What are some of your favourite musical cues in film? Moments that coincide with the imagery onscreen so perfectly that you get goosebumps just thinking about them?
I'm talking about moments such as 2001's iconic titlecard, the coyote moment in Collateral, the docking sequence in Interstellar, the last scene in Whiplash, and anything in between. Do you have any obscure favourites?
I just got finished watching End of Watch, and although I really liked the chemistry between the characters I felt like the musical cues were pretty weak and didn't mesh well with the movie.
It has several moments like that where the music literally jerks you off while you watch the images on the screen.
Dylan Richardson
I don't know how I forgot about Sunshine, easily one of my favourite sci-fi films. It's a shame that so many different pieces of media have used Adagio in D Minor because it saps some of the enjoyment out of its original use; I remember there was a period of a couple years where a lot of films, tv shows and games were using it and it was ridiculously distracting.
Nicholas Price
I couldn't find it online but I really like the ending scene of Prisoners for its use of music. It's only subtle but the Codex by Radiohead is playing over a radio while the CSI guys are working. I always found it really effective at matching the rest of the film's atmosphere.
I feel like there's a tragic lack of good club-based action scenes in film - they tend to either finish really quickly or the music gets cut completely (see The Raid 2 - I would've loved to see some fight choreography matched up to in-universe music in a similar way to John Wick).
I'm mentioning it again but now that I think of it Collateral had a pretty good club shootout, too.
The way the camera pans above the train station to show the blossoming town in all it's glory with the music swelling up is absolutely perfect.
Anthony Roberts
That oner at the beginning was great, totally agree on the music, I've not seen the movie so I don't know the context of the scene but the score totally feels like the beginning of an adventure.
Eli Harris
Hausu
David Mitchell
It helps that the music was composed before the scene was shot. Also they were playing the music while shooting the scene.
Also go fucking watch it. Top 5 movies all time easily.
Mason Hughes
I'm going to have to check that out, I've not really seen many Westerns (outside of the Dollars trilogy, but I think pretty much everyone has seen those) so it's always good to get recommendations. Knowing that it's directed by Leone has me excited already.
As for , again I've not seen the original but you've reminded me of Django Unchained, specifically the shootout at Candyland youtube.com/watch?v=QbmDpEhAp48 . The way that the music comes so far out of the left field, both in the way that it starts suddenly and the genre of the music itself, had me giddy. Thinking about it, every film I can think of in Tarantino's filmography has a great musical cue at some point.
They're all fun as fuck. Also what the fuck does "still hold up today" even mean? Why do people somehow just "assume" the movies nowadays are "better"?
If you're worrying about the CGI, don't. Just look up Davy Jones in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movie for some incredibly effective CGI.
Yeah I should've worded that better. I was about 9 when the first movie came out so what I should have said is are they as enjoyable now as an adult as they were when you were younger?
As for the CGI it still shocks me how fantastic Davy Jones looks, what kind of supernatural pact did they take to pull that off in 2003!?
Lucas Long
I'll probably always enjoy the shit out of the pirate movies. The cahracter Jack Sparrow is just so much fun to watch. Already looking forward to the new one in 2017.
Kevin Lee
I still find that Fox logo from Alien 3 to be one of the most creative intros to a horror movie that I've ever seen, the way they manage to create tension from something so familiar by simply prolonging a musical note is astounding. Simply fantastic audio design.
Are there any other similar things like that? The only one I can think of is the Columbia Pictures logo being changed on The Grudge 2 and Ralph Wiggum singing the 20th Century Fox theme in The Simpsons Movie.
Kevin Smith
Huh, that's strange. I tried to upload an image of the Grudge logo, found a gif of it anyway.
1 holds up, two is still rubbish, 3 is rubbish 4 is fucking rubbish.
Parker Gray
Alright I rarely get a chance to ask because I'm never around for relevant threads, but having never watched any of the Ring movies in their entirety, where do I start? Do I stick to the original Japanese series or are the American remakes also worth seeing?
