Something about Mary and the perfect movie theme

[Fritz]

Yesterday I was bubbling over about Johnny Cash. Today it is Jonathan Richman.

Yesterday I picked up the Something (more) About Mary DVD. Wathing the film I was reminded how good a fit Richmann's work was for the movie and have decided that "Something About Mary" is perhaps the most perfect movie theme song.

For those of you who pay attention to this sort of thing, what do you consdier the most fitting soundtrack (as opposed the soundtracks with the best music). What do you consider the most fitting song in a movie?

[Craptacular]

How about "Low Rider" in "Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke"?

[Marmel]

Great topic Fritz.

The first thing that comes to mind is:

"Where Is My Mind?" by The Pixies at the very very end of Fight Club.

[Fritz]

answering my own post...

Not the strongest movie ever, but the song selection and placement in the Replacements is well done. Unfortunately, the soundtrack that was released is not good at all.

[condors]

the movie excaliber

the music in that movie added so much to the scenes that without it the movie doesn't seem right, that clasical music during the battle scenes espcially

(not exactly what your asking for but i tried to think about soundtracks i don't really know any)

[cuervo72]

The Natural.

[Barkeep49]

Requim for a Dream was a movie I don't really care for at all, but its soundtrack was simply brilliant for what it was. The way the theme changed over the course of the year was superbly done music I thought.

[Ksyrup]

I've always thought that That Thing You Do was a perfect song for what was intended for the movie. That song sounds like it could have been a real song by one of those "one hit wonder" bands from the mid-60's that was forgotten long ago but revived for the movie. They couldn't have gotten a better "fictional" song than that for the movie.

[Fritz]

My favorite soundtrack front to back is probably Enrio Morricone's score to "The Mission."

[digamma]

The music in True Romance is wonderfully done.

For a pure cheese factor, how can you beat the Rocky series cd?

[thesloppy]

I likey:

'The End' Apocalypse Now
'Monkey Man' Goodfellas
'Also Sprach Zarathustra' 2001
and the entire Ennio Morricone score from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[Easy Mac]

I think the best use of "normal" music in a movie was Donnie Darko.

Watching the school scene with "Head Over Heels" playing was spectacular. "Mad World" playing over the end made the sadness of the situation even more powerful. The songs helped to explain what was going on in the movie. Plus, its fun to listen to cheesy 80's music, but it actually set the mood.

[Anrhydeddu]

Just repeating, apparently.

Excalibur (Wagner et al) - by the way, you can order the soundtrack http://dandalf.com/dandalf/excalibursound.html

Fistfull of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More/Good, Bad and Ugly (Morricone)

[andy m]

the opening theme from the Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 is my suggestion. found the vinyl on ebay not too long ago. great tune.

[Maple Leafs]

I thought Trent Reznor did a very nice job with the Natural Born Killers soundstrack.

[Bee]

Unusual but I think works well is the soundtrack to "A Knight's Tale".

[Radii]

The use of Layla in Goodfellas was excellent. And it is corny as hell, but Eye of the Tiger during Rocky (whichever) is great :)

[Killebrew]

"Where Did My Little Girl Go (Father Of The Bride 2 Theme)" by Julio iglesias

[Franklinnoble]

The instrumental music that was the theme to "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" was pretty good... it's been ripped off for about 50% of all Hollywood movie trailers since it came out...

[Ksyrup]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Vanilla Ice's song for that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie!

[Easy Mac]

Ninja, Ninja Rap.

Go Ninja go Ninja go

[korme]

Originally posted by Barkeep49
Requim for a Dream was a movie I don't really care for at all, but its soundtrack was simply brilliant for what it was. The way the theme changed over the course of the year was superbly done music I thought.

agreed

[Buzzbee]

Chariots of Fire comes to mind. You CAN'T hear the theme without thinking of some guy running in slow motion. Of course the same could be said during football games for Duke's fight song. Does Duke even HAVE a fight song?

[cartman]

Hmm, most perfect, I think was the theme song from Deep Throat, which I believe was the first porno with it's own soundtrack. C'mon everyone, sing along:

Deep throat,
Deeper than deep your throat
Deep throat
Don't row your boat
Don't get your goat
That's all she wrote
Deep throat

[Buzzbee]

Dola - Thinking about movie music, there are certain tunes that you just associate with certain movies, or certain parts of movies. Some of the more famous would be the Jaws theme, the Indiana Jones theme, Darth Vaders "theme" music from Star Wars.

Are these examples of "perfect" theme music, or just memorable tunes that we heard over and over from successful movies?

