Re: Music Movie Moments

I saw Lost In Translation for the first time on video a couple of months ago and thought that Jesus And Mary Chain's Just Like Honey was used to as great an affect as a song can be used in a film. This got me thinking about the movie/music relationship but not in terms of a theme song from a movie that might be played at the beginning or end of a film but one that has a real impact capturing a particular or key moment in a film leaving that movie moment etched in your memory every time you hear that song.

Just Like Honey does that for me now leaving me thinking about Scarlett Johansson as the girl JMC sings about that's taking on half the world in her honey dripping beehive. However, there are few others I can think of off the top of my head.

Needle In The Hay - Royal Tannenbaums
Lunatic Fringe and Change - Vision Quest
Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You - The Deer Hunter
In Your Eyes - Say Anything
Keep On Loving You - Last American Virgin
The End - Apocalypse Now

There's also the stirring Going The Distance score from Rocky but I'm not necessarily talking about scores here. Also maybe Everybody's Talkin' from Midnight Cowboy although I don't know if it captures a particular moment in the film as much as it encapsulates it.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton more.

"Pledging My Love" by Johnny Ace in "Mean Streets" where Harvey Keitel dances with / holds the girl who's just been "attacked" by the returning Vietnam vet whose birthday they are celebrating in the bar.

It speaks as a metaphor to her innocence and America's (lost) innocence in Vietnam and sort of foreshadows the end of the film because you just know something bad is going to happen.

It's brilliant. I still say that's Scorsese's best movie - the one with the most heart. Pop music is used great throughout the whole film - either as a counterpoint to something happening or to underscore the events of a scene.



Post Edited (03-15-06 20:59)

Mats' post reminded me of another memorable movie scene that seems forever tied to a song.

Stuck in The Middle With You - Reservoir Dogs

Trainspotting & Clockwork Orange come to mind for effective/affective music use as well.

Oh, and the Sound Of Music {smiles n' runs}



Post Edited (03-15-06 14:55)

"I'm a Believer" at the end of Blood Simple.

Quentin Tarantino is a master at picking just the right music to go with the scene. Check out the heroin-injecting scene in *Pulp Fiction* and you'll never hear the Tornadoes' "Bustin' Surfboards" the same way again. Or the way he uses Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street" at the end of *Jackie Brown*.

And whenever I hear Tom Petty's "American Girl," I see the girl in *Silence of the Lambs* driving her car, pounding her hands on the steering wheel to the beat.

The Stranglers' "Peaches" at the start of Sexy Beast
The Doors' The End in Apocalypse Now
Born to Be Wild in Easy Rider
Every use of George Thorogood's Bad to the Bone in a hundred films
Ditto the La's' "There She Goes"

"Try a Little Tenderness" at the beginning and "We'll Meet Again" at the end of Dr. Strangelove.

"Danny Boy" in Miller's Crossing.

"Jessie's Girl" in Boogie Nights - actually, all the music in Boogie Nights is well chosen and used.

A song that fits the scene but the execution of it is flawed - Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" in Magnolia, with all the characters pausing in the action to sing along. Would've been great to just have it playing in the background as it panned through the cast of thousands, but having them sing along kind of wrecked it for me. Still one of my favorite movies though. But I really hate that part.

I always get a little choked up when Mr. Holland sings "Beautiful Boy" in Mr. Holland's Opus.

Mad World at the end of Donnie Darko

Goodbye Horses[Q. Lazzarus] & Alone[Colin Newman]~Silence Of The Lambs
Everybody Wants To Rule The World[Tears For Fears] & Falling[Comsat Angels]~Real Genuis
Pissing In A River[Patti Smith]~Times Square
If You Were Here[Thompson Twins]~Sixteen Candles
Face To Face[Siouxsie And The Banshees]~Batman Returns
Ca Plan Por Moi[Plastic Bertrand]~European Vacation

It seemed at one point, from watching the previews & commercials, that "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina & the Waves was used in every kid movie

worst ones::

London Calling became way overused by about 1997. More amazing, music directors are still using it as a placard for "meanwhile, in London..."

