Coil(Christ Peterson and some other guy) remixed that version of Closer.
Whoever said “in Dreams”-Roy Orbinson used in Blue Velvet, i’d have to agree, an amazing scene and fitted the overall mood of the movie to a tee. I sometimes just watch those chilling 10 mins just to be struck by the duality of it again and again.
Oh, and another film that hasn’t been mentions yet is A Clockwork Orange, the entire score is fantastic and fits the movie in a most perfet way, but i’d guess the centerpiece would be “the 9th” symphony.
Welcome to the board, GG.
I’ll agree with you on that one. This was the best of Jarre’s collaborations with director David Lean; they just fit the scenes & music together perfectly. Dr. Zhivago and A Passage to India are the other ones that Jarre won Oscars for the score. There was a concert aired on PBS a few years ago which featured Lean/Jarre.
And I can’t fault you since you were just a little tyke, but in the interests of accuracy his name is Maurice Jarre, not Michel.
As for other music – Ennio Morricone’s music for The Mission was excellent, especially the scene with the processional that ends in tragedy.
Patrick Doyle’s score to the Kenneth Branagh-directed Henry V is just awesome, especially in the battle scenes. According to Simon Rattle, the Birmingham Symphony had tears in their eyes just playing it.
I can’t recall the name of the performer, but the yodeling in Raising Arizona is unforgettable.
I also agree with Pismonque. The music in ‘O Brother where Art thou?’ was amazing. Most of it is available on Napster. I would suggest seeing the movie first. I just listened to ‘Down to the River to Pray’…
Zoggie, I don’t want to talk about it. If you don’t remember the song, you must have blocked it out.
Coldfire, that wasn’t Warren Zevon. WZ did record the song “Werewolves of London”, but the song was nowhere in American Werewolf, and neither is his voice.
OK, so it used not one, but three versions. I only recalled the version during the closing credits, which struck me as hilariously absurd. I know it’s not Sam Cooke’s voice, so it’s either one of the other two options. Both of whom are unknown to me.
Gonna go out on a limb here and say that while I think that Celine Dion’s song was tremendously overplayed (“You’re dead, but I still love you,” what a great idea for a wedding song, not!), there was, IMO, some lovely and haunting use of music in Titanic. I’m thinking of the scenes depicting various people throughout the ship as it’s sinking. I think it might be a variant on the “My Heart Will Go On” tune, but it’s not Celine; I saw a “making of” special a long while back and they were interviewing the singer (sorry, no cite, don’t even know where I saw it… probably the E! Network). It’s just a wordless voice laid over the music and I think the sense of sadness and loss is captured very well, particularly in one scene where you see a room filled with water, and a young woman in a nightgown is floating, obviously drowned.
People have laughed at me for saying this before, btw
I was watching Bambi yesterday (hey - no sneering - its’ one of the few moview where the child characters act like real kids, not borsch belt comedians). Right before the owl gives his “twitterpated” speech there’s a part where the waltz theme goes pizzicato and then the cellos deepen the theme that is just perfect.
Another effective musical moment is over the opening credits of To Kill a Mockingbird, where the treasured little pieces of junk take up the entire screen while Elmer Bernstein’s music sets the tone for the film. (don’t get me wrong- I’m still meanhearted enough to speculate that Boo Radley grew up to become Karls father in Slingblade).
John William’s trumpet dirge from Born on the Fourth of July. As mournful as “Taps” or “Last Post”, but more elegant.
Jerry Goldsmith’s theme from Patton. General Patton was in many ways an anachronism, and Goldsmith’s fife-and-drum song captures the strangeness beautifully.
On a lighter note, The Lost Boys makes good use of the Doors’ “People Are Strange” to underscore the whole teen-angst mood.
And on a really light note, the best part of Conan the Barbarian was the score by Basil Poledouris. The soundtrack is much better than the movie.
My all-time favorite is Holst’s The Planets during John Glenn’s first orbit in The Right Stuff… I think I’ll pop it in right now!
