Exit Music (For A Film)

The other day I watched Blue Valentine and was blown away by the film’s music, which was scored by Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear and also features songs written and performed by lead Ryan Gosling.  

While the film was good, particularly Gosling and Oscar nominated Michelle Williams’ performances it was the music that for me stuck out.  The film itself is a dark and bleak look at the deterioration of a once seemingly prefect relationship.  It genuinely is one of the most depressing and uncomfortable to watch films I’ve seen in some time and part of the reason for that is the music.  Grizzly Bear’s soundtrack does an incredible job of making an already emotional and heartfelt movie feel even more poignant.  The point I’m (poorly) trying to make is how important is a good soundtrack or musical score to the success of a film?  Can the success in terms of how good a film is depend on the choice and placing of certain tracks or pieces of music?  For me the answer is unquestionably yes.

While I can’t pinpoint the first time I noticed a song or a piece of music in a film, I think there is a good chance it was Tarantino related.  The man lives and breathes movies and is obsessed with even the tiniest little detail and for him the role of music in a film is crucial;

“To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence.”

I wholeheartedly agree.  Imagine some of those iconic scenes in his movies without music or a different song choice.  The opening scene to Reservoir Dogs without Little Green Bag, the torture scene without Stuck In The Middle With You.

Or take Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and Uma Thurman’s iconic dancing scene without Chuck Berry, or the OD scene without Urge Overkill.



The success of scenes like these, hinge on the song choice and a perfectionist like Tarantino is always going to get it right.  Even later in his career with the two Kill Bill films while I didn’t think the films themselves were a patch on the aforementioned titles; the soundtracks were again pretty much perfect.

Music makes a film what it is.  I have no idea how much time and effort goes into choosing/finding/recoding a song or piece of music to fit a certain scene and I can imagine it can often be a long and laborious process but it is something that needs to be right.  In so many of my favourite films, the soundtracks are absolutely crucial in complementing what is happening on screen.  This Is England just wouldn’t feel genuine without Dexys Midnight Runners, The Specials, Soft Cell etc.  Imagine some of the truly stunning scenes in Into The Wild without Eddie Vedder's crooning vocals in the background.  Ewan Mcgregor being chased down Princes Street without Lust For Life in the background in Trainspotting – unthinkable.  28 Days Later just wouldn’t be the same film without John Murphy’s tense and atmospheric score.  The sense of loneliness that comes across with the song choices in Lost In Translation is again utterly vital to the film’s success.  I could go on indefinitely but I won’t.

Anyway rant over, I’m away to try to continue to get over the spiral of depression that Blue Valentine has sent me into.