Taylor Swift is blasting during Killers of the Flower Moon showings

Early on in Martin Scorsese’s historical drama The Flower Moon Killers, there’s a quiet moment between Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the woman he will eventually marry, Osage heiress Molly (Lily Gladstone). Scorsese’s dramatic presentation makes it very clear that the romance will end badly, yet the music is mysteriously twinkling. It’s as if the song was the first step in a romantic relationship. After the music, came the lyrics:

The ‘karma Is My Boyfriend
Karma, a deity
The weekend breeze of Karma blows in my hair
Karma’s a relaxing thought
Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?

I was not, in fact, hearing the late, great Robbie Robertson’s score for The Flower Moon Killers — I was getting sound bleed from Taylor Swift’s The Eras TourPlaying next door. The bleeding would not stop. Killers, because while “Karma” marks the end of The Eras Tour’s set list, the film immediately started running again. At 169 minutes long, it’s only 37 minutes shorter than Scorsese’s epic, one of the few currently playing movies that get anywhere near the drama’s 206-minute run time.

By talking to friends and co-workers posts on social mediaAfter collecting observations about theaters’ layouts and times, I realized that I was not alone. The sound power of Taylor Swift Tour: Eras Tour is bleeding into Martin Scorsese’s meditative masterpiece in a number of multiplexes, creating a miasma of cinematic emotion that neither artist could anticipate.

Image via X

It’s annoying. Part of the reason we go to the theater is because it supposedly allows us to experience movies the way the filmmakers intended, optimally presented in a space that’s free of distractions. The Flower Moon KillersThe film wrestles with an horrifying chapter in American history. It’s a quiet and mannered film, perhaps more so than Scorsese fans might expect. Hearing “Blank Space” while the Osage people are getting systematically murdered can feel disrespectful at worst, incongruously funny at best.

The sonic overlap is also quite amusing. Two wildly different reasons to go to the movies are running together, as “Wildest Dreams” is faintly heard over wide-angle shots of the Oklahoma plains. It’s an offline version of the online media environment, where context collapse is normal, and random juxtaposition can yield darkly comedic results.

I didn’t particularly love watching The Flower Moon Killers this way, but I didn’t hate it, either. While pondering a topic I enjoyed, I was able to block out intrusive and unproductive thoughts. There I was, ruminating on the parasitic nature of white entrepreneurs on Native lands, and unbidden, I would think of that one YouTube video where a guy who did a viral Gollum voice covered “I Knew You Were Trouble,” because I heard a few bars of the song leaking in from the theater next to me during a quieter moment. However, because I was raised in a loud home I am able to use muscle memory.

I don’t think anyone should deliberately try to see The Flower Moon KillersIt’s a good idea to do it this way. I don’t believe I got any insight from this aural serendipity that I wouldn’t have gotten had I watched each movie in a more soundproof environment. Someone else might! It could happen! It is important to note that the word “you” means “you”. Dark Side of the Rainbow/One Brick More in WALL-EHere’s some potential. Maybe when both movies are available digitally, someone will make a “Killers of the Taylor Moon” cut. In theaters accidentally? This is not the best.

But I don’t think it’s a reason to stay home. You might also like The Eras Tour, The Flower Moon KillersIt deserves to be shown on the largest screen. It is a minor inconvenience to occasionally hear a song from 1989God forbid ReputationThe tradeoff is well worth it.

Perhaps theater managers who read this piece — feel free to pass it along if you know any — will take this kind of sound-bleed issue into account, and work to make it less of a normal occurrence. Exhibitors, please take Taylor’s words into account: You need to calm down. You’re being too loud.