The Best Music in Film

Pete Woodhead

(With Daniel Mudford, composed the music for Shaun of the Dead)

S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
"My favourite film soundtracks are those that are so powerful that they burst forth from the films that contain them to demand your attention in their own right. I can think of no better example of this than the astounding fusion of synthetic sound and rolling, stoned blues created by Jack Nitzsche for Roeg and Cammell's 1970 opus Performance. The thrilling twists and turns of this score drive the film's strange elliptical editing like a monkey in a dodgem car and showcase musicians at the very height of their powers. Has Randy Newman ever sounded better than when he is riding on that 'Gone Dead Train?' I don't think so. Ry Cooder's ever distinctive bottleneck guitar work is also so superb that he was able to fashion it into several soundtrack recordings decades later. Ry's slide almost prepares you for 'Memo from Turner' one of Mick and Keith's greatest songs, and Jagger sings it like he knows this. The ever-eclectic Mr Nitzsche also includes a track by protorappers The Last Poets, sculpts sound shapes with Moogs that just scream menace and mayhem and tops the lot with dulcimers and Merry Clayton's vocal histrionics for good measure. Like all great soundtracks you just can't begin to imagine Performance without this incredible music but what makes it so special for me is that I can't imagine my life without it either."
S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
"Music when it is composed and used well can give a film its emotional heart. I am often struck by how sparingly music is used within great films and it is this relationship between action, dialogue, music and most importantly silence that seems to have become a little lost in a medium that appears to take it's modern cues from the sensory barrage of video games."
S&S: Which film either has music that you wished you'd written or is one you would like to rescore and why?
"I have always wished that I had written the score to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) as it shows just how effective a sparse electronic score can be. Carpenter chose his sounds so well that the score refuses to date despite having been composed in 1976. It's icily cold when it needs to be, creates much of the film's tension and contains wonderfully sombre Fender Rhodes work that is clearly informed by the great Lalo Schifrin's Dirty Harry (1971) score. Despite this music only becoming commercially available very recently, it's simple, catchy main theme has found it's way onto countless hip hop records and even an old Commodore 64 computer game whilst miraculously retaining it's original freshness and vitality. Just thinking about this music is making me want to see the film again and that must surely be the mark of a great score. I would love to rescore Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990) as I feel that it's a wonderful film marred by a phenomena that I call the 'jukebox soundtrack'. There appears to be a period pop hit playing in the background of every single scene in this film and in some scenes it's more than one. Whilst Scorsese's earlier work demonstrates just how effectively pop music can take the audience back in time, within Goodfellas it really grates and irritates. Sadly this film is also guilty of taking songs from other film soundtracks and forcing them into the action just for the hell of it and whilst this might make for a commercially successful soundtrack LP, if one is aware of the films and TV shows that the music has been lifted from, it's a technique that just serves to confuse. Mr Tarantino, please take note!"
Last Updated: 29 Sep 2008