[MJ4H]

No coincidence all of those on that list are by the same composer. Im a soundtrack buff, by the way, but not pop music soundtracks. So this thread is almost my area, but not quite. Though if we start down the John Williams path, it will be.

[Anrhydeddu]

The last half dozen or so soundtracks that I've heard from John William have been awful, imo. It just seems that there is no originality anymore and he is using the same strains over and over. Methinks he has become an assembly-line composer.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
The last half dozen or so soundtracks that I've heard from John William have been awful, imo. It just seems that there is no originality anymore and he is using the same strains over and over. Methinks he has become an assembly-line composer.

I have never been overly fond of his work and think he borrows heavily from other composers. I can never listen to Star Wars without thinking of Holst.

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by cartman
Hmm, most perfect, I think was the theme song from Deep Throat, which I believe was the first porno with it's own soundtrack. C'mon everyone, sing along:

Deep throat,
Deeper than deep your throat
Deep throat
Don't row your boat
Don't get your goat
That's all she wrote
Deep throat

That reminds me of another classic - the song from Takin' It All Off (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0094101)

Takin' it off....takin' it all off - takin' it off....

[Buzzbee]

Originally posted by Fritz
I have never been overly fond of his work and think he borrows heavily from other composers. I can never listen to Star Wars without thinking of Holst.

I agree that Williams does borrow heavily. I also agree that his latest stuff hasn't been on par with earlier work. Perhaps, and this is pure speculation with nothing to back it up, he is trying to become more original and as a result, isn't as good.

And back to my question. Do these snippets, or themes fit perfectly, or close to perfectly with the movie, or is it just that we've heard them over and over and associate them with a good movie?

[MJ4H]

Yes Williams lifted a few tidbits from Holst. Most film composers do. But he has a MUCH higher ratio of original work to borrowed ideas than some would make him out to have. That said, there are better film composers than John Williams. Bernard Hermann will always be the one I credit with the most talent, but it's just my opinion of course. Williams scores are getting a bit run-of-the-mill lately, but still better than most people working today.

Check out the opening to Journey to the Center of the Earth sometime by Bernard Hermann. See if you can guess what modern (relatively) movie almost directly lifted from that one. It's quite a well known theme, too. Answer: Batman. It happens all the time. Elfmann is on record acknowledging it as a "tribute." Williams acknowledges the Holst references, too. It's common practice in the industry.

Film composers are routinely the last ones to get to work on a film. They are given just a few weeks to compose, time, perform, record, edit, etc. usually 2 (sometimes more) hours of music for a film. I'm actually doing this as we speak on a local project (or about to, more accurately). Trust me when I tell you the time crunch is real. Furthermore, most directors will have an idea of what they want the music to sound like already, and will usually already have what's called a "temp track" worked up. This consists of already existing music that is edited in to the film. The director uses this to show the composer what type of music he wants composed for each scene. A famous example of this is the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Oddysey. Alex North composed a complete soundtrack for this movie and Kubrick rejected it and went with the "temp track" for the final product. If you listen to the North score, you can see that he was trying to mimic the temp track music with his compositions, and was pretty successful (though Im not a fan of North).

[bamcgee]

Lots of good ones here. I would also add that The Sopranos uses music to great effect. The one that sticks with me is after a bloody finale when Annie Lennox's "hey, hey, the bad things gone away... everybody's happy now, the good things here to stay...."

[Bad-example]

Vacation had a great theme song, done by Lindsey Buckingham.

[cartman]

Originally posted by Bad-example
Vacation had a great theme song, done by Lindsey Buckingham.

Thanks Bad-example,

Now, in my nightmares tonight, all I'm going to hear is:

"holiday roe
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
Holiday roe
oh
oh
oh
oh
oh
oad...."

[Chief Rum]

Some others:

"Heat" seemed to mix in mood-enhacing music very well to me, particularly in the final scenes.

"Fletch", I thought, was very well done with music. It's very 80s, but when you think about it, the music is constantly there, and it really paints what Chase is doing at any given moment.

"Platoon" uses a lot of great references to 60s music in good ways, I think, although it's use of it's main classical score at a number of times--particularly Willem Dafoe's tragic death scene--is the real winner. That deep tragedy of that scene is magnified by the powerful and moving music.

"Once Upon A Time In The West"--I don't know how to describe it if you haven't seen it. I think it's done by the same guy that did the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The music is hauntingly beautiful and yet bleak and despairing as well. The whole movie is a more thoughtful spaghetti Western with lots of panoramic shots of an arid wasteland in the southwest U.S.--the music fits the mood and the setting perfectly, and it's even catchy.

