Scorsese

[jetdog]

<p>There are several threads devoted to particular Scorsese films and the ranking of them, here's one to discuss his body of work in general, without any restrictions....</p><p>I just watched the end of &quot;Gangs of New York&quot; (a slightly disapointing film, but I have extremely high expectations for Martin), the ending music in particular was really disapointing, a poppy Irish-influenced ballad with synth-sounding drums in the background, now I'm watching the begining fight scene of the movie becuase its being replayed on Bravo, more synth/hip-hop.&nbsp; Bad soundtrack, bad, bad soundtrack.&nbsp; Hasn't he ever seen a Kubrick film?&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>

[TheMojoPin]

Using &quot;new&quot; songs rarely, if ever, works in a film.&nbsp; 99% of the time it's something forgettable that instantly dates the movie and takes you out of the film itself.&nbsp; It's especially bad when someone like Scorsese fucks it up, since he can be so brilliant using the right &quot;found&quot; music...but most of those were classic or established songs, not new shit made right then or for the film.

[jetdog]

<strong>TheMojoPin</strong> wrote:<br />Using &quot;new&quot; songs rarely, if ever, works in a film. 99% of the time it's something forgettable that instantly dates the movie and takes you out of the film itself. It's especially bad when someone like Scorsese fucks it up, since he can be so brilliant using the right &quot;found&quot; music...but most of those were classic or established songs, not new shit made right then or for the film.That's exactly what those songs did, they &quot;took me out of the movie&quot;.&nbsp; It doesn't make sense to me, he (Scrosese) has done beatifully in the past interms of applying the right music to a scene (Cream in the Goodfellas for example).&nbsp; But this music he used was really out of line, it seems to me. <p>&nbsp;</p>

[Fezticle98]

<p>I think a good soundtrack sets the mood for a scene or rather reinforces the mood for a scene or the entire film. It doesn't necessarily have to be an old and memorable song (&quot;Layla&quot; in Goodfellas). Not to toot my own avatar, but the soundtrack to Taxi Driver is almost entirely an original score and I think it complements the film perfectly.</p><p>Getting away from Scorsese, The Deer Hunter also has a pretty amazing soundtrack. Not a lot of well-known songs on there, but it just fits perfectly.</p><p>Granted, I picked two films that would be good with no soundtrack, but the soundtrack definitely adds a lot to both of them.</p>

[jetdog]

Good point, neither movie you mentioned really needs a soundtrack. I guess my gripe is that he seems to be making some strange additions to his films, I'm not a minimalist, but both &quot;the Aviator&quot; and &quot; Gangs of New York&quot; could have been, in my opinion (which doesn't count for much),&nbsp; so much better if they were treated more artistically, sometimes scenes, music doesn't need to be there...<br />

[Mike Teacher]

<strong>jetdog</strong> wrote:<br /><p>the ending music in particular was really disapointing, a poppy Irish-influenced ballad with synth-sounding drums in the background, now I'm watching the begining fight scene of the movie becuase its being replayed on Bravo, more synth/hip-hop.&nbsp; Bad soundtrack, bad, bad soundtrack.&nbsp; Hasn't he ever seen a Kubrick film?&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><p>Yeah music can make or break some films, I agree w/ Mojo that new music rarely works, but in terms of Kubrick, he's gone to both sides of the spectrum.</p><p>Kubrick had a whole lotta modern synth sounding stuff for 2001 before ditching it all for Blue Danube, and the Ligeti pieces Lux Aeterna and Atmospheres, which was then, pretty 'new' in terms of modern classical music.</p><p>He also used a very weird sounding machine played by a weird new artist, brand new territory, when he used Walter/Wendy Carlos and the then brand new hardly-used-in-music-before modular moog synthesizer, a beast few thought was good for more then bleeps and drones and synthy sounding filter sweeps. So, he's used 'new' music in the past. </p><p>Music has a place in some movies, and scenes, and set-pieces, and silence can be deafening when used correctly. Carpenter's Halloween is a frigging masterpiece of simple motifs that amp up the fear mixed in with cues&nbsp;whenever Myers shows up. But he knows when to drop it all and let the quiet scare you even worse. </p><p>Back to Marty, wow did I stray.</p>

[jetdog]

<p><img src="http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/people.dicaprio.ap/long.scorsese.ap.jpg" border="0" width="220" height="242" /></p><p>Scorsese to play Kissinger?</p><p>Whoof, that's a long way from the little Italian guy who was gonna blow his wife's head off.&nbsp;</p>