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My dad’s from Matewan, WV. He knew many of the people on whom the movie was based, including the family of Sid Hatfield, the sheriff who stood up to the coal company thugs when they tried to evict the miners from their houses (Hatfield was later killed in broad daylight, on the steps of a county courthouse, and the murderers were never apprehended. His murder touched off the largest insurrection in the U.S. since the Civil War.) My grandfather carried a pistol to work every day in the coal mines (he was anti-union and was frequently threatened by UMW members.)
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Any scene in the Transformers movie. Optimus Prime’s death scene (still almost cry over that…how could they kill him?!), the ending when Rodimus opens the Matrix and “You got the touch!” starts playing…It’s all good.
19 and still watching cartoons…I’m so pathetic, heheh.
“Somewhere over the Rainbow” played during the gunfight scene in Face/Off…so innappropriate but wierdly mesmerising of the soft vocal and violence.
In similar Nick Cage, a ok movie Gone in 60 Seconds
when just before they start to go out to perform the heist, Memphis asks that “Low Rider” be played. As the song is played, the young thieves looks slightly perplexed but you can see the Old School Veterens using it like a Mantra. Strikes me personally, cause I used to do the same thing with the song before I started working on my old project car.
Desperado
When they introduce Navajas, the throwing blade killer, played by the menacing Danny Trajeo, they always play “Pass the Hatchet” by Roger and the Gypsies. The song, with a cool old school beat just perfectly enshrouds the killer and I forever will associate Danny in any of his movies with him slow walking to it. Also in the same movie at the beginning, “Canción Del Mariachi” performed by Antonio Bandares and Los Lobos, marks the first time I found Mariachi music to be ultra cool and casts the character well.
Six-String Samurai definitely has one of the best use of music in a movie. In the fight scenes, the music goes along with the hacking and slashing of the main character. It’s almost hypnotic.
I bet I’m gonna get picked on for being so prosaic, but I thought the soundtrack for Almost Famous was absolutely perfect. The “Tiny Dancer” scene almost moved me to tears. Cameron Crowe was inspired in his choice of background songs.
As an aside, I just saw Midnight Cowboy for the first time, and if I never hear “Everbody’s Talkin’” again it will be too soon.
God yes, another vote for Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? The movie comes this close to being a musical, the songs and music are so prevelant. Excellent musical score.
Batman was a better movie for the soundtrack.
The scene I remember from An american Werewolf In London is the transformation scene, while Bad Moon Rising is playing. It’s so appropriate.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Star Wars both have classic scores.
Conan the Barbarian might just be the best example of a soundtrack that seamlessly integrates into a movie. The music is incredible in its own right, but the way it perfectly compliments the action on the screen…if I was gonna fight for my life with a sword against hordes of armed horsemen, I’d want a Basil Poledouris soundtrack to help me along.
Just about any movie that Basil Poledouris scores comes out 10 times better for it - Conan, The Hunt for Red October, Starship Troopers (the Klendathu landing music), Robocop (one of the best “superhero” theme songs ever), I could easily go on and on.
The Mutara Nebula fight scene in Star Trek II is great. James Horner’s score builds tension and paces the action on the screen perfectly. He also did good work on BRAVEHEART - particularly the Battle of Stirling scene.
Danny Elfman does great work, but I mostly remember his music for the music itself, not for its use in the movie. Maybe he hasn’t worked with the right director to take advantage of the effect his music can have.
“The Fifth Element” is great at choreographing the music with three different scenes switching in sequence to the proper climaxes. The director and his teem did a fantastic job at this.
“A Walk In The Clouds” was very entrancing. The dance during the frost was like watching the butterfly it was meant to portray. This is one movie I can watch anytime, and I hate romantic flicks. I have to take a very cold shower about now.
I think that the best music and visual combination was in the The Matrix. Every action scene in it had a perfect track to accompany it. My favorite part was at the end when Neo is standing on a crowded sidewalk and the camera is spinning around him accompanied by Wake Up by Rage Against The Machine. Then he flys upward into the camera above the city just before the credits come up right as the song hits the exciting part. Awesome.
