If Hollywood's taught us anything...

.... it is that sex, guns and explosions make people go woo.

Thinking about it, when big moments happen in big-budget movies like Hollywood fare or poorly-made movies like Hollywood fare and mostly Malaysian fare, you know it's a big moment on the count of the fact that there's the humongous, overblown dramatic musical orchestration with 16-part string sections and stuff like that bloody hell slap into your face the fact that heck, something big is going on right this minute.

Like when a main character dies in the film, more often than not a really moving, sad piece of string-heavy orchestration is inserted to support the sad, anguished looks on the faces of the reacting characters. Or when the male lead finds out from his wife that his wife is actually the daughter of his father and his niece who was conceived by nut-job, in which a big 'dun-duN-DUNN' sound comes in.

You know that big shit is goin' down because, hey, big musical cues tell you. (Also, sometimes these moments are emphasized by subsequent reaction close-up of the character's face, usually trying to extend a sense of 'wtfbbq?' Refer to the following picture:)

Lifted this pic off somewhere at random, but it serves its purpose.

But, you know, when heavy, pivotal moments happen in real life for me, I don't get that same sense of doctored oomph specifically because of exposure to such films. Like when I say goodbye to a close friend who I'm never going to see again for a long, long time, there's no sense of tragic drop or deep tugging of the heart strings. What happens instead is an empty hole that forms in your gut and somewhere in your heart, in which you'd then walk off like one of the undead. Living in shining glory on the physical level, but dead inside. (Which, more often than not, is a good definition of yours truly.)

So what I do instead is that I carry along with an orchestra in my head. So far, it's missed all its appropriate cues, but it can do a pretty good cover of the orchestration from the Casino Royale soundtrack.

Hmm.

(Currently listening to:- "96000" from the In the Heights Original Broadway Cast recording)