Drive, don't walk
Oct. 10th, 2011 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI watched two movies this weekend, both of which had incredibly synth soundtracks--one of which I liked, one of which I was indifferent to. The latter was the music in Near Dark, a preposterous yet almost tame vampire movie starring everyone James Cameron ever hired in the 1980s except for Michael Biehn (sadness!). It is so 80s in its sound, in its everything, really. It reads as dated. Hilariously, however, its blu-ray cover has been muchos Twlight-ified, which you realize makes exactly zero sense after seeing all of ten minutes of movie.
The synth soundtrack to the other movie, Drive, is stupendous. I cannot tell you why or how, but despite working the same buttons on the same machines and producing the same kind of music, the sound is so much better. It perfectly suits the movie, which is in no way especially 80s otherwise (save the rather Miami Vice-esque font used for the credits). The dreaminess of the score and the songs that are highlighted fits the incredibly dark mood of the film perfectly. If you listen to one song, get College's, "A Real Hero." It may not have the same resonance without the contrast between the high praise of the lyrics--And you have proved yourself to be/ A real human being and a real hero--and the increasingly brutal actions of the character played by Ryan Gosling. But goddamn, if you see Drive and don't want at least half the songs you hear, I'd be surprised.
(Frankly, everyone should see Drive. Especially in the theaters. As with There Will Be Blood, Drive is a movie that benefits from your paying attention. It's a bit squirm-inducing and there are long stretches of build-up, but the pay-off is intense and well worth the price of admission.)
The synth soundtrack to the other movie, Drive, is stupendous. I cannot tell you why or how, but despite working the same buttons on the same machines and producing the same kind of music, the sound is so much better. It perfectly suits the movie, which is in no way especially 80s otherwise (save the rather Miami Vice-esque font used for the credits). The dreaminess of the score and the songs that are highlighted fits the incredibly dark mood of the film perfectly. If you listen to one song, get College's, "A Real Hero." It may not have the same resonance without the contrast between the high praise of the lyrics--And you have proved yourself to be/ A real human being and a real hero--and the increasingly brutal actions of the character played by Ryan Gosling. But goddamn, if you see Drive and don't want at least half the songs you hear, I'd be surprised.
(Frankly, everyone should see Drive. Especially in the theaters. As with There Will Be Blood, Drive is a movie that benefits from your paying attention. It's a bit squirm-inducing and there are long stretches of build-up, but the pay-off is intense and well worth the price of admission.)
