As a writer, one of the things that I envy about filmmakers is how they can utilize music. In the best cases, music can enhance and complicate thematic tension in a film. Here are a few examples of movies that do this particularly well.
Lars Von Trier's Melancholia (2011) focuses on Kirsten Dunst's character, Justine, who becomes increasingly disaffected throughout the film. The soundtrack features performances of Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Richard Hein. These renditions expand upon the already-melancholic core of Wagner's canonical composition, creating an aural reflection of Justine's severe depression. Even when this character acts in absurd ways, the comedic elements of Melancholia are overshadowed by the ominous despair that these interpretations of Wagner's piece evoke. In this way, the music reinforces Von Trier's argument that depression is not something you can escape—not really.
Ragnar Bragason's Metalhead (2013) features a score by Petur Thor Benediktsson. The film tells the story of Hera, a young woman who hates most people but loves heavy metal music. Hera lives in a tiny Icelandic village, and, in many ways, she's her own worst enemy. Benediktsson aptly includes several metal songs in his soundtrack, but the majority of Metalhead features bleak and dissonant string compositions, which work to underscore the harshness and inscrutability of Hera's natural surroundings. Benediktsson's classical score helps to transform the massive escarpments that loom above Hera's small village from a backdrop into a correlative for the character's tumultuous existential crisis.
Cliff Martinez's score for Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives (2013) filters the foreboding elements of the music from The Phantom of the Opera through a post-modern lens. As with the latter, Martinez's score features oppressive organ compositions, but it also includes relentlessly driving synthesizer pieces. Refn's film flips the cliche-riddled revenge thriller genre on its head by emphasizing the empty and parasitic nature of vengeance. Cliff Martinez's soundtrack then underscores this emptiness with sparse atmospheres that, while watching the film, you might not even notice, at least not initially. But these ambient soundscapes affect the viewer on a subconscious level, subtly making the main character's desire for revenge seem as menacing as the highly brutal fight scenes in Only God Forgives.
In the realm of documentary film, Stacy Peralta's Crips and Bloods: Made In America (2008) exemplifies a masterful wedding of score and popular music. The film examines the origins of gangs in Los Angeles, smartly avoiding the racist stereotyping that TV shows like Gangland perpetuate. Stacy Peralta includes songs from N.W.A., Public Enemy, and Tupac Shakur to underscore his argument about why the Crips and Bloods formed and continue to exist. At its roots, hip-hop is a platform to pinpoint social ills, which directly ties in to Peralta's perspective.
On the more experimental side, Birdman (2014) utilizes Antonio Sanchez's masterful drumming (controversially excluded from Oscar consideration) to envelop viewers in the main character's mania. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film adheres to a claustrophobic, on-the-shoulder third-person perspective. The viewer is forced into Riggan Thompson's insanity, and it's only occasionally clear when Michael Keaton's character is hallucinating. Antonio Sanchez deftly traverses between complicated jazz grooves and chaotic fills, both of which create an almost palpable anxiety. Watching Birdman, your heart will palpitate right along with Sanchez's kick drum.
Compared to literature, painting, theater, and music, film is a nascent art. But this form has progressed as fast as the motion-picture technology that initially made it possible, and filmmakers' purposeful combination of music, narrative, and cinematography to enhance thematic tension is just one of many examples that illustrate how the form has developed and become distinct.
J.J. Anselmi's first book, Heavy: A Memoir of Wyoming, BMX, Drugs, And Heavy F---ing Music, is forthcoming from Rare Bird late this year.
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