Best Movie Moments Involving Music

[MrsCatHead]

When Gwhiney's Margot gets off the bus in The Royal Tenenbaums. I think it blends a moment with music in the very best possible way. It's beautiful.

[Deleted]

Although it wasn't the first thing that popped into my mind when I started reading this thread, I do love me some Howard Shore. My home-burned "Best Of LOTR" CD was the default music in my car for literally years. I especially like the final race through the Mines of Moria and the incredible appearance of Gandalf, Shadowfax and the riders at the top of that ridge. *shivers*
The first thing that did pop into my mind was "Death in Venice." It seems that nobody talks about "classical" music on this site (please correct me if I'm wrong!) In a way, I hate the way Visconti imposed the whole Mahler conceit on the movie, but I have to admit the use of Mahler's music was simply flawless. I believe the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony was used three times during the movie, each time in its entirety: most unusual! *sigh*

[india7]

I absolutley love the scene in Goodfellas where Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco are being chased in their car by the Federal agents in their helicopter to What is a Life? by George Harrison. One of George's most positive, fun, life-affirming songs, all about complete total love and peace, set against the backdrop of these two sweaty, paranoid, desperate people, driving like maniacs and screaming at each other in a car filled with guns and bags of cocaine, knowing that they're both as good as nailed. It's just so perfect in it's "opposite-ness", somehow!

[Brookie]

A couple of standouts for me:

1) At the end of the HBO Movie "And The Band Played On", the excellent made-for-cable movie about AIDS. At the end of the movie, cuts from real AIDS rallies and film and stills of the famous and not-so-famous who have died from it run to Elton John's "Last Song". I keep Kleenex next to me thru that entire movie, but the ending is enormously moving.

2) The flying sequence in "Out of Africa", when Redford takes Streep above the mountains and waterfalls of Kenya. Sigh. So romantic.

[esoterica]

Of course, no "Best Movie Music Moments" thread would be complete without the legendary boombox scene to Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" from Say Anything.

Best. Scene. Ever.

Love, love the scene in Little Voice when they first overhear LV singing EXACTLY like Judy Garland.

[Deleted]

brookie said:

A couple of standouts for me:

1) At the end of the HBO Movie "And The Band Played On", the excellent made-for-cable movie about AIDS. At the end of the movie, cuts from real AIDS rallies and film and stills of the famous and not-so-famous who have died from it run to Elton John's "Last Song". I keep Kleenex next to me thru that entire movie, but the ending is enormously moving.

Completely agree. I love that movie and even shelled out the cash to buy the DVD. My all time fav I think.

Also, Longtime Companion's final scene, when they show all the people who died returning to the beach....it was imaginary but the music and the scene was incredible.

For some reason, when I saw this thread, the Sound of Music popped into my head. The scene with the eldest daughter and her soldier boyfriend in the gazebo at night, they're singing and dancing inside the gazebo. That stands out for me as one of my all time favs. I can't remember the song but it's a great scene.

[Brookie]

For some reason, when I saw this thread, the Sound of Music popped into my head. The scene with the eldest daughter and her soldier boyfriend in the gazebo at night, they're singing and dancing inside the gazebo. That stands out for me as one of my all time favs. I can't remember the song but it's a great scene.

They court each other to "Sixteen Going on Seventeen".

Check the scene next time you see it. Charmian Carr sprained her ankle rehearsing for the scene, and she's got an ace bandage on it. You can see it as she's sprinting around on the benches inside the gazebo.

[iceblink]

queequeg said:

I agree LittleEdieBeale and, in fact, I love the music in all of David Lynch's work- it's always very evocative.

Ditto--and something else I love about Lynch is that he knows when to have the music shut the hell up too. I loathe film scores that beat you over the head with "This part is sad!! This part is happy!!", etc. Lynch isn't afraid of utter silence and it can be so effective and chilling.
As for music, my favorite score is Edward Scissorhands and my favorite part is the "ice dance" scene with the angel sculpture; the music just makes it perfect.

[huntergrayson]

He (Lynch, that is) has a way of shaping "ambient" noise that's almost like music in and of itself.

I know some people think it is a WTF moment and it kinda is, but the sing along in Magnolia just *floored* me in the theatre.

I really love Diane Keaton singing "Seems like Old Times" in Annie Hall. Her voice is really sweet to me and perfect for Annie.

The opening of Femme Fatale. Bolero. Roving camera. Lesbian action in a bathroom. Perfect.

[Deleted]

hobocamp said:

Also, I can not believe the lack of reference to my personal favorite movie song moment - the mini-music video scene in Donnie Darko set to Tears for Fears Head Over Heels.

I love that moment too. Didn't the director want to use completely different music for that scene, but couldn't get the rights? I know that was the case for a lot of the music in the film, but it's been so long since I've seen the director's cut. I know that the "Notorious" SparkleMotion dance was supposed to be to "West End Girls." And the opening scene, with "Killing Moon" was supposed to be an INXS song. I can't imagine the film with anything other than the original release songs. Perfection. The director's cut is an abomination, IMO.

Oh, I agree...the director's cut of Donnie Darko should be pulled from circulation and all copies burned. It was an atrocity.

Topic: I think Richard Kelly had wanted to use "MLK" by U2 in the scene at the end of DD where he ended up using Gary Jules' glorious version of "Mad World." (That scene reduces me to tears every time I see it.) At least I think it's that scene he wanted to use "MLK" in.

huntergrayson said:

He (Lynch, that is) has a way of shaping "ambient" noise that's almost like music in and of itself.

I know some people think it is a WTF moment and it kinda is, but the sing along in Magnolia just *floored* me in the theatre.

Floored me, too. The song was "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann and the soundtrack for that movie is awesome.

I own the TV soundtrack for "Twin Peaks"—and agree with you all that David Lynch (and in this case, Angelo Badalamenti) are masters.

I also loved Martin Scorcese's use of the instrumental from the end of "Layla" in GoodFellas.