago

I have just got through the sound credits and have already adjusted three times

'Well I've got two words for you - STFU'

[–] geearf 8 years ago

Yes, it was a bit annoying but not so terrible.

[–] wwestar 8 years ago

What are sound credits???