Often film and music buffs are one of a similar ilk, so no doubt we can agree that there’s nothing better than experiencing the synergy between a iconic movie scene and its perfect audio accompaniment.
Though there will always be an ongoing debate as to whether a soundtrack ‘makes’ the scene or whether the scene in which its used make the song iconic, but one thing is for certain, and that’s when combined properly both can transcend the film experience to create something much bigger than the sum of its parts.
To celebrate great music and film partnerships we’ve collated a list of what we believe to be some of the most iconic musical moments in modern film history.
Pulp Fiction (1994): ‘Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon’ By Urge Overkill
Pulp Fiction features many violent and shocking scenes, from Marvin’s unexpected demise to the brutal scene in Zed’s dungeon. However, this scene, where Mia Wallace overdoses to the tune of Urge Overkill’s cover of Neil Diamond’s ‘Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon’, is one of the most unsettling scenes in Tarantino’s entire filmography.
The anticipation and dread that begins to escalate from the moment she finds the bag of heroin, right until the final shot of her bloodied face is an absolutely wrenching moment.
Lost In Translation (2003): ‘Alone In Kyoto’ by Air
This scene will be immediately familiar to anybody who has ever travelled; for anybody who has experienced a culture shift, and been left puzzled and perhaps isolated by an unfamiliarity with not only their surroundings, but the people themselves. Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation is a film that largely focuses on such an experience.
This scene, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) wondering alone in Kyoto, is a near perfect summary of an experience that many people have gone through themselves. The song, appropriately called ‘Alone In Kyoto’, scores this experience with the perfect mix of quirkiness and gravitas, and perfectly mirrors the train of thought of not only Charlotte, but countless others.
The Breakfast Club (1985): ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ by Simple Minds
Fact: Everybody loves The Breakfast Club. Fact: The Breakfast Club is awesome. Fact: The Breakfast Club owes much of its awesomeness to the use of this song.
While it’s been parodied countless times, it’s impossible to forget the first time you saw this classic, and felt moved by the way these characters moved and slowly bonded.
The culmination of all this in the ending, as they leave detention and seemingly triumph over the labels and identities that have forced upon them, is a wonderfully rewarding moment, and that final shot of Judd Nelson triumphantly fist-pumping, while quintessentially ’80s, still packs a heart-warming punch. As Fry from Futurama said so eloquently of The Breakfast Club soundtrack: “I can’t way till I’m old enough to feel ways about stuff”.
The Departed (2006): ‘Shipping Up To Boston’ by The Dropkick Murphys
The Departed’s depiction of Boston is one of Martin Scorsese’s most accomplished feats. As the home to gangsters, corruption and a lot of violence, the cinematography of the film draws the viewer into the location so completely that it helps render the events of the film completely believable. “Yes, this could happen in a place like this”.
‘Shipping Up To Boston’ by the Dropkick Murphy’s is a perfectly selected song, and is heard throughout the film several times: it’s got the grimy toughness that is mirrored in the location, it’s got a huge Irish influence, and it’s just undeniably a badass song.
Watching mentally unstable characters whirl their way around Scorsese’s Boston in a hail of blood and drugs is amusing, to say the least. However, to the tune of ‘Shipping Up To Boston’, it’s downright legendary.
Control (2007): ‘Atmosphere’ by Joy Division
This is undeniably one of the saddest moments in any film, given that it is of course based on the life of Ian Curtis, frontman of Joy Division.
Beginning to play after Curtis’ wife finds his body after his suicide, it is an almost unbearably haunting tune; from the moment the first lyric is sung by Curtis, it is hard not to think about the pain that informed so much of his music and life: “Walk in silence, don’t walk away, in silence”.
It’s a poignant end to an inherently sad film, and it doesn’t get much sadder than watching his bandmates and friends silently grieve his death, before watching the smoke from his cremation rise into the black and white sky.
American Psycho (2000): ‘Hip To Be Square’ by Huey Lewis And The News
Watch the video. There’s not much you can say about this scene that Christian Bale doesn’t do better, and with dancing.
Donnie Darko (2001): ‘Under The Milky Way’ by The Church
While it may not be as iconic as some of the previous choices, ‘Under The Milky Way’ in Donnie Darko is a perfect match.
With the film proceeding in a darkly humorous, morbid, existential and foreboding manner, the use of the song in the beginning of the film’s climax manages to evoke the same themes of mystery and disaster.
When the two lines “And it’s something quite peculiar” and “It leads you here, despite your destination” are sung, they land with heavy, anxious thuds, as they communicate the sense of hopelessness and dread that speak to what’s for come for Donnie Darko.
