Last weekend I went to the movies, for the first time in a long time, to peep the new drug-trade thriller Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve. It was enjoyable for a slew of reasons—the cast, the action-driven plot, and the beautiful desert settings. However, I found myself most intrigued by the film’s soundtrack. (Editors note: I realize there is a technical difference between a movie’s score and its soundtrack. For the purposes of this piece, when I say soundtrack I mean any music, score or otherwise, included in the movie.) Intense scenes of violence, moments when characters—and viewers alike—were left considering the actions just witnessed, and sweeping aerial shots of the U.S. – Mexico border came alive with pulsing percussion and ominous strings. These scenes would take on entirely different meaning if not for composer Johann Johannsson’s fitting musical compositions accompanying them, provoking emotions and setting the mood.
Much like my experience with Sicario, the music of our favorite movies and television shows is often a deciding factor in what actually makes them our favorites. Some directors, like Martin Scorsese or David Lynch, have become synonymous with certain styles of music or specific artists they continually employ in their films. Conversely, the television show The Wire famously used hardly any music in its too real depiction of Baltimore. Yet, its theme song—Way Down in the Hole by Tom Waits—became a defining piece of the series. Music is such a massive part of our world, it’s only fitting that it also invades the film depictions and representations of that world. Below, in no particular order, you’ll find some of my favorite cinematic and television soundtracks.
American Psycho
Artists and groups like Tom Tom Club, David Bowie, New Order, and The Cure perfectly represent the upbeat feel of the cocaine-fueled 80’s music scene. The synthy danceable beats and love ballads of the time are in stark contrast with the disturbing story of Patrick Bateman’s psychotic killing spree, though they work to contextualize the dark humor of American Psycho. Interestingly, a copyright blunder omitted Huey Lewis and the News’ “Hip to be Square” from the movie’s official soundtrack album, American Psycho: Music from the Controversial Motion Picture. The song makes for one of the most memorable scenes in the entire film, forever linking Huey Lewis with the musical tastes of Bateman’s killer vacant wall-street character.
The Knick
If you haven’t yet seen the Cinemax original series The Knick, I suggest checking it out. The show, starring Clive Owen, explores a fictionalized version of New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital in the early 20th Century. With gory surgical experiments, rampant drug use, sex and racially charged violence The Knick is not for the faint of heart. Though it is a period piece, the soundtrack, helmed by Cliff Martinez (who also composed OSTs for Drive, Spring Breakers, and Only God Forgives), is decidedly modern. Like the doctors working on bodies splayed out on the surgical table, Martinez manipulates the action of the show with a pulsing synthesizer and hypnotizing bleeps and bloops. The contemporary, nearly futuristic, music and the historic set pieces make for a beautiful marriage in a show detailing a time when medicine was transitioning from archaic methods to a more scientific based approach.
Any Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream, a German progressive-electronic group founded by the late Edgar Froese, has scored over 50 film and television soundtracks. The bulk of their work came in the late 70’s and early 80’s with their most famous movie being Risky Business, starring Tom Cruise. They were pioneers in the electronic music scene and many of todays DJs and producers can call on Tangerine Dream for the advances we have in modern music. One of my personal favorite soundtracks of theirs is for the film Sorcerer. The 1977 film was Tangerine Dream’s first Hollywood soundtrack and their big break leading them into so many other feature films.
Another great Tangerine Dream soundtrack accompanied the 1984 sci-fi thriller Firestarter, based on a Stephen King novel and starring a young Drew Barrymore.
And, for good measure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91DuxjzlLLU
Goodfellas
I mentioned Martin Scorsese in the introduction and I probably could’ve highlighted any of his movies, including The Departed, Casino, Taxi Driver, or Mean Streets to illustrate his use of music in his films. There’s really just too many examples to put out here. One of my favorite scenes in all of film has to be the long tracking shot at the Copacabana in Goodfellas. Aside from the expert camera work, zigging and zagging through the kitchen and resteraunt, we are treated to the lovely harmonies of the Crystals’ “And Then He Kissed Me.” What guy wouldn’t want to wow his date with an entrance like that? I mean, he gave them $20 each!?!?
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
I’m a sucker for westerns, even spaghetti westerns. And they don’t get much better than Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a classic tale of three soldiers of fortune helping each other and playing each other as they search for a buried golden treasure in the American Southwest after the Civil War. The music of the film, often sampled and sometimes parodied, has become synonymous with the Western genre, Perhaps no song, or scene, better embodies Leone’s and composer Ennio Morricone’s mastery than The Ecstasy of Gold. The character Tuco frantically searches a cemetery where the gold is buried as Morricone’s song and Edda Dell’Orso’s vocals lead the viewer toward the film’s climactic and iconic Mexican standoff.
Inception
No list of soundtracks would be complete without a sample from Hans Zimmer. The German composer has made music for over 150 feature films including The Lion King, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, Interstellar, The Thin Red Line, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and The Dark Knight trilogy. My favorite Zimmer soundtrack comes from Inception. Anyone who has seen the Christopher Nolan movie will recall Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” the song used to signal a “kick” to another reality. Zimmer was quoted as saying, “Just for the game of it all the music in the score is subdivisions and multiplications of the tempo of the Edith Piaf track.” That’s right, the entire score originates from one song. Pretty incredible, especially after hearing Piaf’s song relative to the booming darkness of Inception‘s score.
Blade Runner
The Blade Runner soundtrack, composed by Vangelis (best known for his Academy Award-winning score of Chariots of Fire), has been heralded for its influential use of synthesizers coupled with classical composition to set a dark tone for the 1982 neo-noir sci-fi film. The official soundtrack has been re-released 3 times with added music and different renditions of original songs. It’s really worth listening to in it’s entirety, so I’ll just leave this hour-long video right here.
Heat
Just as I couldn’t leave Hans Zimmer off this list, I also needed to include Brian Eno. The legendary British producer and composer has worked with the likes of David Byrne and The Talking Heads, U2, Coldplay, and Paul Simon among others. He even created the “Microsoft Sound.” Eno has been involved with many film scores but I most like his work on the 1995 Michael Mann film Heat, composed by producer Elliot Goldenthal. The soundtrack also includes stalwarts like Moby and members of U2. Eno’s industrial rock beats and dark jazzy grooves pace this movie about the seedy underground world of a gang of LA bank robbers.
This is just a smattering of the songs and soundtracks I find enthralling and necessary for the films they accompany. I’ve left out many other good to great soundtracks, but there’s just not enough time or space to include them all.