How about the Grudge movies?
Should I not bother with either and just jump straight into Sadako vs Kayako seeing as that's probably the purest way to absorb both stories?
Holy shit you're right. I haven't seen alien 3 in a while and don't remember that. It's fucking creepy when you're not expecting it.
I haven't seen the original japanese ones. I've heard they're good off hand but I don't know for sure. The american version is really good. It's genuinely frightening and does a great job keeping you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what this ghost wants from you. And imo, has some of the creepiest imagery in any movie ever.
I'd suggest just watching the first american one. Don't watch the ring 2 it's like 90's campy horror, really fucking bad compared to the first and Rings also looks pretty bad too.
Austin White
nah man, that scene gave me kinetosis. very good music though
Awesome, I'm gonna check out the American one then first, thanks for the heads up about 2 also. I can see where you're coming from about Rings but honestly the trailer intrigued me, especially the shot in the plane where several screens are playing the Ring transmission at once, maybe it's because I'm not aware of the mythos but I think that it'll be interesting to see multiple people being affected by the ghost at once, usually in these types of films you only ever see a single person being hunted. Then again, it looks like the plane is instantly going to crash after the passengers see the video so maybe it'll just be shlock for the sake of spectacle.
The idea of Rings isn't that bad per se but it just comes off as a little late to the party in that we've seen the "x thing infects technology and kills/does evil shit through our computers and omg we're so plugged in all the time XDXD!" And it seems to have lost what made the original so good. Rings strikes me as a desperate attempt to use a recognizable name to make some easy bucks rather than a real intelligent continuation of the story.
Then again, I haven't seen it so I honestly can't say for sure, but the trailer left me very displeased and as I said the premiss seems out of touch.
Matthew Nguyen
Yeah I can see that, it does seem a bit late both in the themes you're talking about and the fact that there hasn't been a Ring film in ages, it seems a bit irrelevant now. If they really wanted some of that hot ghost cash then they should have been waiting to dive into the Paranormal Activity hype, probably would've drawn in the "highbrow" crowd that saw themselves as above the Paranormal Activity franchise. It's just a bit of a weird idea, isn't it? Maybe they'll do a sequel to Pulse if hollywood are trying to reboot old Japanese technology-based horrors
MoS BvS Eraserhead Suspiria AoJJbtCRF All have at least one of these moments
As a side note, I thought the end credit song of The Yellow Sea had this effect amazingly too, the ending song was basically punctuation and felt like it tied the movie together in a bow.
vimeo.com/107246851 one of my favorite movies from the last years and an incredible soundtrack
Jack White
WELL I LIVED WITH A CHILD OF SNOW WHEN I WAS A SOLDIER AND I FOUGHT EVERY MAN FOR HER UNTIL THE NIGHTS WERE COLDER
Ryan Powell
Without a doubt, Sergio Leon's The Trio from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Completely carried the scene, wish more action movies would let music interact like this:
oh and Eyes wide shut for "that" scene, not sure if that'd count though
Camden Clark
if you're looking for more westerns to watch, then the original django is definitely one to add to the list
and as for the scene in the screencap, it's one of my favorite uses of music in a film. but full disclosure i'm a huge sucker for vocal themes, especially the big sweeping kind in those spaghetti westerns. it makes the movie and character (both generally and in that scene specifically) feel sort of mythical, yknow?
Jackson Carter
watch only first american remake. all the rest, even japanese original are shit.
Matthew Clark
Surprised these haven't been posted yet. base Arnold in base Conan the Barbarian.
The Deployment scene from Black Hawk Down. Shit on this movie all you want but this sequence after the Hendrix song is why Ridley and Zimmer should always work together.
This whole scene. The film itself is a very hit and miss movie, it has some great moments, but mostly meh.
Oliver Jones
Leone sure knows how to use music that in lesser hands would be really tacky and out of place. He dedicates 2 min scenes to let the music play out, I miss the days when directors let the music take a frontseat, you dont see that alot anymore.
