Jaws and the sound of dread and wonder

July 8, 2014, 04:38 AM

http://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/...

One of my college film professors used to begin each quarter’s class with a demonstration: He’d play the opening scene from Jaws, and the opening scene from Ordinary People, but with the soundtracks reversed. Set to John Williams’ Jaws score, Ordinary People’s scene-setting shots of upper-middle-class suburbia came off as ominous, rather than lyrical and elegiac. And set to Pachelbel’s Canon, Jaws’ scene of Chrissie Watkins getting eaten alive by a shark looked like water ballet.