A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Some of Hollywood's most iconic movies are often the most quotable.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GONE WITH THE WIND")
CLARK GABLE: (As Rhett Butler) Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CASABLANCA")
HUMPHREY BOGART: (As Rick Blaine) I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAR WARS: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK")
JAMES EARL JONES: (As Darth Vader) I am your father.
MARTÍNEZ: But it's hard to remember movie quotes when you can't hear the dialogue. A survey by the language-learning site Preply found that more than half of Americans say they use subtitles often because they say the audio is muddled. Here's NPR's Barry Gordemer.
BARRY GORDEMER, BYLINE: I'll never forget the first movie I saw with hard to hear dialogue. It was the 2014 thriller "Gone Girl." There's a scene where Ben Affleck's character is flirting at a dinner party.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GONE GIRL")
BEN AFFLECK: (As Nick Dunne) I happen to be a charter subscriber to the Middling Warlord Weekly, so I'd recognize you.
GORDEMER: I couldn't understand a word he said, and I started to feel like the two old guys in the "Muppet Show" balcony.
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JIM HENSON: (As Waldorf) Well, I've finally got my hearing aid working.
RICHARD HUNT: (As Statler) Hm? Speak up. My hearing aid's not working.
(LAUGHTER)
KAREN BAKER LANDERS: Believe me, I hate nothing more than when I've spent months on a film doing the sound, and then people say, what did they say?
GORDEMER: Karen Baker Landers is a veteran Hollywood sound editor. She's won two Academy Awards.
LANDERS: One for "The Bourne Ultimatum" and one for "Skyfall."
GORDEMER: She says part of the problem are studios that skimp on sound.
LANDERS: I've worked on a couple movies recently where the production recordist was very inexperienced, was hired because he was cheap.
GORDEMER: Technology plays a role, too. In the olden days, actors had to project so the microphones of the time could pick up their voices.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE WIZARD OF OZ")
MARGARET HAMILTON: (As Miss Gulch) I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too (laughter).
GORDEMER: The Wicked Witch of the West would probably appreciate today's microphones, which are a lot more sensitive, allowing actors to deliver a softer, more nuanced performance. But there's a fine line between nuance and mumbling. Here's Matt Singer, critic and editor of screencrush.com.
MATT SINGER: I just saw "Mickey 17," the new Bong Joon Ho film. The lead actor, Robert Pattinson, I think, does a very good job, but he's doing a voice. (Imitating Mickey Barnes) He talks like this, you know, he's doing a character voice.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICKEY 17")
ROBERT PATTINSON: (As Mickey Barnes) On Earth, nothing was working out, and I wanted to get the hell out of there.
SINGER: It was kind of, you know, like, what did he say?
GORDEMER: Adding to the problem? Directors who create soundtracks that stack layers of sound on layers of ambience and music and sound effects. That can really smother the audio.
SINGER: One director whose name tends to come up when this conversation comes up is Christopher Nolan.
GORDEMER: He directed the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises." It features the super hard to understand supervillain Bane.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE DARK KNIGHT RISES")
TOM HARDY: (As Bane) Like shipwrecked men turning to seawater, I will let them believe that they can survive.
GORDEMER: Nolan has repeatedly defended what he calls impressionistic soundtracks.
SINGER: It's a choice to use dialogue almost as a sound effect.
GORDEMER: Where you watch a movie also makes a difference. If you're at home, chances are you're using a streaming service like Netflix or Disney+. They compress the audio to prevent buffering. But sound engineer Karen Baker Landers says the streamers all use different compression standards, and that can mess with intelligibility.
LANDERS: If you're mixing for a theatrical release, the different streamers take that master session. And what they do with it is something that we need to standardize.
GORDEMER: So for now, a clear solution is nowhere in sight or sound.
Barry Gordemer, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF HANS ZIMMER'S "CORNFIELD CHASE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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