Cinematic Masterpieces

With a solid week of the best rest and relaxation the gulf coast of Florida could offer, I feel poised to once again drop some bloggage on my musical aficionados. As I sit here laboring through one of the worst CGI-based movies to date (10,000 B.C.), I feel inspired to write about the power of music in films. Now, I'm not saying a great Tom Petty melody would shine up this gigantic turd running across my TV, but the right song at the right time makes a good movie, a great one.

Case in point, and there may be some who would argue this one, but I'll just throw out "Saturday Night Fever." An iconic film of the disco-era (my second-least favorite era next to the Prohibition era), and the Bee Gees whined this movie into the stratosphere. In the opening scene, John (Kelly Preston is my wife) Travolta walks down the street carrying your average paint can. Kick in "Stayin' Alive" and the whole movie changes in that split second. Suddenly it goes from being some dude carrying a paint can to some cool guy carrying a cool paint can. Follow? You know you do. I'm even gonna say it - disco was cool, if even for that one moment in theatrical history. Without the Bee Gees soundtrack, you would find "Saturday Night Fever" next to "Turner and Hooch" in the $1.99 bin at Family Dollar.

Speaking of killer intro songs, how about "Blackboard Jungle." OK, I know I'm diggin' way back to the early days of rock and roll, but if you haven't seen this one, check it out. This movie pretty much created the way a tough rock and roll song can make a movie (or vice versa). Bill Haley and the Comets kicked off the intro to "Blackboard Jungle" (sorry abbreviation just didn't work), with the super cool "Rock Around The Clock." I read one time that this tune, perhaps best known for "Happy Days" actually started a riot somewhere in Europe when Bill and the Comets rocked the house. At any rate, it set the stage for sweet rock and roll in film.

Flash forward to 1976. A young Sly Stallone creates one of the most motivational flix of all-time. Rocky. Remember when Burgess Meredith decides he's gonna train Rocko and all of a sudden the film cuts to the gym and out of nowhere Survivor vocals come a'rockin with "Eye of the Tiger?" Well, I'm pretty sure that Rocky couldn't have went the distance with Apollo without that tune. Tommy Gunn, maybe.

Need more proof that music gets it done? Try watching Pulp Fiction (or any other Tarantino film) with the sound off. QT has become somewhat of a master of finding the right song for the right scene. Who would have picked Jerry Rafferty's "Stuck in the Middle with You" for a torture scene? And yet somehow, it worked. "Miserlou" for an intro - perfect. Dance scene - how about an old Chuck Berry tune. And yet, time after time - it makes the film.

Are there exceptions to this rule? Films with killer tunes that just plain sucked? You bet. Perhaps a Part Deux to this blog will unravel this paradox.

By the way, according to AFI, the #1 greatest song ever in a film is "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". Not a bad tune, but I say if Dorothy (in case you prefer blondes) had ripped out a few verses of "Eye of the Tiger" they wouldn't have needed that house to crush the witch.