Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (20th Century Fox, 2003) Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
Master and Commander follows the adventures of Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey as he and his crew pursue a French privateer during the Napoleonic wars. As you might expect, there are several thrilling battle scenes in the movie that provide plenty of impressive demo material.

What is more subtle, but no less impressive, is the way the surround sound mix effectively replicates the sound and atmosphere of a very crowded 19th-century ship of war. Aubrey's ship, HMS Surprise, is crowded with nearly 200 men, living under the most spartan circumstances, encountering weather conditions that would challenge modern ships many times their size. This movie's drama lies in more than just exciting battle sequences, and the sound is mixed accordingly; life aboard ship is pictured with great care, and the sound effects complete the detailed portrayal of 19th-century naval life.

Suggested chapters
Chapter 1 — "HMS Surprise." This chapter introduces us to the world of the ship. As the night watch changes, we follow the camera through the bowels of the ship. Creaking timbers, snoring sailors, and lapping water surround us. The viewer is immersed in the environment where the story will play itself out.

Chapter 14 — "Rounding Cape Horn." The sonic action is intense in this chapter. As the Surprise rounds Cape Horn, she is rocked by a powerful gale. The hiss and shriek of wind and spray envelop the listener, while the dull thud of waves is heard beating against the hull. Through it all, the dialogue remains clear, thanks to a strong center channel mix. Small details important to the story, like the thrum of a line being played out and the click of an hourglass being turned, are given proper weight and emphasis.


Metropolis (Kino Video, 1927/2001) Dolby Digital 5.1
What's a silent film doing on this list? Sound, and especially music was always an important part of a movie's presentation in the silent era. Smaller movie houses used organists to support the action with music and simple sound effects; larger theaters had pit orchestras.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which premiered in 1927, is probably one of the most famous silent films that few people have actually watched. Lang's futuristic dystopia of workers laboring underground for the privileged few living in skyscrapers originally had a 153-minute running time. Shortly after release, Metropolis was drastically edited down, and the story (already somewhat unfocused in the original) became even more confused. Metropolis quickly disappeared from theaters. Nevertheless, Lang's powerful images — the expressionist city of the future, the Art Deco robot, the ranks of browbeaten workers trudging to the elevators — kept the movie alive for cinema aficionados.

Kino Video's meticulous restoration from all surviving sources brings the movie back to its former visual splendor (and most of its length) by digitally cleaning up every frame and running the film at the correct speed. Kino also recorded the original orchestral score of Gottfried Huppertz, written for the Berlin premiere. Huppertz combined the broad gestures of Richard Strauss with the brooding orchestral language of Mahler to create a score that is as massive, symbolic and dramatic as Metropolis itself. Kino's newly recorded 5.1 surround soundtrack gives this music the dramatic weight it needs to support (and sometimes give direction to) the action.

Suggested chapters
Chapter 1 — "Opening Credits and Prelude." The music sets the scene, as well as the sonic space, with decay and reverb consistent with that of an orchestra playing in a large theater. Heroic trumpets herald the dawn as it shines down on Metropolis, giving us our first view of this brave, new world. The music quickly moves to a bustling theme, thickly orchestrated. Playing under a montage of heavy machinery, we feel the constant motion of the industries that support the city.

Chapter 6 — "The Moloch Machine." Freder Frederson (Gustav Fröhlich), pampered son of Metropolis' ruler, witnesses an industrial accident. In his imagination, the multi-story machine becomes the god Moloch, swallowing human sacrifices in its fiery maw. The music punctuates the explosion of the machine, and sounds suitably barbaric as the sacrifices are being marched into the furnace. Freder's world has been turned upside down, and the symphonic fury that swirls around provides the context to make Fröhlich's pantomimes appear operatic and expressive, rather than (to modern eyes) ridiculously melodramatic.

As Freder's view of Moloch changes from machine, to pagan god, to a mixture of the two, so too does Huppertz's score change timbres and moods. Although the scoring varies, the underlying harmonies keep moving towards resolution at the end of the scene, tying all of these visual elements together as a single dramatic gesture.

In conclusion
A good surround soundtrack can add a lot to your enjoyment and understanding of a movie. If you already have a surround sound system, the next time you watch a DVD listen carefully — the amount of subtle sound information you hear might surprise you. If you don't have surround sound, you're missing a significant part of the film's story — no matter what your taste in movies!