The Pivotal Role of Music in Cinematic Storytelling
You know how you can look at a picture from a movie and hear it? It could be Brad Pitt in the movie Se7en yelling, “what’s in the box?” It could be Darth Vader standing over a beaten Luke and saying, “No, I am your father,” or even Uncle Ben dropping Peter Parker off at the library and telling Peter that with great power comes great responsibility. Those are all iconic lines from iconic characters in amazing movies, but sometimes music can have the same effect as dialogue.
There have been iconic scores produced by iconic composers throughout movie history. Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and just about any Christopher Nolan movie, all have memorable music, and today I’m going to break down why music is so important to have in a movie.
Music will always play a pivotal part in movies, especially moving the story forward, or even just setting the mood for a movie. When Hans Zimmer was writing the score for Interstellar, he was simply told to write a song about what it meant to be a father. According to Christopher Nolan, this gave the movie its heart, and what the finished product was is nearly impossible to top.
Not every score has to be a piano in the background as a dad drives his truck through a cornfield chasing a military drone. Sometimes it can be just some guys walking through the mountains. I promise you, you’ve never seen someone walk through mountains more epically than in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The song hits its climax and the nine members of the fellowship walk past the camera. It’s almost like you’re watching the beginning of a football highlight video and the players are walking out of the locker room. You can’t help but get goosebumps. This song sets the mood, not only for the rest of the movie, but for the rest of the trilogy. It’s an epic journal to destroy evil once and for all.
Like producing/writing/directing movies, composing scores for movies can be a challenge which can force someone to try new things or do something that hasn’t been done. When composing the score for Oppenheimer, Ludwig Göransson said, “I felt like this movie was pushing the boundaries in so many different fields, so I wanted to see if we could do that with music as well.” Pressure creates diamonds and this is a perfect example.
Christopher Nolan had an idea to base the score in violins. This allows the viewer to experience something so peaceful and then at the drop of a hat, it can become so violent and twisted. This played perfectly into Oppenheimer as it’s told from the perspective of the physicist and his troubles with building the first atom bomb.
Nolan has always found ways to get the best out of his composers and back in 2010 it was no different. For Inception, Hans Zimmer had brass players play into a piano and he recorded the strings vibrating. When you watch a trailer for the movie you’ll be able to hear it very easily. Please let me know if you know of anyone else who has done this, but this kind of expertise is what sets some above the rest.
It doesn’t have to be scores for a movie either. Plenty of movies use original songs and non-original songs to help move us through the movie. From character introductions to crazy car chases, songs are just as good as scores. In my opinion, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy executes music with a character introduction perfectly. Peter Quill shows up and starts singing and dancing, and for every MCU movie he’s in after that, it’s a huge part of his character. In Avengers: Endgame there is even a comment made about how big of an idiot Quill was in the beginning, just from his first scene.
Music also helps enhance the mood of a movie. For example, in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse after Miles’ uncle is killed, the song we hear is slower and sad. However, when Miles finally decides to take his leap of faith, the song has all kinds of build up and tension that goes phenomenally with what you’re seeing on screen. The song talks about welcoming danger and not backing down, which is what we see Miles do in the final act of the movie. I will say, the animation style of this movie has made everything so much better. The music and visuals helped each other out so much.
It doesn’t stop at superhero movies either. In Baby Driver, directed by Edgar Wright, music is used all the time. The character Baby, has tinnitus so he listens to music to drown out the ringing in his ears. He sings along, and dances depending on if he’s driving away from a bank robbery or not. At times, it can feel very reminiscent of Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3 dancing on the sidewalks of New York City. However, the difference with Baby Driver is that it feels in character. Wright also uses the setting around Baby to show the song. Lyrics appear on the buildings that Baby is walking past and he uses light poles to swing around as he’s doing a mundane task such as getting coffee. This provides such a lighthearted mood in the beginning of the movie as we hope for the best for Baby.
In my opinion, Baby Driver is a movie that focuses heavily on music but that’s not the sole purpose of the movie. However, there are tons of movies that focus on music and people tend to really like those. In my opinion, Damien Chazlle’s Whiplash is the best movie about music. It’s a short, 1 hour and 45 minute movie that never takes its foot off of the gas. This keeps you focused the whole time as you never want to miss a note. The loud music and exceptional performances from Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons are ones for the ages. Movies about music truly wrap you in and are not forgettable, even if they’re longer than this one.
Elvis, which came out in 2022, had the same intense energy that Whiplash had. Critics praise it for its dazzling style and high energy accompanied by an excellent performance from Austin Butler. Fans had similar reactions as they called it crowd-pleasing entertainment that took them through a wide range of emotions. Even with a runtime that comes close to three hours, Elvis keeps people wanting more. Flashy colors and loud music is all you need sometimes.
Now I bring up the question of musicals. Are they about music, or do they use music to enhance the story? I think it can be a bit of both. I primarily believe that musicals are used as just a different way to tell the story. There’s no shortage of great musicals either, going all the way back to 1964 with Mary Poppins and even into the 21st century with hits like La La Land and last year’s Wonka.
I don’t think there really is a line to draw with musicals either. They are just about the same as other movies using music. They use music to enhance the viewing experience, and they use music as a different way of telling a story.
So far I’ve talked about movies that use music exceptionally, but there are cases where I don’t believe music is used well. Earlier I praised the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie for having a great soundtrack, but Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 is a different story. Now I’m not saying that the third movie of this trilogy doesn’t have good music; I just believe it was used incorrectly. When watching it for the first time, I was so nervous that Rocket or Drax was going to die, but almost every time a song played it took me out of it. The song choice wasn’t bad; the songs just felt very, very out of place for the most part. There were a few exceptions like “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” and “Dog Days Are Over.”
Another movie that I don’t feel like uses music well is the John Wick franchise. Any time I watch one of those movies I feel that there is something missing, and I think that it’s missing good music. In an action packed thriller I would’ve thought that there would be, but nope. Almost any time there is some sort of fight it is dead silent other than a grunt or the sound of people hitting each other. It makes it feel more lifeless than the 415 people killed across the four movies. The only time that there really is music is when Wick is running through a nightclub and some weird dubstep is playing while no one questions why there is a guy shooting everyone.
Music plays an integral part in movies, and in my experience it can be a game changer of the experience and overall enjoyment of a movie. It’s not always make or break depending on the music, but it certainly can make a movie.
Some of my favorite scores/soundtracks
1. Interstellar—Hans Zimmer
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring—Howard Shore
3. Star Wars—John Williams
4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse—Various Artists
5. Dune—Hans Zimmer
Links to Hans Zimmer and Ludwig Görranson interviews
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