I recently rewatched Avengers: Endgame and it got me thinking about the music choices that were made in the movie. Marvel tends to have a pretty solid standard for the music they add to the soundtracks of their ever-growing list of movies. Endgame is no exception, with songs like “Dear Mr. Fantasy” playing in the intro right after the cold open and “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” playing as Captain America and Peggy have their last dance. Some movies tend to use songs so well that it’s just hard to separate the song from the movie when hearing it, and now that I got that amazing intro paragraph and thesis out of the way, I’m going to talk about a few songs that I think work perfectly with the movies they are in.
First off is “The End” by The Doors in Apocalypse Now. This is one of the most famous intros in any movie ever and for good reason. This brooding song plays for around three minutes over depictions of the struggle with the horrors of the Vietnam War, and I don’t think any song could do it better. The song was initially brought up as a joke, starting the movie with “The End,” but it works so well and sets the darker tone and atmosphere of the movie perfectly. The wonderful Professor Pennino always says in his cinema class that a movie teaches you how to watch it in the first five minutes — using this song along with the depictions of explosions and fires in the jungles of Vietnam truly teaches the viewer exactly what they are getting into with Apocalypse Now.
The next song is “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James & The Shondells in 10 Cloverfield Lane. This song is a bit more on the nose when it comes to songs fitting the theme of the movie, seeing as this movie takes place almost entirely in a fallout bunker. What’s more important, however, is the scene this song plays over. It’s a very fun, upbeat song, and it plays during one of the only scenes in the movie that gives us a break from the emotional joy ride that is the rest of the film. At the same time, two of the main characters, Michelle and Emmett, are literally, as the song claims, “hid[ing] what they’re doing” from the main “villain” of the movie, Howard. This whole scene gives such a purposefully uneasy feeling because it allows the viewer to feel safe along with the characters for a few moments. However, the viewer knows that at some point or another the plans to escape the bunker will be revealed to Howard, and things will get even more crazy than they were to begin with.
Though “Bohemian Rhapsody” seems like it’s a cultural staple today, interestingly enough, one of the main reasons for this seems to be because of its inclusion in Wayne’s World. Again, this thematically fits the movie very well, though the complexity of these themes (in the song and the movie) is a little easier to match than the previous two combinations. However, I think this inclusion is so important because these two works have become so linked, and the three minute car ride scene with Wayne, Garth, and the others rocking out to this song is just so iconic.
Finally, I’ll end it with one of the most iconic scenes in one of my favorite movies of all time, Boogie Nights. The scene I’m referring to is where we follow three of the main characters into the house of a drug dealer with three songs playing in the background: “Jessie’s Girl,” “Sister Christian,” and “99 Luftballons.” Based on the nature of these three songs, after hearing that they’re in a scene together, one might assume that it would be a very fun, upbeat scene, but instead these songs are used to make one of the most intense and chaotic scenes in cinematic history. In combination with the help of excellent set design, cinematography, and acting from Rahad Jackson, the drug dealer in this scene, the soundtrack allows the audience to easily slip into the shoes of the main characters and realize just how much of a royally f***ed situation they got themselves into. The two moments of this scene that I believe pretty much explain it all are when Jackson takes out his “really fascinating” pistol to show off to the group with a quick solo game of Russian roulette and the minute-long solo shot of Mark Wahlberg pretty much contemplating all his life decisions as “Jessie’s Girl” blares in the background. Every element of this scene really adds something unique to the chaos of it all, and it’s a huge highlight for this entire movie.
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