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Author Topic: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners  (Read 18216 times)

Adam

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Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« on: July 23, 2010, 03:47:09 PM »
The following five posts are the results of the contest Matty ran all by himself.

Winners will receive a copy of the new Richard McGraw cd Burying the Dead.  Write to feedback@filmspotting.net to claim your prize.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2010, 05:19:50 PM by saltine »
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saltine

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2010, 04:28:01 PM »
from Winner Ken Ilio:

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my head - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
was just a perfect romantic song for the scene - with the bicycle with
Katharine Ross.  I was 14 when I saw the movie ... and that song and
scene got stuck in my mind.
Texan Down Under

saltine

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2010, 04:30:00 PM »
from Winner Scott Mobley, Las Vegas NV:

On the music in movies front - I could think of a million examples, but I think you cannot talk about the use of music in film without bringing Tarantino into the mix.  I'm not sure any working filmmaker uses popular music more effectively.  I personally thought the use of "Cat People" in Basterds was brilliant, as was most of the music in Pulp Fiction, but when I think about things like this, I try to think of a use of a song in a film that changed the way I heard the song.  For this reason alone, my pick is Tarantino's use of "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Steelers Wheel in Reservoir Dogs.  I have never heard that song the same way since.  (Can't hear "Little Green Bag" without picturing the iconic opening scene either).
Texan Down Under

saltine

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2010, 04:32:07 PM »
from Winner:  Omar Muniz, Chicago IL

Matty, this is a great question and it has my mind flipping through
its endless index of movie scenes.  I felt compelled to write about
California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas because of how it
represents the Americanization of Hong Kong in Wong Kar Wai's
Chungking Express.  I then turned to the final song in The 40 Year Old
Virgin, The Age of Aquarius by The Fifth Dimension, the perfect finale
to a really fun movie.  And then of course you've got memorable songs
from O Brother Where Art Thou and Reservoir Dogs (cutting off the ear
scene) and the list goes on and on.
But in the end, I had to go with a personal selection.  The song I
chose for my favorite song in a movie moment is heard in the opening
scene of the film I watched most during my high school and college
years.  Because it's in the film's opening scene, every time I hear it
I'm reminded of what is very much a comfort movie for me.  And it
reminds me of the coming-of-age nostalgia that one layer of the movie
reveals.  My favorite song in a movie moment appears in a film by the
songman himself, Martin Scorsese in his 1973 film, Mean Streets.  The
song from the opening credits is Be My Baby by The Ronettes and it
plays over home videos of guys from the neighborhood, laughing,
drinking and partying in public.  Harvey Keitel, Bobby D, Richard
Romanus, all those guys. Its a heavenly prelude to the heavy conflict
that ensues in the film.  And whenever I hear that tune, and it is a
popular one, I think of this, my favorite film growing up and the
grainy VHS tape I used to own it on, almost as grainy as the home
video shown in the movie.  I think of all the times I watched it and
the different stages of life I was in when I watched it.  Mostly, I
think of my own friends throughout the years, especially those who
aren't around any longer.  The song takes me back to those careless
times when (and pardon the cliché) things were simpler.  And I imagine
Scorsese used the song because it reminded him of those young New York
days, growing up in the neighborhood in the 50s.  I can't imagine many
people feel the same way towards this scene, but it's one that's
impossible for me to forget.
As a side note, it really irks me when people hear that same tune and
say "That's the song from Dirty Dancing!  Nobody puts baby in the
corner!"  And they cackle hideously for minutes on end.  Then, like a
true film snob, I interrupt sharply and advise them that the song was
used in a much better movie 12 years beforehand, and in a much better
way, if I may say so myself.



Texan Down Under

saltine

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2010, 04:32:29 PM »
from Winner: Larry Olson, Chicago IL

Hands down - Sarah McLachlan singing Randy Newman's "When She Loved
Me" from "Toy Story 2."  Jessie the cowgirl doll describing how happy
she once was when she was her owner's pride and joy.  A heartbreaker
every time I hear it....
Texan Down Under

saltine

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2010, 04:33:06 PM »
from Winner: Alex Wilgusbof Chicago IL

Song:  Ordinary World by Duran Duran
Film:  Layer Cake
Why?:  It's the oddest yet best pairing of a song/scene in any film
ever.  Take one of the most comforting, mom-ish adult contemporary
Brit pop songs--covered by everyone from a capella groups to boys'
choirs--and play it over the kicks, thuds and smashes of an enraged
ex-convict taking sweet and grisly revenge on the man who sent him to
prison for ten years, add in some quick cuts to the film's principle
comic relief characters getting unceremoniously plugged and you have
one of the saddest, prettiest, most emotionally leveling moments in a
film.  Typically, a pop song in a film is used to frame the world,
allow the audience to sit back and reflect on the events and the
characters quietly (like "The Sounds of Silence" in the Graduate).
This scene does allow you to reflect...but from the dirty floor of a
diner with a boot on your throat.  Matthew Vaughan posits that the
only time to really ponder "what it's all about" in the immanent world
of the mob is between blows (he even dips the volume of the song
erratically to punctuate the sounds of the punches and kicks).  What
was striking was that it was the event of extreme violence that
launches you into the transcendent meta-awareness that the song
suggests.  I remember feeling just as bewildered as Daniel Craig's
character after it was over, music still rolling, feeling overwhelmed
at the world I had entered and not so sure I wanted to continue
discovering it, but pulled onward by the sweet inevitability of the
music.  I remember not being sure what I was supposed to feel after
the scene was over, but overwhelmingly aware that I was feeling.

Texan Down Under

Monty

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2010, 06:35:59 AM »
How many winners from Chicago. I'm thinking Matty's just chosen his drinking buddy's.

Once Adam mentioned Matty's hatred of 'Tiny Dancer' I knew I was done.


"And then it just becomes an industry of...cool."

Adam

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2010, 07:54:24 AM »
How many winners from Chicago. I'm thinking Matty's just chosen his drinking buddy's.

Once Adam mentioned Matty's hatred of 'Tiny Dancer' I knew I was done.
In fairness, I don't think he hates Tiny Dancer... he just can't see the greatness of Almost Famous.
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Moviebuff28

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2010, 11:01:28 PM »
I knew he wouldn't have picked me because of my choice but I think Black Snake Moan shows the power of music.  Especially the scene when Samuel L Jackson sings Black Snake Moan to Christina Ricci.

Black Snake Moan - Title Track

Monty

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Re: Song in a Movie Moment Contest Winners
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2010, 01:37:45 PM »
How many winners from Chicago. I'm thinking Matty's just chosen his drinking buddy's.

Once Adam mentioned Matty's hatred of 'Tiny Dancer' I knew I was done.
In fairness, I don't think he hates Tiny Dancer... he just can't see the greatness of Almost Famous.

The greatness of 'Almost Famous' and 'Tiny Dancer' is for all to see in this scene.
Containing awesomeness from Mark Kozelek.

Almost Famous - Tiny Dancer


"And then it just becomes an industry of...cool."

 

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