Extremely subtle references in film [possible spoilers]

[Kizarvexius]

One of my favorite movies is Topsy-Turvy, which recreates with astounding accuracy the events leading up to the original premiere of The Mikado in 1885. The director, Mike Leigh, used music from the other operas of Gilbert and Sullivan throughout the film, sometimes in ways that very subtly reflect what is happening on screen. The arrangements being used as background music throughout the film are purely instrumental. But IF you know the lyrics, you realize that they make a statement about the action.

First example: a group of cast members are sitting in a restaurant discussing the capture of Khartoum and the death of General Gordon. The music playing is from Patience, and is called “The Soldiers of Our Queen”. The lyrics are, in part:

The soldiers of our Queen are linked in friendly tether
Upon the battle scene they fight the foe together
There every mother’s son prepared to fight and fall is
The enemy of one, the enemy of all is.

Second example: Sullivan’s mistress announces that she has become pregnant and is making “the usual arrangements”. Playing quietly in the background is a song from Iolanthe called “My Lord, A Suppliant at Your Feet”, which includes the line:

Plead for my boy–he dies!

So have any other Dopers noticed similar esoteric references in other films?

[Freiheit]

MTV does this all the time. For example, I was watching one of their reality shows. Somebody was injured, and for about five seconds they played the intro to a song called ‘bandages’. It’s by a band, Hot Hot Heat, that’s really not too well-known. I thought it was cool.