Wilhelm: The Man and His Scream (1951 - present)

There was a time when the Wilhelm Scream was a nice touch, but it's become so overused that it pulls me out of a film.

I have always felt since finding out about this several years ago how fortuitous it was that in a movie named "The Charge at Feather River" they named one of the characters "Wilhelm." I mean, really, what are the odds in a western of having a character named "Wilhelm?" Had they gone the routine route and named him "Buck" or "Gabby" or "Dusty" or something like that it just wouldn't have been the same. The "Buck Scream." Nah, just doesn't work. But the "Wilhelm Scream." Now that's got a ring to it.

Jonathan

See, now this is what YouTube is good for. But boy, Spielberg and Lucas love that scream, don't they?

Is anyone else just a little tired of hearing that thing? Like, it was funny the first 80 times. Now when some sound designer thinks they're being funny, they're just taking me out of the action. I call a truce.

I'm grateful for Mr. Ebert to have acknowledged my site... Wilhelm's been getting a lot of attention. Thanks for spreading the word!

It sounded like a dinosaur did the Wilhelm in "Kong", and a goat at the tail end of the final animated clip...but my favorite is the "Batman Returns" scream.

I think though this will probably ruin a lot of movies for me.

Yeah: the movie moment that The Scream really ruins for me is in _The Wild Bunch_ (the unlucky soldier who shoots at the dynamite-rigged wagon does a Wilhelm when he's executed). God knows why they used it there, though maybe it wasn't such a corny in-joke in 1968.

Thanks for the "masterful film-history montage" comment... made me blush a little. Seriously, since someone was nice enough to Digg this for me, my hit count has gone through the roof!