"2001: A Space Oddyssey"-- we have all heard this song I am sure, and I believe it is the only actual song in the movie, but I think it's exultation style is a perfect complement to the rise of man to sentience and self-awareness.

Chief Rum

[RPI-Fan]

Office Space. The music fits perfectly with Pete's attitude after his hypnosis.

[Anrhydeddu]

CR, yes, Morricone did "Once Upon A Time..." as well. I wished I liked that movie better.

To clarify something on John Williams. I meant that recently, he is just retreading his own works, thus making it harder to differentiate one of his soundtrack from another of his.

As far as ending songs, I think many of them have no place in the movie, even at the end credits. You have a symphonic soundtrack and then all of a sudden, it's like someone switched on a FM radio station. But with that, I thought John Melloncamp's Yours Forever was absolutely perfect for the ending of Perfect Storm.

[ColtCrazy]

Fletch is a good soundtrack for that type of 80s film.

I liked the soundtracks from Eastwood's Spaghetti westerns. They fit with the action and actual add to some of the tension at times. Especially the one with the watch music (Fist full of Dollars or a Few Dollars more....never could keep them apart)

The early Bond movies use the Bond theme well as well during chase scenes, fights, etc.

[Chief Rum]

Yeah, it's too bad you don't like the film so much, Anhrydeddu. It's not a quick shoot-'em-up Western like most, but much more an a slow-moving introspective film. Combining that with the mood-setting music and the dusty landscapes (and a three-hour running time), and you get a lot of dead time and some strange twist plots to keep it going.

But the music is enough to keep you there, and the characters are well-played and intriguing. It's a perfect role for Charles Bronson--he doesn't talk much, but he has the perfect look for it. Henry Fonda as a bad guy (and a really bad guy, too)? That's friggin' cool. :) And Jason Robards is awesome as Cheyenne, too.

Gotta love the ending shootout with the harmonica and flashbacks. Ohwell...to each their own. I think it's one of the best Wetserns ever made myself.

Chief Rum

[Anrhydeddu]

CR, unlike the Eastwood trilogy (which was near perfect, imo), I just found "Once..." way too confusing to know who the good or bad guys were. But wouldn't you say that this movie was just a popularized copycat version of Eastwood's Italian made ones?

[SplitPersonality1]

Lots of good ones listed guys. I had forgotten about some of them. MattJones4Heisman, good points on Williams/Holst.


"To Live and Die in LA" has a great soundtrack that fits the movie perfectly; despite the fact that it was done entirely by..."Wang Chung". It was one of the few soundtracks that I picked up within days of seeing the movie.

Too bad the band is best known for the horrible "Everybody, Wang Chung Tonight" song.

[Scholes]

Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are both outstanding, and the funny thing is that Wes Anderson picks the soundtracks before the movie, and then fits the movie around them.

[Chief Rum]

Yeah, the confusing part was what I was talking about when I was referring to the weird plot twists. This move gets by on mood and pinache and great acting, not story. :)

It was a copycat in a lot of ways, but you have to remember this is how this guy did Westerns. He used the same props and filming and sound mixing and even liked to use the same actors a lot. It gave a lot of his films a distinctive feel (thus, birthing the term "spaghetti Western").

So I try to get past the "feel" similarities to what is going on beyond it. Eastwood is brilliant in his roles in the trilogy, of course, as are his supporting characters, but they offer up a different kind of element than "Once Upon A Time...". I think the latter was the director's attempt at something deeper than a shoot-'em-up. In some ways, he succeeded, in others he did not. He was probably better served to stick with straight Westerns. But I liked what he put out when he made the effort to do a more introspective film.

Plus, even 35 years later, that Italian chick is hot. :)

Chief Rum

[KWhit]

I think my favorite symphonic soundtrack has to be Patrick Doyle's score to Henry 5 (Kenneth Branagh version).

The melody during Henry's Crispin Day speech is just amazing, especially the way it is immediately followed with a fierce, medieval battle march.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by KWhit
I think my favorite symphonic soundtrack has to be Patrick Doyle's score to Henry 5 (Kenneth Branagh version).

The melody during Henry's Crispin Day speech is just amazing, especially the way it is immediately followed with a fierce, medieval battle march.

I like this one a bunch too, but it is not my favorite.

A movie (and soundtrack) that I link with Henry V becuase of when they came out is Glory. Glory has a mighty fine soundtrack in it's own right.

[Killebrew]

"The Boys Are Back(In Town)" theme for "Another 48 Hours" was a good choice for that film since the boys (Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte) literally were "back in town".

[PraetorianX]

I always thought that "Gollum's Song" was perfect for the character Gollum in LotR: Two Towers