> Does anyone else have any particular favorite silent scenes in movies? Why? What is it that makes silence so effective?

Okay, I can't believe nobody's nominated the end to the pre-credits ski chase from The Spy Who Loved Me. We all know how it goes. Bond skiing down the mountain and he's running out of mountain and what's he going to do and the James Bond Theme going and he's got to do something when the big musical sting comes in and then it doesn't come and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEE HE FELL OFF THE END and it all goes silent and the stuntman just goes down and down and down and he's got to be dead this time and it's only precredits and WHUMPHOOOOOOOOOOW the parachute comes out and the music blasts back in and YAY!

But for those moments when it all goes quiet...I suppose in most films, and in the 007 films in particular, you expect the bits where Bond is being all heroic and good and getting away with whatever to be scored, and then it just all vanishes and the illusion and the suspension of disbelief and the knowledge that He's Getting Away (again) is just GONE in the silence. As someone already said, there's nothing to tell you what to think, ergo: this is unfamiliar: natural instinct: panic. We expect things to be scored for us to just guide our emotions in the right direction. Silence is unfamiliar (especially during action scenes) and we're naturally scared of the unusual.

Non-Bond uses of silence? The Blair Witch Project did a nice job of terrifying the pants off audiences everywhere with nary a hint of music, just the empathy with characters who are obviously having the pants terrified off themselves, too.

One last thing. When we have whatever background noise: music, birds, anything, it helps give us a benchmark for the passage of time. Silence can draw out a scene and slow the passing of time, especially when combined with characters in frozen positions, or in dire peril, because there's absolutely nothing with which to estimate how long this has all been going on.

Zarn"whee, look, I can make long posts too!"iwoop