Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Power of an Instrumental in film

They've been the butt of many jokes, but why? Is it because of Trey Parker and Matt Stone? Is it because deep down we really do enjoy them and are kind of embarassed to admit it? They can be cheesy but they can also be the most memorable parts of a movie.

Here they are-
My favorite instrumentals from movies.
As you'll see, the favorites are from the 80's. I couldnt think of many others for as of right now. Donnie Darko has a great montage but even it takes place in the 80's.

#1
Movie: Rocky IV
Artist: Vince DiCola
Song: Training Montage (this is the actual song title btw)
Year: 1985

He's running through the mountains and training like a caveman, while the evil Soviet, Drago is enjoying his training in a state of the art workout lab run by evil scientists.
Sidenote, Eye of the Tiger doesnt do it for me, sorry. Maybe it should but i get nothing. This Training montage does.

This onbe is more of a montage than an instrumental because time passes and there is major progress.





#2
Movie: Sixteen Candles
Artist: Kajagoogoo
Song: Kajagoogoo (Instrumental)
Year: 1984
Its the opening credits after Sam realizes her entire family has forgotten her B-day. It goes through the normal settings of a High School campus. It takes me back to a day when it was still acceptable to wear sweat pants in public.

Note- I couldnt find the actual video so you'll just have to enjoy the live version.






#3
Move: Ferris Buellers Day Off
Artist: The English Beat
Song: Rotating Heads (March of the Swivelheads)
Year: 1986
He's running home to get in bed before his parents get home. Love the hell of this. I want to reanact this scene so bad but not sure if anyone knows how to do the slow-mo shots nowadays.






Right Click and Save As, to Download
The English Beat- March of the Swivelheads.mp3

4 comments:

Shanenor said...

First of all, I think this is a solid list. While it kinda/sorta made the list that Donnie Darko seen is possibly the best music/motion matchup in recent movie history.

Love the marching of the swivelheads whoa whoa

Anonymous said...

Ah the days of sweatpants. Life was much more comfortable back then. They should have by now invented sweatpants that look like jeans...I would totally wear those.

My memory bank doesnt have an extensive list of montages, so to me your list is damn good. I'm assuming though that there were some pretty good ones in 'Wall Street', 'Wierd Science', 'Flashdance', and 'Cocktail' ???

Garrett Sorrels said...

Reug Dog....you're right.
Cocktail does have a pretty good montage but one very important one I left off is "Top Gun". The Volleyball scene might take you back. Just a group of grown men playing shirtless, oiled up, V-ball and trying their best to look good. In hindsight...its pretty homo-erotic. Wait, Homo-erotic and Tom Cruise. I see a connection.


Shane,
I almost had the Darko scene in there. It is very, very well done!

morghan said...

TEARS FOR FEARS!