It’s one of the nastiest tricks a director can pull. A tune that’s light, frothy and hummable, a tune that we find ourselves nodding along to, plays in the background while really horrible things go on onscreen. How many films have done this effectively?
A Clockwork Orange
Alex singing ‘Singing in the Rain’, with one of his droogs as chorus, while he kicks in the author’s ribs and prepares to rape his wife.
Reservoir Dogs
Mr Blonde torturing the cop, cutting off his ear and then dowsing him in oil, in between dancing to ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’.
Richard III
The Ian McKellan adaption. As the credits roll, Richard’s body falls into the smoke and flames below and Al Jolson’s ‘Sitting on Top of the World’ plays.
Blue Velvet
Frank beats Jeffrey up while listening to and mouthing the words to Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams’.
While searching for his runaway daughter who was thought to have fallen in with a rough porn crowd, George C. Scott watches a snuff film to the tune of Doris Day singing, “Que Sera, Sera” in the movie, “Hardcore.”
One of the more memorable bits in John Woo’s “Face Off” was a shoot-em-up setpiece proceeding in slow-motion to the crooning of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Another from A Clockwork Orange, but to me even more disturbing than the “Singing in the Rain” sequence, is the gang fight between Alex and Billy Boy and their respective droogs. Set to Rossini’s overture to “The Thieving Magpie,” it is one scene after another of horrific violence, brilliantly choreographed. I can listen to “Singing in the Rain” without conjuring up images of Alex (same with Beethoven’s 9th), but whenever I hear “The Thieving Magpie,” that fight is burned into my consciousness.
Another vote for Metropolis. As soon as I saw the thread, I immediately thought of that scene. Of course, then the boards lagged, and widdershins beat me to the punch.
Not exactly in tune with the OP, but close: I also love the shot in Julie Taymor’s Titus with the meat pies cooling on the windowsill and cheery Italian music playing in the background…
There was a war film many years ago (Execution of Private Slovak?) that played “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, as they marched the poor slob out in front of a firing squad. Or do I have this all screwed up?
I suppose you could catagorize the end of Layla (the piano part) as cheery. In Goodfellas, after Jimmy eliminated the ancillary players in the Lufthansa heist, that music was used underneath the gruesome discoveries of the dead bodies. Struck me as an interesting contrast.
In Good Morning Vietnam that Armstrong song is played to shots of the Vietnam War. Bombs in rice paddie fields, buildings blowing up, young soldiers in the jungle, etc. That scene made me cry the first time I saw it.
Speaking of the Vietnam War----the theme song to “The Mickey Mouse Club” near the end of Full Metal Jacket.
Actually, it was “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland. When I saw the movie, it was the first time I’d ever heard the song and it ruined it for me for years.
Opening fight scene in Gangs of New York. It’s Civil War era and the music is some kind of trashy 90’s rock. It upset the cosmic balance of the movie. The rest of the movie was junk. The end had the same kind of rock-n-roll music along with different camera angles on the GONY title on the screen.
Babylon 5’s And The Rock Cried Out ‘No Hiding Place’ had a guy getting torn apart by Narns set to joyous gospel song of the same name.
Overated but still good anime Neon Genisis Evangelon used Ode to Joy over a succession of moderatly horrible things. It was really cool the first time, but soon lead to a loud questionioning of weither or not any other classical music was available.
The anime version of Sanctuary had a couple of beatings over jazzy nightclub-style songs, though I can’t remember which songs.
The ‘bad even by MST3K standards’ Devil Fish had a woman’s corpse being found to soft-core porn music, though I think that was an editing mistake, not intentional irony.
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‘If my life has a soundtrack, the music would swell . . .’
The end of Dr. Strangelove: We nuclear mushroom clouds obliterating the habitations of the earth while “We’ll Meet Again” plays on the soundtrack. Obviously this refers to the national leaders’ resolution to hide out in mineshafts and resume the war after the radioactive dust settles.
