Soundtracks That Made Good Movies Great

Last year Vanity Fair magazine tackled the ambitious task of compiling a list of what their editors felt were the top fifty movie soundtracks of all time. The matrix that they used to determine their findings was rather nebulous, other than the lone requirement being that the soundtrack must be a commercially marketed offering that is associated with and included in the movie it represents.

Here are the top ten Vanity Fair favorites;

01. Purple Rain
02. A Hard Day's Night
03. The Harder They Come
04. Pulp Fiction
05. The Graduate
06. Superfly
07. Trainspotting
08. Saturday Night Fever
09. American Graffiti
10. The Big Chill

Seems like a decent enough top ten, at least on the surface. Dig a little deeper through introspection, however, and the list appears suspect. At least to me it does.

I've always considered these "best of" lists as an exercise in futility, because what often results is disgruntled responses from the targeted audience about the names that weren't included on the list.

Pure and simply, a musical soundtrack to a film should be measured by how well they compliment each other. The soundtrack should be a compilation of artists and - with the best ones - offer an eclectic mix of musical genres, styles and era, to the extent that if you listened to the soundtrack without having seen the film, the musical production simply wouldn't make sense.

A good soundtrack and a good movie, when cleverly created as a piece of art not exclusive to each other, can result in some of the greatest and most memorable moments in film.

Here are a few of my favorites, which is not intended to be reduced to another "best of" list that I lament. My examples will include the movie, along with a defining moment of the film that would have been lost and entirely forgettable had the song not been included.

• Magnolia - An amazing movie, in and of itself. The Director, Paul Thomas (PT) Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood), is one of my favorites in Hollywood. This movie has a soundtrack that is not as diverse in artist selection as I typically would like to see in a movie soundtrack, however what it lacks in variety is adequately compensated with emotional offerings that punctuate the varying personal introspection that the films viewers experience.

An unforgettable musical moment is during the playing of Wise Up (track 8 on the soundtrack), by Aimee Mann, played in full when the core characters are all shown in a rapid fire montage, as they rise to a tipping point in their own personal existence, both as victims or destructive adversaries. Extremely powerful.

• Garden State - Fantastic example of an average movie that rises to the level of a nearly great movie because of the soundtrack. The soundtrack runs perilously close to being too EMO cool, escaping by the chinny-chin-chins of Colin Hay and Simon and Garfunkel. Coldplay, Nick Drake, Bonnie Sommerville and Indie darling Iron and Wine are all included, along with those coffee house poets from Albuquerque, The Shins. Despite what Sam (played by the ever luscious Natalie Portman) says in the movie though, The Shins will not change your life. They might make you appear gay though, especially when mixed in the same iPod playlist with Belle and Sebastian. Nothin' wrong with that though.

A defining musical moment in Garden State is the playing of The Only Living Boy In New York, by Simon and Garfunkel (track 10 on soundtrack), making a very predictable "coming of age" moment in the film seem genuinely earnest.

Another is the soft, acoustic song from Colin Hay, I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You (track 5 on soundtrack), played during the funeral scene for Sam's pet hamster.

• Good Will Hunting - Ever heard of singer/songwriter Elliott Smith? Neither had I until I saw Good Will Hunting for the first time when it was released in theaters in 1997. Immediately after leaving the theater I hit a nearby Best Buy and bought the movie soundtrack and two Elliott Smith CD's. The soundtrack is a compilation, however the entire score was managed by Smith and nearly half of it showcases his touching melodies and brooding lyrical prose. Smith was nominated for an Academy Award that year for his song, Miss Misery, losing out on his Oscar to the runaway favorite horse(face), Celine Dion (My Life Will Go On, from Titanic). Sadly, Elliott Smith died in 2004. A Los Angeles Coroner ruled cause of death as suicide.

My favorite Good Will Hunting musical moment was during the schoolyard brawl scene, where Will (played by Matt Damon) finally gets his revenge on a childhood bully by beating the living holy crap out of him. As the scene gains momentum, Gerry Rafferty's classic 1978 song Baker Street (track 10 on the soundtrack) guided us through to the scenes climax, the arrival of Boston Police to haul Will Hunting off to jail. Awesome.

• Rushmore - My hands-down, without a doubt, absolute favorite soundtrack of all time (shocker!). This soundtrack is packed with twenty tracks of pure relevance. The steady mix of pop music - past and present - compliment the musical score numbers of Mark Mothersbaugh perfectly. This movie is a must see and the soundtrack is a must own.

Choosing one Rushmore moment that defines the film is a little like asking which shade of a blue sky is my favorite. It's all very enjoyable. One that probably elicits the most dramatic appeal for me is the song, Ooh La La, by The Faces, played at the final curtain before the closing credits roll, playing us home with a slow motion dance hall scene that includes the entire character ensemble. This scene never gets old for me.

• Juno - If you listen to this soundtrack before seeing the film, you may be inclined to pitch it in the circular file and write it off as a learning experience. This compilation is peppered with the most random barrage of kitchy musical numbers I can recall ever hearing on one CD. It only makes sense after seeing the movie, which isn't to say that the movie or the soundtrack is great, by any stretch. Juno, the film, is barf-inducingly too precious at times. For me, the contrived banter of Juno was only tempered by the movies music.

The opening credit scene of the film introduces us to Juno as she purposely strides through her neighborhood toward the corner drug store to buy a pregnancy test (or seven), while guzzling a Costco size jug of Sunny D. The harmonica laden song, All I Want Is You, by Barry Louis Polisar (track 1 on the soundtrack) marches right along with her. Good stuff. To borrow from the movies ridiculously contrived dialogue; this ain't no etch-a-sketch. This soundtrack is one doodle that can't be undid, Homeskillet. Indeed.

Back to the Vanity Fair list.

As much as I feel that Prince's Purple Rain is a brilliant work of art, I can honestly say that I would feel the same way had the painfully awful and nearly unwatchable movie never been made. At the very least though, Purple Rain the soundtrack made Purple Rain the movie bearable. Ironically though, its music made the movie timeless.

And that's why music matters when it comes to movies.