MovieChat Forums > Oppenheimer (2023) Discussion > Overwhelming background music

Overwhelming background music


Maybe it was the crappy sound system in the mediocre cinema I was in, but I found the background music not “background” at all. It dominated so many scenes and obliterated the dialogue in some instances. I could barely hear Robert Downey Jr at times because he is brilliant and powerfully subtle, but the 50,000 violins just drowned him out. If you’ve got a good script and talented actors, why lean on heavy background music to build tension?

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it was that way in MIAX also. kind of silly. wasn't really adding tension, just loud to make minor scenes SEEM important. I just though it was dumb. And I am a Nolan fan usually

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It’s basically a Nolan thing. Muffled/hard-to-hear dialogue and an overpowering score in general? The sound design on his films has received criticism for years for a reason. It hasn’t been a big issue for me before, but it’s undeniably a problem.

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I liked it...

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Yep, as others have said it's an annoying Nolan signature. It seemed like an effective score but it didn't need to be used almost nonstop!

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