Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Moving Pictures / Whatevs What's the Score? A Question on Movie Soundtracks
Posted by Sean Maloney on Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:20 PM
The only thing that stopped me from having a nerd-eurysm was the music. The re-records actually sounded more faithful than one would expect. Obviously, the songs don't have quite the same zing, but that comes with the territory. Most of the originals were cut in mono analog so you're going to lose a bit of life when you split it into 96 tracks of self-fellating digital wonderment, but the engineers did a good job of getting the tones as close to the source material as possible and the vocalists and musicians were pretty spot-on. Basically, the music saved the movie (which you could have guessed, I'm sure).
On the other hand, there's Knowing, the new Nicholas Cage movie, which was pushed from poorly-acted tripe to hilariously awful piece of shit by its ill-timed and overwrought score. Nothing makes Nick Cage's doe-eyed grimace more guffaw-inducing than a misplaced string stab, and Knowing--well, Knowing knows a lot about misplaced string stabs. It's a really awful movie and I think you should see it in the theaters, just to get the full effect.
This all got me thinking: How many movies are either saved or screwed by their soundtrack? The only thing good about the Joy Division movie, Control, was the Joy Division songs and What We Do Is Secret was only worth watching if you're the kind of person that memorizes stage banter from old punk bootlegs and aren't into things like acting and plot. Then again, I think that Jason Statham's ouevre would be closer to required watching if they just held off on the damned techno-metal bullshit. Or there's a movie like The Apple which is indescribably brilliant and moronic at the same time and the soundtrack totally shares the blame. Or S.F.W., which is worth watchin' just for the "mid-'90s memory lane" soundtrack--this list could go on.
So now I turn it over to you guys, which movies were saved/screwed by the soundtrack?
*All would be forgiven if, say, somebody made a Bo Diddley movie starring the awesome Kenan Thompson--picture him in plaid and tell me it wouldn't rule.
Comments (15)
Showing 1-15 of 15
Absolutely the most inane article I've read in a long time. What We Do Is Secret and Control are EASILY two of the best movies to come out last year. Both are beautifully acted. This writer is a fool. I encourage all readers to see both of these movies!
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Not to bring up The Watchmen again, but I'm going to bring up The Watchmen again.
When I first saw the trailers, I was a little concerned about the soundtrack, because the teaser and theatrical trailers featured Muse and (I'm pretty sure) that Pumpkins song from the Clooney Batman. But the director actually did a great job with placement of songs. Sure, Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel are somewhat predictable when plunging the viewer into the turmoil of the '60s, but that doesn't mean they aren't awesome and ideal mood-setters. Definitely helped the film in my eyes.
@Jason: Did you really think the What We Do IS Secret was good? I mean, I really loved it - cuz I love anything to do with the Germs - but in no way was it a good movie.
Young Einstein - saved by the soundtrack
Fantastic Planet - saved
Drum Line - saved (a marching band in 5.1 will do it for me any day)
Crossroads - saved by Satriani
Judgment Night - saved
Karate Kid 2 - saved by Cetera
It's actually kinda hard to think of one that was screwed...Some Kind of Monster?
Permanent Record-- the Joe Strummer songs on the soundtrack are WAY better than his 'Earthquake Weather' album. I never bothered seeing the movie though.
24 hour party people -- i remember it not being so great to watch but saved by the soundtrack. but maybe i need to watch it again.
also Margot at the Wedding SUCKED!
but an incredible soundtrack. Noah gets a 8.9/10.
I thought Control sucked. Music was good. I felt no connection with the story or characters. And WTF is up with it being in black and white? I felt like they only shot it in black and white so people would think it was good. Kind of like Orbison's Black and White Nights (or whatever it was called). Digital black and white sucks.
I have to agree with RIMBoy on the b&w tip. Putting something in digital black and white seems to defeat the purpose. Makes everything look like an art school film.
speaking of Nick Cage... Valley Girl, while no means what you'd call "good", but is nonetheless one of my all time faves in no small part due to a soundtrack that introduced me Sparks, Josie Cotton, and the Plimsouls.
margot at the wedding introduced me to evie sands and dean wareham but also included from solid tracks from the dbs, X, Dino jr and Blondie.
'Control' was shot on film not digital. It was shot on color 35mm stock but it was lit and art directed to work for greyscale and then printed black and white. Anton Corbijn chose to shoot on color stock so as not to deal with obtrusive silver grain. All still photographs of Joy Division are monochrome (including everything Corbijn shot of them when he was starting out as a photographer). So it seems appropriate he shot the movie that way.
Adventureland jumps up about a star for Big Star's "I'm in Love with a Girl" alone.
Some great music cues:
Sid Vicious' "My Way" over the closing credits of GoodFellas
Robert De Niro's slo-mo intro to "Jumpin' Jack Flash" in Mean Streets (really, just pick a Scorsese movie)
Billy Mitchell slicking his hair back to Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" in The King of Kong
Gwyneth Paltrow getting off the bus in slow motion to Nico's "These Days" in The Royal Tenenbaums
-@soundtrackfan: garden state has to at least come close
-call me an ass, but i've always thought 'the untouchables' soundtrack was a bit overwrought
-watch 'tears of the black tiger' and tell me the music wasn't as entertaining as the film
-'no country for old men' didn't have an ounce of music (other than the mariachi scene).. i think that absence set the tone just as perfectly as the best movie/music combo ever could hope for.
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