Film Music: The Psychological Backbone

My theory of film music is that the essential psychology of a film is supplied by the music. It functions as a psychological backbone. Digital Film-Making, pg.131, Mike Figgis 

Music within a film is reffered to “the psychological backbone” of a film by Mike Figgis in his Digital Film making book. It is the music that is in the subconscious of your mind that develops a psychological link between the viewer and what they are watching. It is forcing them to feel a certain way without them even knowing. It is subliminally pushing them to feel a certain way and to feel a certain way towards the characters and the situations in which they are in. Music within film acts as a great manipulative force that is invisible to the eye that sparks the viewers emotions. However, music can be used as a lazy way of trying to make the audience feel how the director wants them to feel about a scene. Instead of letting the film speak for itself it seems sometimes necessary to some directors to put music over a scene in order to tell the audience how they should be feeling rather than them being able to figure it our for themselves without having to be pushed in one certain direction. Without music or sound within a film there is no real emotional connection between the film and it’s audience which would make a film pointless as the idea of a film is to create some sort of reaction from the audience. Whether this be of fright, comedy, sadness or anger it always necessary for at least some reaction from the audience and this is normally enhanced through the use of music and sound. It again shows how sound is just as important as the visuals within moving image.