Video and Binaural Audio

Victor Engel wrote:

On your comment about the 50% of film being audio, I think audio was more important for Star Wars than for any previous film. And it wasn't just the technology in projecting the sound. It was also the layers in the mix of producing the sound. Have you ever watched Star Wars movies without sound? I think probably more than half of the experience is lost without it. Not so much with television, though.

For me, what made the first Star Wars extraordinary was not the "sound" per se or the sound effects but the music. The music for sure was even more effective if the sound system and recording had extended dynamic and frequency range (hi-fi). Stereo and surround were far less innovative than that music and its use for tracking action and characters!

And, yes, before we get another dissertation on the subject from the prolix naysaying poster, there were certainly films with great scores before. But many (most?)  were of limited fidelity and mono and many had just one memorable theme. Lawarence of Arabia's music (to take one example), which was neither, is important in that movie and memorable, but its impact is not like the Star Wars score. Who cannot remember going from silence to the loud overture a few seconds after the start of Star Wars. It was jolting and stunning, and it was important to have a theater system that could play loud and soft and a sound recording that was "hi-fi". Surround sound was far less important, to me (though I enjoy it).