3GM: The Underdogs, Scene and Heard

Movie: Kingpin (1996)
Song: Show Down – Electric Light Orchestra

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Nothing says “casual sport combat” like the pseudo-disco of Electric Light Orchestra. Featuring some of the most ridiculous silent acting of Bill Murray’s career, this may be the most under referenced scene in bowling alleys throughout America.

Movie: Good Will Hunting (1997)
Song: Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty

Fight scenes are tricky because they run short of complex emotions. When a fight is absorbed by the audience, “anger” is what they pull from the moment. Unfortunately, anger is such a common denominator that it typically fails to add much character depth. Rather than revert to a cliche Dropkick Murphy’s track, Gus Van Sant created a beautifully violent moment by choosing a song so inappropriately soothing that this powerful brutality provides meaningful character exposition.

Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Song: Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime – Beck

It’s almost impossible to turn a plot as absurd as this into a poignant and relatable tale about relationships we’ve all found ourselves in. If anyone is up for the job however, it’s screenwriter Charlie Kauffman and Director Michel Gondry. Beck’s cover of The Korgis’ 1980 singer/synthwriter hit is the perfect mood-piece to reflect on who we surround ourselves with and why.

Movie: Blow (2001)
Song: Black Betty – Ram Jam

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Blow has so many great music and film pairings it’s hard to choose a favorite, but the movie really re-introduced the world to Ram Jam’s Black Betty. The track’s ridiculously catchy hook comes in while George Jung’s ’70s hairdo and butterfly collar bounce with confidence as he strolls through a California airport holding a briefcase containing $1.35 million in drug money. As it turns out, this was the beginning of the end for George, but while it lasts, damn it feels good to be a gangster.

Movie: Face/Off (1997)
Song: Over the Rainbow – Olivia Newton-John

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What would you do if your child was about to be turned into Swiss Cheese in the middle of a John Woo gun fight? You put on his Walkman to block out the noise of whizzing bullets. Woo has a knack for romanticizing his most violent moments with fluttering doves or swirling papers, but this time he uses a child. The kid is so caught up in Newton-John’s version of Over the Rainbow that he doesn’t sniff at the bloodbath around him. A movie that has Travolta and Cage undergoing experimental facial transplant surgery wouldn’t be so ludicrously entertaining without a scene like this.

Movie: Belly (1998)
Song: Back to Life – Soul II Soul

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pniQT-Zy5WA&feature=fvwrel[/youtube]

Hype Williams basically made a 90-minute video for his directorial film debut. Nas and DMX enter the club looking like extras from the Busta Rhymes’ Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See video before robbing the place, donning white masks and slick silencers. In fact, the opening credits of this film could exist as a singular music video. Looks like something that MTV would have played on repeat before pregnant teenagers became teen idols. Watch this movie for a lesson in ’90s hip-hop videos.

Movie: Cobra (1986)
Song: Angel of the City – Robert Tepper

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gigx66JCGT4[/youtube]

Sylvester Stallone must have been ingesting mounds of cocaine when he made this movie. This scene above is NOT a music video. It’s a montage in the film that is used to kill time in this 87-minute masterpiece. Tepper’s intensity works perfectly while Brigitte Nielsen dances with robots that look like they were made from contents in a garbage can. Stallone wrote this quotable thriller and it can usually be seen at around 4AM on most basic cable channels; perfect time for someone who is up all night using cocaine.

Movie: Snatch (2000)
Song: Fucking in the Bushes – Oasis

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfGGY7G-wto[/youtube]

Snatch has a soundtrack unlike many others because it can stand on its own as a great record. Throughout the course of the film, every track is as important to the feel of the movie as the scenery and the actors themselves. When a still-drunk Brad Pitt stumbles into the ring at a rigged bare-knuckle boxing match in the dregs of London he obviously needs a solid entrance tune. Oasis somehow crammed all its cockney fury into one track from its fourth album, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, and it couldn’t be anymore satisfying to watch.

Movie: Annie Hall (1977)
Song: It Had to Be You – performed by Diane Keaton

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcLmDTMaQDU[/youtube]

If you didn’t know Woody Allen had good taste in music, it’s time you found out. Actually, if you didn’t know this by now, you might as well just give up. Mr. Allen puts just as much care into the music of his movies as he does into the actual writing of them: he dresses each one with a smattering of classic jazz. In Annie Hall, he lets his co-star Diane Keaton put her pipes to the test on the 1924 song that has been recorded and re-recorded countless times. It may not be better than Sinatra’s version (or Ray Charles’, Harry Nilsson’s, or Billie Holiday’s, or Ella Fitzgerald’s) but if you ask me she hits it perfectly here as she sings over to the accompaniment of breaking plates, ringing phones, and uninterested audience members.

Movie: Reign Over Me (2007)
Song: Love, Reign O’er Me – performed by Pearl Jam

This Adam Sandler classic (that’s right, I said Adam Sandler classic), gives entirely new meaning to this rock of perfection from Townshend’s songbook. I’m not exactly sure why they chose Pearl Jam’s version instead of the original – perhaps licensing came into play here – but Vedder’s voice hit the exact emotional tone for this scene, and this movie. You don’t believe me? That’s fine. Just skip ahead to 1:29 in the trailer and you’ll see what I mean.

Movie: The Graduate (1967)
Song: Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel

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If we didn’t include this song on this list you could write us off immediately as completely full of shit.

Movie: Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Song: Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen

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Shaun of the Dead lampoons just about every crowd-drawing movie genre there is, and somehow manages to be legitimately better than them at the same time. It’s scarier than most zombie movies. It’s more heartfelt than most romantic comedies. It’s more suspenseful than most thrillers. Oh, and it relies heavily on Queen’s catalog throughout the entire film. There’s really nothing funnier than beating a zombie back to death with pool cues to the beat of Roger Taylor’s snare drum and Freddie Mercury’s soaring vocals.

Movie: Xanadu (1980)
Song: Xanadu – Electric Light Orchestra feat. Olivia Newton John

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Roller Skates + 1980 + E.L.O. & Olivia Newton John?? This is an absolutely absurd scene. Shout out to all the closet Xanadu lovers and haters out there.

Movie: Across the Universe (2007)
Song: Let it Be – The Beatles (performed by Carol Woods and Timmy Mitchum)

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It’s easy to dismiss a movie based solely on Beatles covers. And if we’re being honest, which I hope we are (my shrink would be royally pissed if I was lying to you right now), Across the Universe wasn’t exactly the, ahem, best movie ever made. And yes, it may or may not have been the catalyst for a show that has taken over the musical airwaves with teenage angst. And granted, it’s not Sir Paul singing and it’s not John or George. Hell, it’s hardly even Ringo. But Carol Woods and Timmy Mitchum do no harm to this song, nor its legend, nor that of the Beatles at all. And the scene, well, it speaks for itself.