When Filmmakers Go Way Out of the Box With Their Music Choices

 

INSPIREDMUSICFILM

Often times music choices in film are a little predictable or on the nose,  even if it has an emotional impact.   Going outside of the ordinary is always risky creatively, but when it works, it’s absolutely unforgettable.  Here are some of the best examples of choosing outside the box music for films.

9. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head: Spiderman 2

It might seem like something a non-movie fan would say, but it’s really impressive when films dare to repurpose film music for other movies to transform their meaning. When a song has such a close connection to the emotional and narrative impact of the song that film was made specifically for, using that song in another film is daring. “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” was written for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and even then the song felt strangely out of place. But in Spiderman 2, the comedic commentary being made about a superhero turning his back on fighting crime to live his own selfish life (similar to the kind of aimless life Butch and Sundance led) seems ridiculous. And Sam Rami has a flair for getting genuine laughs out of his relatively rare music montages.

8. Hip to Be Square: American Psycho

Almost all the music choices in American Psycho seem to be counter to the narrative and tone of the film by Mary Harron. I particularly laugh when you hear Lady in Red during his interrogation. But the brutal hip to be square scene is hard to beat in terms of pure shock and horror. Even if you know the scene, when Christian Bale’s Bateman takes out the CD and starts his ridiculous monologue about the academic merits of the Huey Lewis, there is a very creepy feeling of dread as he gets more and more excited. Not to mention watching Bale suddenly relax, covered in blood, after feeding his psychopathic need to kill, while the pop song pumps through his expensive speakers.

7. Perfect Day: Trainspotting

Like many of the best directors, Danny Boyle’s understanding of how to use music for maximum effect is key to his filmmaking. And his oddly beautiful use of Lou Reed’s dreamy ballot is at once funny and disturbing. It seems that Ewan McGregor is hearing the song in his heroin overdose twilight, and from his perspective, everything is gentle and slow. But from the audience’s perspective, seeing a man on the brink of death, laying in the middle of the street, while Reed’s song plays like an ironic joke…defining the movie’s black comedy sensibility.

6. Da Doo Run Run: Stripes

It’s almost unfortunate to include this scene in the list because knowing the song gives away the basic joke. But Stripes is pretty well known at this age, it’s pretty early in the film, and be honest, when Harold Ramis broke out into his rendition of “Da Doo Run Run” as a way of teaching English as a second language, he nails the joke. But what makes this song use particularly clever is choosing a song like “Da Doo Run Run,” and teaching his only the chorus, which is basically nonsense in any language. Ramis had a great understanding of how to really use music to get a laugh (he did it again in Ghostbusters 2 and Groundhog’s Day), but the simplicity of his use of music in his screenplay for Stripes (let’s not forget “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”) might be the funniest.

5. Dreamgirls: Longtime Companion

The choice of music in this small movie about the impact of the AIDS epidemic on a group of friends is rarely mentioned, the film’s many unexpected song choices are actually brilliant. The film begins with a somewhat random Blondie song “The Tide is High” when no one is aware of what is yet to come for their group of friend. And it makes perfect sense for their Broadway loving friend, played by Stephen Caffrey, to celebrate moving in with his boyfriend with a little impromptu dancing. After all, he has no idea that his world has just changed completely when his boyfriend comes in with news of a mysterious disease which turns out to be the then unknown AIDS virus.

4. Video Killed the Radio Star: Take This Waltz

There is something deceptively simple when a filmmaker chooses to use the same song multiple times to evoke different emotional beats. When well done, it can bring out an aspect of that song you’ve never heard or thought of. “Video Killed the Radio Star” is a techno-pop hit, but it is also about being passed by and embracing new stages in life. When Sarah Polly shows a budding romance captured on a childish amusement park ride, the song’s joyful spirit comes to mind. But a different aspect of the song, the loss and fear of change, is apparent when Michelle Williams rides all alone at the end of the film.

3. All Out of Love: Animal Kingdom

To be honest, it would be hard for any song to not feel transformed into something truly creepy in this crime film. But there is something especially frightening about watching a psychopath watch Air Supply music videos as he plots revenge on the cops that killed his only friend, especially when starring at an innocent teenage girl, unaware of exactly whose company she’s in. And after seeing what he does to those cops, not to mention that girl, you’ll find yourself asking what could possibly be going through his head during that song…and you know it is very different from what goes through the head of most Air Supply fans. No wonder the song was heavily used in the trailers.

2. You Got The Touch: Boogie Nights

As crazy as Boogie Nights gets, one of the most unexpected moments was Dirt Diggler’s song choice for breaking into the music business. Fitting the absurdist sensibility throughout the film, choosing a song as stupid and childish as the theme from “Transformers” earned big laughs, especially when watching delusional wing-man John C. Reilly dancing away in the sound booth. He’s totally into it and is only feeding Dirt’s completely lack of personal awareness about his actual talents. Not to mention all three pitch perfect performances from Reilly, Wahlberg, and Michael Penn’s hilarious Nick the Engineer, who is less than impressed by Dirt’s vanity project.

1. Singin in the Rain: A Clockwork Orange

Undoubtedly, the most disturbing use of a popular song in the film, Kubrick’s new interpretation of such a beloved song can leave you haunted by the physical violence you’ve just witnessed. But it isn’t simply the choice of song in the film, but what Singin’ in the Rain represented on screen compared what it means to Alex. Singing in the Rain, when sung by Gene Kelly, was a song of pure, unfiltered joy and total disregard for “normalcy” when he sang in the street. And Alex interprets the song the exact same way. It just so happens that his idea of exuberant joy is to dance and sing while destroying a home and raping and brutalizing a couple. No wonder Gene Kelly was angry with Malcolm McDowell for repurposing his iconic song.

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Lesley Coffin is a feature editor for FF2media and has also written the books Lew Ayres: Hollywood Conscientious Objector (2012) and Hitchcock's Stars (2014), and currently writing a third book. Follow on twitter @filmbiographer for thoughts on movies and cat pictures.
Lesley Coffin
Lesley Coffin
Lesley Coffin is a feature editor for FF2media and has also written the books Lew Ayres: Hollywood Conscientious Objector (2012) and Hitchcock's Stars (2014), and currently writing a third book. Follow on twitter @filmbiographer for thoughts on movies and cat pictures.