Twilight Movie Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfg3BcW-w4E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdUpdenhigw

            The movie Twilight is an extremely popular film that is based on the best-selling novel by Stephanie Meyer.  The movie is about a vampire named Edward Cullen who falls in love with Bella Swan, a human. Their love for each other puts both of them in serious danger because they are practically from different worlds. In order for them to be together, Edward needs to protect Bella from both other vampires and himself. There are many romance songs playing throughout the film during Bella and Edward’s love scenes. The movie also has a lot of upbeat songs playing in action scenes and more dramatic scenes.

            Chapter five of Understanding Movies says “The faster the tempo of sound, the greater the tension produced in the listener” (Louis Giannetti, p.8).  In the movie, there is a scene where Edward Cullen and his vampire family are playing baseball. However, it was not like a typical baseball game because the vampires are extremely strong and fast. During this scene, a song called “Supermassive Black Hole” by the band Muse is playing in order to make the scene more intense. This scene needed to be intense because any sports game is intense. The baseball scene is also leading up to the climax of the movie so it clearly needed a song with a faster beat to appeal to the pathos of the audience. Muse is a famous band so it also appeals to the ethos of the audience. Fans of the band are likely to get excited during this scene and enjoy the movie even more. This song makes the scene more convincing because if they had just been playing baseball without music the audience wouldn’t have been so thrilled.

            According to Louis Giannetti in Understanding Movies, “Characterization can be suggested through musical motifs” (p.16). In Twilight, Edward Cullen writes a song for Bella titled “Edward’s Lullaby” which was actually composed by Carter Burwell. The song is played throughout the entire film in different scenes. There is one scene where Edward plays the song for Bella on his piano while she watches him play adoringly. The song is very calm and beautiful and emits a romantic tone to audience. This appeals to the logos of the audience because it shows them it is a movie about romance. The rhythm of the song also characterizes Edward as the lonely and thoughtful person he is, because he was the type of person who would keep to himself before he met Bella.

            The Twilight soundtrack is very well adapted into the film. It even won a Teen Choice Award for “choice soundtrack” and one of the songs by Paramore was nominated for a Grammy. I love the songs that were chosen because they make the movie even more romantic than it already is. I feel that it is important for a romance movie to have the right songs so the audience can really feel what the characters are going through. Twilight is one of my favorite books and movies and I would definitely recommend it!