TheChez.net

By ssjrem

Ordinarily, every Sunday, I bring you the results of the weekend’s box office. These are merely the weekend estimates, however. These normally do reflect the actual numbers quite well, so there’s rarely any need for me to make changes or update the blog once actuals come in. However, for this weekend, the top two movies, Transformers and Ice Age, were both estimated at the same amount. I’m going to wait for the actuals tomorrow, so we can know which movie takes the cake. If I had to guess, I’d give it to Transformers. Personally, I feel like the studio is being a little conservative with their estimate. Just because I said, though, Ice Age is going to end up winning by like five million just to make me look like an idiot. Anyway, that’s that. Let’s move on to my actual blog material.

Light Eternal? Interesting title for a blog. So, what is this about? Religion, perhaps? Nope, though I will one day tackle that. I really want to take my time on that, though, if I ever do write such a blog. Anyway, by Light Eternal, I’m referring to Lux Aeterna, which is Latin for light eternal. Again, what the hell am I talking about? I’d wager a bet that a lot of people have never heard of a musical composition named Lux Aeterna. However, I guarentee you that you have heard it. There is absolutely no way that someone could have possibly gone through their lives without having heard this piece of music at least once. Well, I’m sure it is possible that someone hasn’t heard it, but you’d be hard pressed to find such a person.

In short, Lux Aeterna is the most overused piece of music…. ever. It is literally in everything. I have heard this song in everything. It’s played constantly during sporting events, (normally during montages or little clip things between commercials) used very frequently in trailers, and has been used in 90% of the videos made on Youtube. Anytime that anyone wants anything at all to sound epic or grand, they turn to Lux Aeterna without fail. Well, I’ve been talking this up for long enough, so here, give it a listen. I’m sure you’ve heard it before.

Sounds familiar, right? So, where exactly does this ridiculously overused piece of music come from? The answer lies in the critically acclaimed drug addiction movie, Requiem for a Dream. I heard Lux Aeterna long before I ever actually saw the movie. I’ve had a few experiences of extensively hearing the score of a movie before actually seeing the movie from which it originates. It’s a rather odd experience honestly, seeing the music attatched to what it belongs to. I kind of felt that way when I watched Requiem because I had heard the music so much before. Same deal with Titanic. I can’t say I recommend doing such a thing because it always took me out of the movie.

The piece was composed by Clint Mansell, who is in my opinion a GOD among composers, and and performed by the Kronos Quartet. Because of budgetary issues, the movie couldn’t get a full orchestra to perform the piece. Thus, the Kronos came in and performed admirably. Honestly, the piece itself is downright remarkable and carries with it such a sense of complete tragedy and hopelessness. Its grandeur is virtually unmatched, thus its use in every video ever on youtube. I feel as though its impact has been lessened so much because of its overuse, though. Whenever I listen to it, it just doesn’t carry with it the same power that such a composition should.

I don’t really know exactly when or why Lux Aeterna caught on as the ultimate (seemingly only) music for trailers, but I have a pretty damn good idea. A remixed version of the song was used in the trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers back in 2002. This remix was named Requiem for a Tower and does differ from the original in a number of ways. I do prefer the original, but I almost always go with the original version when it comes to, well anything. That’s just me, though. So, now that people heard the music applied to the epic nature of Middle-Earth, next thing you know, it is absolutely everywhere. Just the other day, I was sitting at my kitchen table eating breakfast and reading the paper while my parents were watching TV and I faintly heard Lux Aeterma on the television. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Along with “Remember the Name” by Fort Minor, Lux Aeterna has got to be one of the most overused pieces of music ever. It’s a shame too. In case you’re curious, here’s Requiem for a Tower:

Requiem for a Dream is an amazing movie. I might give it a half-chez. I’d need to rewatch to be sure, but I would more than likely award it no chezes if I were ever to do a review. If I were to review Clint Mansell as a composer, I would give him negative chezes, if such a thing were even possible. I really love every single thing he has ever done. However, people just seem to love throwing all of his music into trailers. Everything he does just seems positively tailor-made for trailers. Not just Requiem for a Dream, but everything. The music from Dead Reckoning was used for  State of Play and the main theme from The Fountain (one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen. I’ll review it some day) was used for both I am Legend and Frost/Nixon, though I am Legend used it to greater effect. I think the I am Legend trailer was one of the greatest trailers ever and the movie was actually  letdown, but I still very much enjoyed it. The book is way better, though. It’s really different too. Whoa, off topic-ness! I do that a lot.

Also, a lot of idiots out there think that the song is called Requiem for a Dream. It’s not. It’s from that movie. If you’re going to use it in your stupid fan-made trailer, you could at least find out the actual name of the song. Even worse, people think that the song originated with the Lord of the Rings and don’t even know about Requiem for a Dream. That doesn’t happen as often as my first gripe, but it’s even more annoying. Anyway, I was surfing around on Youtube and found this clip. I think it goes along with my blog pretty well. There are a couple other videos like this one as well.

In light of the fact that I was completely out of blog ideas that don’t relate to Dragonball Z, I was rather relieved that I happened to hear Lux Aeterna the other day. I really, really like the score to Requiem for a Dream. I really, really like the movie. I really, really like Clint Mansell. I also really, really like Darren Aronofsky, the director of Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain, as well as π (yes, there is a movie called Pi, as in 3.14 et cetera) and The Wrestler, the latter two being very, very high on my to-see list. I just wish that Mansell’s music, specifically Lux Aeterna, wasn’t used so damn much in all these trailers and montages and videos and…. everything. I suppose you could take it as rather flattering or a tribute type thing. It’s pretty awesome to have composed something as popular as Lux Aeterna. There’s no getting around the fact that it’s ridiculously overused though. I suppose that’s basically all that I have to say. I’ll be back with my box office wrap up tomorrow. And, you know what, for the hell of just because I mentioned it, here’s Remember the Name. I’m sure you’ve heard this too. I was looking through the results and I figured the Kobe one would be pretty topical.