# Disturbing scenes set to cheery music

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-scenes-set-to-cheery-music/186965>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 8, 2003, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-scenes-set-to-cheery-music/186965 "2003-07-08T10:00:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![greenphan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@greenphan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenphan)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-scenes-set-to-cheery-music/186965/41 "2003-07-15T13:18:24Z")

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I think the montage of bad US foreign policy acts set to Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World” takes the cake for me. Even though I’ve seen the movie about 10 times, once the music stops and they show the second plane hitting the WTC, I still get misty-eyed.

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**Author:** ![acrossthesea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@acrossthesea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acrossthesea)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-scenes-set-to-cheery-music/186965/42 "2003-07-15T14:40:27Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by fizzestothetop \*  
> \*\*In the movie Vanilla Sky during the scene where Tom Cruise kills Penelope Cruz/Cameron Diaz while having sex the song “Can We Still Be Friends” plays. While not an entirely happy song it is a bit upbeat for a murder scene. It works though. It makes the scene feel very surreal. \*\*

Another scene in Vanilla Sky has Tom Cruise freaking out and screaming while “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys plays. I thought that was a really unnerving scene.

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**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-scenes-set-to-cheery-music/186965/43 "2003-07-15T16:56:36Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by FriarTed \*  
> \*\*Bing Crosby singing WHITE CHRISTMAS at the end of MOTHER NIGHT \*\*

I saw the movie, but don’t recall that scene. I do recall, though, that in the book Howard W. Campbell (Bolte’s character) has something like 19 copies of that record.

Additional examples:

The bar fight in **Mean Streets** , set to some upbeat Motown girl group.

The napalming in **Good Morning Vietnam** is set (as were a few other examples mentioned here) to Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World.”

This isn’t cheery _music_, but I’m reminded of the family scene in **Natural Born Killers** with Juliette Lewis and Rodney Dangerfield as her foul-mouthed, violent, drunken father, which is shot like a sitcom with cheery graphics and a laugh track.

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