"Repo Man" by Iggy Pop in the beginning credits of the same-titled movie

who'll stop the rain in the VERY fine who'll stop the rain

make 'em laugh in Singing in the Rain

i was just writing gary jules in donnie darko and then glanced skyward 2 levels--Nice call mr manager. my best btw to mrs manager

there's a stooges song in that skateboarding movie that combined with the visuals KILLS me

a jazzbo playing Yo Lo's arrangement of andalucia on elec piano as my wife's wedding march; i told that to IK at a bar last summer and he stared at me as if i were sara jane moore. then he smiled.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in triumph of the will: wagner and goebbals--a kind of martin and lewis but funny

that hendrix going to the mountain rave up Voodoo Child (Slight Return) in the name of the father

moonlight mile in moonlight mile

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again

hasil adkins in roadracers?

naaaaaaah

Lloyd Dobler holding the boombox over his head blasting Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" in Say Anything.

i don't remeber the name of the movie, but it was about a teenager who is befriended by a couple and ends up fucking the woman and ruining their lives. The husband teaches in a girl's school and they take the kid to Disney World and end up fighting and the kid stabs the husband and.....well at the end there is a montage of what everyone is doing 6 months on while Clem Snide plays "No One is Happier Than You".........
In Sexy Beast when "G-Spot" plays while Teddy is walking down the street....
The first time we see Johnny Boy in "Mean Streets" walking down the bar in slow motion while "Jumpin' Jacvk Flash" plays.......
The slow motion walk/opening of "Reservoir Dogs" while "Little Green Bag" plays....
The tracking shot of the gang fight in "Who's That Knocking on my Door" while "I've Had It" plays.......
The back track shot of the Veitnamese hooker crossing the street while "These Boots areMade for Walking" in "Full Metal Jacket".....

> ends up fucking the
> woman and ruining their lives.


the story of my life...*sigh*

1.
Van Gogh Boat (dialogue)
2.
Public Image - Public Image Ltd.
3.
It's All Over Now Baby Blue - Van Morrison/Them
4.
Suicide Hotline - Nick Marion Taylor
5.
I'm Not In Love - Toadies
6.
Is That All There Is? - PJ Harvey
7.
White Lines - Grandmaster Flash
8.
Rise - Tripping Daisy
9.
These Days - Joy Division
10.
She Is Dancing - Brian Kelly
11.
Tom Traubert's Blues - Tom Waits
12.
A Small Plot Of Land - David Bowie
13.
Summer In Siam - Pogues
14.
The Last Song I'll Ever Sing - Gavin Friday
15.
Hallelujah - John Cale


From Basquiat soundtrack... A soundtrack that I think is one of the best out

And the Basquiat movie itself features a large chunk of Gorecki's Third Symphony, and there's no topping that.

The Smashing Pumpkins, Pale Saints, Lamb, Tricky, Goldie, Craig Armstrong, William Orbit all list Gorecki's Third Symphony as a influence, nice to learn something new each day...

It's definitely one of the greatest lump in the throat pieces of music ever written. Chokes me up every time I listen to it and is the only piece of classical music that I've bought every recorded version of I could track down just so I could hear the different interpretations.

[www.cdtimes.co.uk]
i can't wait to find out what it could be.

The scene in Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 1 where a guy w/a boombox is playing "Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc. in ancient Rome

DUCK SOUP IS ON NOW. I'm HAVING A MOVIE MOMENT.

i watched it with my kids
it's irrelevant......................
now they stick their heads in the door and say" I'm spying on you"

beats the doodlebops to shit
the wiggles too

That Yardbirds scene in Blow-Up with the dodgy amp.

The Pixies' Where Is My Mind at the End of Fight Club (and the Dust Brothers score for that matter).

I like that Matter Of Degrees soundtrack as well.

Shaun of the Dead is on right now which reminds me of two great music moments from it -

When Shaun and Ed stop to discuss which albums they can use to hurl at zombies and decide on Prince's Batman soundtrack.

Shaun, Ed and Liz attack the zombie in the bar in synchonization to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now"