Soundtracks can make or break your favorite film, so pay attention

I’ve been putting off watching “Requiem for a Dream,” for months now. I won’t tell you exactly how long it’s has been since Jake TenPas put his DVD copy on my desk and told me I had to watch the film. But it’s been a very, very long time.

I knew it was going to be dark and depressing. I knew it was going to be about subject matter I wouldn’t really care for. I knew, in essence, that it was going to be a rough ride. But I am also always willing to at least try the things my friends offer up to me, if only to support their tastes, and take a chance that I might enjoy it as well.

Now I wouldn’t exactly say I enjoyed the film, but I did find it deeply moving, and I realized, after processing all the bleak imagery that had passed before my eyes, that much of how I related to the film took place because of the amazing soundtrack, performed by Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet. The score was at times sweet and tender, as in the love scenes between Jennifer Connelly and Jared Leto, at times erratic, as each of the characters got high in their own way, and also created unbearable tension as each character spiraled out of control.

In the almost unwatchably sad and terrifying moments when Leto’s character is losing his arm to an infected needle wound, or when Ellen Burstyn’s character is committed to the psychiatric ward after becoming addicted to diet pills, the music almost forces your attention to the screen, refusing to let you look away. Having pulled the viewer into the inner life of each character, the music is now relentless, exposing the raw psychic wounds of addiction and the ultimate isolation each character faces.

I have a large collection of soundtracks on my shelves, because often the films I love are so interconnected with the music woven through them. One that gets frequent play even after six years is the soundtrack to “Frida.” And while Eliot Goldenthal’s original score is amazing, what I actually love about the way the film uses music is that many of the songs were significant to Frida Kahlo’s life.

In perhaps one of the most moving parts of the film, the now elderly Chavela Vargas sits hooded in a cantina, singing the classic Mexican ballad “La Llorona,” to Salma Hayek’s Frida. Vargas was actually Frida’s lover at one time, so her presence in the film, at least for those who know of their affair, was especially powerful. What it must have been like for Vargas to sit across from Hayek, who was portraying her long-dead lover, is hard to imagine.

Soundtracks also are a great place for independent artists to get massive exposure, as the Moldy Peaches did in the phenom hit “Juno” soundtrack (also receiving much play in my CD player). In fact, I just heard a remake of one of their songs being used for a resort commercial on television last night. Hope they’re getting a big chunk of royalty money for that.

Some directors are so known for their soundtracks that the music becomes another character in the film. Think of what Tarantino did in “Pulp Fiction” and the “Kill Bill”series. Other films feature almost no score, as in “No Country for Old Men,” which had so little music that the silence added to the building tension of the film.

Of course, there are those films who try a little too hard. While the “Sex & the City” television series soundtrack featured a great mix of female power anthems and club music, the film’s signature song by Fergie was so vomit-inducing I didn’t bother with the rest of the soundtrack. Hooking together a “big name” with a big film can sometimes be disastrous. And then there are weird moments, such as the animal cracker love scene in “Armageddon,” where Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck have an interlude while Liv’s father Stephen Tyler belts out “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing” in the background. Now that was creepy.

There are a lot of big summer blockbusters hitting theaters right now. As you sit back and enjoy them, pay a little more attention to what’s going on musically in the background. Maybe you’ll find yourself heading to the record store, but at least you might start realizing how much of a role music plays in your favorite films.

Theresa Hogue can be reached at theresa.hogue@lee.net or 758-9542.