As I write this I am watching The Wrath of Khan. I'd hope, Dear Reader, that you'd agree with me when I say that it is a fantastic movie, for a whole range of reasons which I'm not going to go into because that's not the point of what I'm writing. But there is one thing which is very important in making it a brilliant movie which is often overlooked in comparison to so many over aspects: it's music. Listen to the main theme of the film and tell me that it isn't great (actually don't because I don't like it when you lie to me.
It's fantastically evocative isn't it? And it sets the tone for the whole rest of the movie. I wouldn't pretend that Wrath of Khan is the best movie ever made (because it isn't) or that it has the best movie soundtrack (because it doesn't), but it is very good. Movie music is too often overlooked in comparison to the acting, writing, or cinematography.
As far as movies go I often cite the music from Dr Zhivago and Blade Runner, two of my absolute favourite movies and both films which are turned from great films to two of the greatest films ever made by virtue of their soundtracks which are quite frankly as important if not more important than any single actor in the film. But to turn away from great films, have you ever seen that movie of the Fantastic Four? That's a bad film isn't it? Well yes it is but I don't think it's as bad as you realise. I think if you turned your speakers off and then watched it alongside any other superhero film of the same period it would be pretty much the same, in my mind that film is a movie let down by an utterly forgettable soundtrack, If they spent a bit more money on the music I think it would be a film that you wouldn't mind having on in the background rather than a film that you should actively avoid.
The importance of music isn't something that is unique to movies either. I'm a big fan of video games and so often reviews and so forth will focus only on graphics or gameplay when to me the soundtrack can often be just as important. Listeners to my podcast (plug plug plug) will know that probably my favourite video game of all time is the Mass Effect series, part of that is obviously the fantastic story and characterisation but just important for me is the soundtrack. From the moment I first booted up the game and heard Vigil's Theme I fell in love with it. Even now if I hear that or another piece from the soundtrack I get the urge to drop everything and start playing in exactly the same way that hearing Lara's Theme gives me the urge to set aside an afternoon to watch Dr Zhivago for the umpteenth time.
I found a similar experience over the last week when I bought the game Sleeping Dogs in a Steam sale. Sleeping Dogs is a cracking game very obviously rooted in the John Woo style Hong Kong crime drama where you play an undercover cop trying to bring down the triads. It is brilliant for a lot of reasons, such as the way it combines the open world sandbox play of games such as GTA and Saints Row with the more story driven action of older games like Driver and Mafia. But beyond that is has a brilliant range of music. Some friendly soul has put together the whole soundtrack on youtube and I encourage you to check it out if you don't have the game. The ability to listen to these songs while driving around and exploring Hong Kong is probably one of the reasons I have spent nearly entire days playing this game.
So what was the reason for this post? Nothing much beyond telling you what music, movies, and video games I like I suppose. But maybe it will make you think a bit more about the music that's going on in the background the next time you are doing something and that's probably worthwhile. Also I haven't been writing on here recently and I needed to scratch that itch.
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