Anybody who knows me could have guessed that Wes Anderson would show up on this list, probably more than once.
All of Anderson’s films make smart use of music, so I had plenty of options. I knew I wanted Rushmore represented, as I consider that his greatest achievement. But which song?
My second Richard Linklater film in this list, Boyhood uses music both to set the mood and to establish the setting.
Gliding through time, depicting Ellar Coltrane’s metamorphosis from a little boy to a young man, Linklater serves up the hits of the day to anchor us in each moment. Songs do such a good job of transporting us back to specific times in our lives.
I can point to a handful of filmmakers who use music in their movies better than the rest. They’ll all show up on this list, some more than once.
I definitely count the Coen Brothers among that group, though in their case it’s more about how they use sound of all kinds — music, score, ambient effects — to create their worlds. Whether it’s Beethoven on a banjo in Raising Arizona, the orgy of violence set to a soaring ‘Danny Boy’ in Miller’s Crossing or the ghostly echoing of the halls in Barton Fink, the Coens’ films are a feast for both the eyes and ears.
This week and next, I’m counting down the songs I most associate with movies — tracks that immediately put me into a specific scene of a favorite film.
Most of these are songs I’d never heard before encountering them on the big screen, but yesterday’s SOTD and today’s are exceptions.
Movies and music are inexorably intertwined, and the best films almost always feature music in a memorable way. That could be through an original score — think of Star Wars, Jaws or Raiders of the Lost Ark without John Williams — or recorded songs.
Over the next two weeks I’ll count down ten of my favorite uses of songs in the movies. I can’t believe I haven’t done this before through nearly 2,500 Songs of the Day, but that seems to be the case. I have written about some of these songs, and mentioned some of these movies, but never as part of a theme week. In the cases where I’ve featured a song already I will post a live or alternate version. Whenever possible, I will post the movie clips as well.
Meet Me In Montauk 