A Brief Discourse on the Importance of Music in Film (Alexandra)

Perhaps it is my background in music that makes me prone to picking up so intensely on a film’s soundtrack, but I believe that a movie’s music is one of its most important aspects; a characteristic that is often taken for granted.  A film can reveal so much within its music.  Beyond the creepy background music of thrillers that tells you the killer is around the corner, music has the ability to expose characters’ feelings, actions, and a film’s tensions.

Just as directors carefully choose their shots, they also spend a great deal of time selecting their soundtrack.  Take acclaimed director Martin Scorsese for example.  Though Scorsese is an Oscar-winning director, he is also known for his impeccable use of music in his films.  He has directed a few documentaries on bands, including No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005), The Last Waltz (1978), and Shine a Light (2008); but Scorsese’s music in his feature films sticks out the most.  From The Rolling Stone’s “Gimme Shelter,” which has become a Scorsese trademark (played in three of his most famous films), to The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” the music picked has a reason for being there.  When “Monkey Man,” by The Rolling Stones, is played at the end of Goodfellas (when Henry Hill goes crazy because of his cocaine addiction), it is no coincidence.  The song isn’t arbitrarily placed there because it sounds good aesthetically, but because its lyrics reflect something in Henry’s psyche.  It is no accident that the lyrics, “I’m a sack of broken eggs/I always have an unmade bed,” encapsulate Henry precisely.

In a 2007 interview with Craig McLean from The Observer, Scorsese said that it is “not just the songs I use in the film. No, it's about the tone and the mood of their music, their attitude. The music itself.”  Referring specifically to The Rolling Stone’s songs (which he was willing to spend $30,000 of a $750,000 budget on), Scorsese puts an emphasis on the energy music can add to a film. 

In Todd Solondz’ Welcome to the Doll House (1995), powerful base-heavy music is played whenever the main character, Dawn, gets angry and wants to rebel.  It may be obvious that Dawn’s vexed, but the song accentuates the atmosphere and her aggression.  The beat is repeated throughout the film and becomes a motif that is symbolic of Dawn’s disconsolate life and even of the whole movie.  Similarly, if the climax of The Departed (2006) lacked music, it would just be another scene, with less importance and hardly any energy.  But The Dropkick Murphy’s punk-rock song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” plays loudly, the scene becomes quite intense, and the audience is automatically engaged in the film and aware that something important is going to happen. 

Such as The Dropkick Murphy’s song gained huge popularity after being in The Departed, many movies procure esteem because of their soundtracks.  Garden State (2004) is known for it’s popular soundtrack, and often times its viewers come away from the film deeply moved solely because of the music’s emotional collaboration with the film’s content.  Some films that receive such acclaims due to their soundtracks are often movies about musicians (I’m Not There, 2007) or revolve solely on music for its content (Across the Universe, 2007), but music can be more than just a plot device.

Director Quentin Tarantino, another celebrated maestro of music in film, manipulates music as a sort of “magic object” through which his characters and events are tied together. In Reservoir Dogs (1992), music transports characters through different scenes and situations.  Whenever in a car, the radio plays “K-BILLY'S: ‘Super Sounds of the Seventies’ weekend” show.  In separate cars different characters, all in contrasting situations, seem to converge because of this unifying music on the radio.  Music plays an important role even at the beginning of this film.  Characters are introduced in the opening scene through the discussion of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”  Though the song isn’t actually playing, its placement works to reveal attributes of the characters: who is more vulgar, who is more sensitive, who doesn’t even like music, etc.  The concept of using music to illuminate characters’ qualities is maybe the most overlooked, but one of the most important roles music can play. 

Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000) utilizes music both to reveal the deep mental derangement of the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, and to explicitly place the film in a time period.  Bateman can give a litany of seemingly unimportant facts about pop music, analyzing the minutest details of Phil Collins, Huey Lewis & the News, and Whitney Houston.  His obsession with analyzing and playing such music is a reflection of his inner ruthless behaviors.  Bateman explains that the song “Hip to be Square,” by Huey Lewis & the News, a smash-hit, isn’t “just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It's a personal statement about the band itself.”  A band that Bateman believes has a “bitter, cynical sense of humor.”  Bateman’s close reading of the song and the band are important because they explain some of his sadistic behaviors.  Bateman repeats this musical examination again, explaining Phil Collins’ music’s “intangibility” and Whitney Houston’s “self-preservation and dignity.”  All of the things he touches upon are actually important aspects of himself, characteristics that are only implicitly exposed within the music.  Not only does the music (always juxtaposed with one of his violent acts) explain the inner workings of Bateman, but it also places the audience directly in the time period of the film, 1987.  If the clothing styles weren’t enough, the music successfully transports audiences into the 80s.  Though music does have this innate capability of recreating a cultural and historical time, it does not necessarily have to be reflective of the time to be effective.

The soundtrack to Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (2006) imitates the tensions and desperation within the film.  Though the film is sent in 2027, scenes are reflective of World War II concentration camps, reminiscent of the 2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal, and hold the general, indignant attitude of the public during the Vietnam War.  The movie culminates in a world that has not learned from its past.  Children of Men’s music transcends time to seamlessly make relevant these feelings, to make the images more poignant. The song “Arbeit Macht Frei” by The Libertines, mimics a German phrase (in English: “work will set you free”) that prisoners of concentration camps believed would free them, and plays alongside images that imitate these camps.  The music not only exemplifies these tones, but also reflects the overall despair of the film by including songs such as The Rolling Stone’s “Ruby Tuesday,” whose lyrics read: “Cash your dreams before they slip away/Dying all the time/Lose your dreams and you/Will lose your mind/Ain't life unkind.”  The inclusion of such songs, along with the general themes of the film, are Cuarón’s warning that not learning from a world’s past can only end in hopelessness. 

Everywhere we go music follows us, making us desensitized to it.  Our habituation to music means we easily overlook music’s role in our lives, and even more so in film.  Music’s function is deeper than simply background music.  Focus on the songs the director chooses and you will have a much greater understanding of a film, you’ll learn and experience a good deal more.  

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