Wow, what I lazy ass I have been with my blog this week! Okay, more like incredibly busy, but still, I feel neglectful... (is that a word?)
A good friend and fellow Movie Geek saw my list of favorite/least favorite movies and promised to make his own (which he never did, by the way) and said, if he could, he would put Moulin Rouge as the worst in every category. And that happens to be one of my all-time favorite films. Now, I could write a whole post about Moulin Rouge, but that's not what I want to talk about today. I think the root of its power, to me anyway, is the use of music to convey the intensity of the story. And it's also the strong musicality of the movie that makes people hate it.
For some reason, music speaks to our souls in a way that mere words cannot. I admit I have a bit of an obsession with movie music and download an awful lot of soundtracks. By listening to the music, I am taken back to the pivotal moment of the story and can relive it in my head. It's what keeps the story alive in my heart.
But even if you don't obsess over soundtracks, you have still been touched by the power of the musical score. Would The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or Harry Potter be anything at all without the music behind the action? It's what gets our hearts racing and lets us know when to pay attention, something important is coming our way. Think of any scary movie - even the cheesy ones - and you'll realize you always know when something big (bad?) is going to happen. The music tells you so.
It's when the music becomes a much more obvious aspect of a film (or TV show or play) that people begin to get uncomfortable. My husband doesn't like anything with spontaneous singing and dancing (with the exception of cartoons and Christmas shows, for some reason) and I think that's because no one does that in real life. It's not social acceptable to express our joys, heartaches and excitement with synchronized musical numbers. Unfortunately. It makes people uncomfortable. For some reason.
So if music affects me in such a powerfully positive way, why do blatant musicals affect others so negatively? For example, I love Broadway shows but have always lived far FAR away from that world so I don't get to see many. When I had the chance to see Les Miserables, I jumped at it and my husband was happy to come along. Of course, I already knew all the music and cried through most of the show. My husband was bored. After the play, the only thing he had to say was, "I don't know why they couldn't just talk." It's okay I still love him...
I was able to see Wicked on New Years Eve this year (AMAZING!) and the next one I would love to see is American Idiot, based on the music of Green Day. When I read a review of it, someone said the soundtrack is "bubblegum" music, comparable to Glee and Kids Bop. I was offended. Obviously, this person does not understand the power of music in telling a story. Plays based on someones music (like American Idiot, Mamma Mia, etc) and even Glee isn't about re-recording existing music... it's about re-inventing music and using it to express feelings, themes, morals, basically the entire story, in a new way. We relate to the music we already know and are familiar with and that pulls us into the telling of the story.
So that's why I think music is so important in movies, TV, and theater. Whether consciously or not, the musical score carries our emotions and gets us connected to the story. Which, of course, is the whole point of telling a story. But you have to be open to the experience.
So, what's your favorite soundtrack?
