I’m Ruined!

If you are a movie buff at all and take great enjoyment from the silver screen, then I urge you not to read this post as you’ll be ruined too. You like that? You want to read what I have to say now, don’t you. Okay, chances are that this won’t ruin you, but you may be disappointed. Last Sunday I was watching The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. What an incredible movie, one of my favorites. I was watching the battle scene of Helm’s Deep (yes, I know that the very fact I just named to you the name of the battle it makes me a Tolkien nerd) and just as an elf was being thrown from the battlements I heard a very particular and recognizable sound. Oh, DANG!

Let me back up a second. Three or four months ago I watched this video on YouTube. It was a video about something called the Wilhelm Scream. It was a random sound from a movie called Distant Drums (I think cowboys and Indians genre) of a guy pulled under water and eaten by an alligator. Another film maker liked that particular scream as he watched the movie and lifted the sound from the movie to use in his own movies. The first time he used it was in the movie The Charge at Feather River when Private Wilhelm is shot with an arrow and utters a familiar scream. Supposedly after the movie came out, the sound effect was added to the Warner Brother’s sound effect library. The sound was later used in several other movies. Eventually a sound man named Brett Burt fell in love with this particular scream and began adding it to all the movies he worked on… including the Star Wars franchise. Soon the Wilhelm Scream became somewhat of an inside joke in Hollywood and film makers would look for places to put it in their movies.

Watch this video compellation of the famous scream here.

So, why am I ruined? I watched this silly YouTube video several months ago… maybe 6 or more. Then I’m sitting here watching one of my favorite movies and I hear it and recognize it. It would be one thing to pick out one of the listed movies and purposely listen for it. But no, I recognize it now. How many more movies will I watch and hear the scream. It’s my burden now… and maybe your burden as well.