Soundtracks & Movies: Uses & Flaws

Andrew Carolan

Lana Del Ray performed "Young & Beautiful" for the Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby is currently still in the cinema and boasts a soundtrack from a range of popular, contemporary artists. While this will no doubt appeal to a large number of people, it begs the question as to whether it is entirely appropriate for a movie set in the roaring ‘20s. Is there a relation which works or does it detract from the atmosphere of the film? More generally, what does a well placed song do for any movie? Quentin Tarantino has expressively stuck to the soundtrack because of his fear that a score will place too much power and emphasis on a project he should have full control of. Some have mingled with both while others have stuck to simple but classic orchestras which give it a timeless quality; e.g. you won’t hear “Empire State of Mind” in Star Wars. It is an often overlooked but interesting part of the movie-making process.

To be perfectly clear here, I have not yet seen The Great Gatsby but intend to (Tobey Maguire is sort of an inhibition). I have heard the soundtrack however after much scepticism; after all, this Baz Lurhmann did direct that wacky Romeo + Juliet of the 1990s (which in fairness had a great soundtrack). What I found about it was something of twofold intrigue- firstly, Jay Z clearly just rang up all his friends and placed great emphasis on the hip hop/ pop community and secondly, that it was appropriately adapted. The songs while modern, twanged with a more soulful and delicate vibrancy so that they all felt like they were coming from the same place. It wasn’t particularly great but it was a well calculated body of work which according to many, runs through the 2 hours plus movie with a nice flow.

Let’s look at another movie of recent times: Django Unchained. Tarantino has often been praised for his selection of songs throughout his movies but I personally have to agree with Jonathan Ross who once said in an interview with the man himself that he felt he was often guessing which other movies the songs came from. The opening number “Django” for example, actually heralds from a movie of the same title from 1967. This point itself is not that important; most people would never guess where the songs came from or care but the songs can certainly detract on one instance or another. “The Payback” by James Brown and 2pac plays when Django starts reigning bloody chaos towards the end, which along with the violence sort of breaks the line of the movie strikingly. “101 Black Coffins” plays along their track; a rap song in the background of an 1850s set “Southern.” They do detract on some level or another, over-shadowing or moving away from the ambience but let’s not forget how awesome they sound too. Yes, an old saloon piano might suit the movie better and with any other director, we would expect a score but Quentin Tarantino is Quentin Tarantino: the master of the soundtrack, in many regards.

The consensus of this article has been so far that soundtracks are useful and fun for audiences but sometimes can break the feel of a movie. I think that while they may aesthetically be pleasing, they must not also dominate the movie. The aforementioned Romeo + Juliet has a much better list of songs than well acted scenes and all the movies in the Twilight franchise feel structured around the use of the songs (and even at that, with flaw- see Eclipse where Muse’s “Neutron Star Collision” only fills background fodder of a party). Recently, Alex Turner provided the music for the most indie of indie movies in Submarine and while we’re looking forward to Arctic Monkeys no. 5, he had better keep his repetitive sound away from a drudgery of artsy nonsense in the future. Purple Rain and The Bodyguard are also crap movies with good soundtracks but to be fair, they are about singers so we’ll leave it at that.

One of the most legendary soundtracks is that of Trainspotting. Bringing together the best of what Britain had to offer in the Britpop era alongside classics such as “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed, it created the atmosphere of the movie effectively. That is not to say it dominated it because that would have made the movie less intriguing but it struck perhaps the finest balance of music and film without relying on an orchestral score. One of the most famous scenes from the movie came at the end when Renton walks away with the bag of money to the pulsating, hypnotic music of “Born Slippy” by Underworld, establishing that this was a new era for his character. These were after all characters who were living the everyday city and drug life, who would naturally be listening to the music of the time and so Danny Boyle played his cards well in bringing forward the sound of the time.

The Soundtrack does not need to make the movie; it merely needs to complement it to a degree. We do not need a song every two or even five minutes but montages or filler shots often work well against the backdrop of a well-placed number (“Stu’s Song” in The Hangover). In many ways, it is an art which can be done easily enough but only the best of the best know how to do perfectly.