Well, this is the kind of oddity only late night or early morning TV viewers get to discover. It seems this rather weak 1972 Sidney Lumet heist flick not only features a young post-James Bond Sean Connery (sans hairpiece), but also a strangely neurotic sounding synthesized soundtrack by Quincy Jones. I was somewhat taken aback by the abstract severity of those sounds in the context of a feature film, but I continued to watch and listen. I'm sure many others found the score obtrusive, but for a movie whose underlying themes are surveillance, eavesdropping, and paranoia, its atmosphere of early electronic sound seemed just right to me. One must assume the idea of using what may be Moog Modular (first available in 1965) "noise" (filter sweeps, pulses, etc.) as the primary ingredient of a film soundtrack was quite foreign at the time. Move ahead to 2011 and to our technology-laden homes and cities where surveillance is now pervasive, and digital "noise" is not just part of a sound-designer's palette, but is omnipresent. The future is now, and we have every reason to be paranoid. Try being a part-time luddite, and unplug something.
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