Over the last few years, I've been contemplating how important soundtracks are to movies. To TV shows of course, too, but movies specifically. I mean, I always knew they were important, but I've been developing my ideas somewhat. Now, I'm not talking about original scores (although that can be huge too: think Star Wars, The Rock, and Rudy), but compilation soundtracks. I think it all crystallized for me, when I saw two movies within a 6 month period that really demonstrated the facts. You see, a great soundtrack can really bail out a bad movie. Of course it can never make up for the fact that it's bad, but it can make you forget just how bad it was. A great example of this is the movie Closer. I can't remember watching a more vile, disgusting, horrible, ridiculous movie since who knows when. Yet the soundtrack (mostly Damien Rice) was fabulous. So now whenever I think of the movie, I think of how bad it was, but then I start whistling "The Blower's Daughter", a great song, and it makes me forget, and think maybe it wasn't that bad after all! On the other hand, a good movie (or at least a decent one) can be rendered merely passable, or possibly crap, by its soundtrack. I offer as evidence the movie Hitch. I took Lacey to see it on Valentine's day of 2005 because she really wanted to. For the most part, it was a decent romantic comedy, but the soundtrack (or lack there of) was absolutely awful! It made it almost painful for me to watch, because I was so stinking annoyed with the music. I have no desire to ever watch it again, not necessarily because I don't like Will Smith, or the plot sucked (it was actually pretty funny) but because the music makes me want to blow something up. Obviously there are many more examples I can point to, but the last three I want to leave you with are the most fantastic examples in recent memory. I wanted to do a top ten list of soundtracks, but it would be half-ass, so I decided against it. Garden State is the obvious choice for the best movie soundtrack since whenever. Tony Scott, the director of Zach Braff's new movie, said it best when he (and I'm paraphrasing) stated that the best soundtrack is one that has songs that sound like they were written for the bits of the movie they are in. And Garden State kills it on that front. If you've seen the movie, picture the scene when Braff and Portman are sitting in front of the fire drying off, he's just revealed his deepest, darkest secret about accidentally paralyzing his Mom, and Remy Zero comes on softly while Portman tapdances. Brilliant. But regardless of how good that soundtrack is, the master of this kind of thing is Cameron Crowe. I've written about this before, so you can go to my backlog, or just watch his catalogue of movies.
Ok, I can't write this post without mentioning two fantastic TV shows that I've already mentioned on this blog, that every week seem to come up with fresh, fantastic music. So if you haven't watched them already, I can't recommend highly enough The O.C. and Scrubs. If you don't watch the shows, get the CD's with music from them. It'll be worth your while.
A soundtrack has to be either incredibly good or incredibly bad for me to even notice it. I hardly ever pay attention to it otherwise (though I'm sure I would notice if there wasn't one). Cameron Crowe is the master, of course. Elizabethtown? Pretty boring movie, but great soundtrack.
I don't know if you watch Grey's Anatomy, but they have great music on that show, too.
Posted by: Christin at August 23, 2006 12:38 PMOh man, I totally disagree with you about Elizabethtown. So not a boring movie. It was probably (aside from Star Wars, the obvious) my favorite movie of last year. Of course, it was about fathers and SONS, so maybe that had something to do with our points of view:) But if you take the dialogue, romantic element, humor (the wedding stuff was priceless), and just the overall theme of relationships, together, it really was a smart, touching film. Can I say points of view and be grammatically correct?
About soundtracks: the key is, you notice them if they are incredibly good or incredibly bad. That is the point I was making. If they're bad, they bring down the movie. If they're good, they elevate it. But sometimes you notice it without noticing it. Another point I was attempting to hint at was that some movies seem better than they are because on some level, the music drew you in and you liked the film more, whether you noticed it or not. I'm glad you noticed the soundtrack to Elizabethtown. I own it, and it's fabulous.
Posted by: Melt-dizzle at August 23, 2006 01:54 PMI might be a little partial to my husbands point of view on this one especially since I live with him and see these movies with him, but I totally have to agree with you babe! I think it was I who said something about the Hitch sound track being terrible and how they had great opportunities to have some good music, but it was all this sappy music instead. I love the sound track to Elizabethtown too and I know Josh has mentioned this one recently, but the sound track to the new Zach Braff movie "The Last Kiss" is Really GOOD! Plus already knowing the sound track ahead of time makes me want to see it more!
Posted by: Lacey at August 23, 2006 06:11 PM