Favorite Musical Numbers in Non-Musical Movies

[thehefner]

I was already trying to come up with a list of the best musical numbers in non-musical movies before it occurred to me that someone may have already put together such a list. But after a quick Google search revealed samples from the likes of Premiere Magazine rather blah assortment* and this particularly smugly joyless counterpart, I knew it was high time to get the ball rolling myself. Especially as neither list included any of my candidates.



MAGNOLIA:

I actually saw this video before I saw the film itself. I avoided MAGNOLIA for fear that it would be a pretentious crapfest, and dear god, did I ever hate PTA's follow-up, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Dear lord, did I hate that film. But my bottomless adoration for THERE WILL BE BLOOD--coupled by a tribute by Flight of the Chonchords--led me to watch the video on its own, without having seen the film. I'm not quite sure why I started to break down in tears by the end, but I knew I had to see the film.

I eventually did, and I still enjoy it it decidedly more than I think I should, but the key to the whole film is that song, a song which I probably wouldn't like if I just heard it on its own. But the synthesis of song and actors and direction just come together powerfully, which is why I'm amazed it isn't on either of the lists.



BODY DOUBLE (NSFW!!!):

That entrance? That's how I want to enter every room. Sometimes, I do it anyway, and play the music in my head. Then I get the weird looks. I don't care.

I seriously don't get the love for Brian De Palma (other than PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE), particularly when it comes to his 80's films of "hey, let's totally pay tribute to Hitchcock by lifting whole scenes/concepts of his and add tits!" But I will always love BODY DOUBLE for this one scene, which came out of fucking nowhere when I first saw it. Craig Wasson goes undercover as a porn star to meet up with an actress (Melanie Griffifth) who may or may not have information that'll help him solve a murder. You would have no way of knowing that watching this. I don't care. Let Frankie bid you willkommen.

Also, which famous voice actor utters the last line? Give you a hint: ANIMANIACS.



ROCKY IV:

As if Paulie Getting A Robot (and then marrying it, YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT ISN'T WHAT HAPPENED) wasn't enough clue that ROCKY IV was a loooooooong way away from the humble blue collar roots of the original ROCKY, this scene happened. For me, this is a clear example of what makes the ROCKY saga brilliant, taken both as films and as meta.

It speaks to the over-the-top ridiculousness of everything Rocky himself has become (which is to say, he's fully entered Apollo's world where a man can enter the ring dressed as George Washington and no one bats an eye), while also being a grand glorious flag-waving spectacle of Reagan in the face of a humorless and somewhat befuddled Ivan Drago, who watches the whole thing with a mixture of "Not impressed," and "Seriously, what the hell are you people doing?"



When I saw the trailer for the Gerard Butler action film GAMER, there was a very brief shot of Michael C. Hall leading mind-controlled convicts in what seemed to be a dance number of evil. I prayed that this would be the case. While I still haven't--and likely will never--see GAMER, its existence has been validated by this scene, because yes, that's exactly what's happening here.

Watch Gamer (2009) - Dance Scene in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


If the video doesn't work, by all means check out the video at the end of the AV Club's article, "GAMER: I WATCHED THIS ON PURPOSE."


Oh! And Henchgirl reminded me of one more. How could I have forgotten BLUE VELVET?

I love showing people BLUE VELVET. They start off hating the film as being hackneyed, corny, cheezy, and just plain boring as hell. Then Dennis Hopper shows up, and as Gene Siskel once put it, the audience realizes they're in over their head. But none of that prepares you for the WTF-ness of Dean Stockwell's character, and this legendary scene. Orbison's song has been forever ruined, but god damn, what a way to go.



What do you guys think? What else belongs on this list? What are your favorite musical moments in non-musicals?




*Half of which I'd never willingly watch in the first place; I want (500) DAYS OF SUMMER's very concept to take corporeal form just so I could stab it)

Comments

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I swear to God, before I even scrolled down to see the rest of the post, the title alone made me think, "I wonder if he'll include the song from Magnolia."

Paul Thomas Anderson is rather hit-or-miss for me - he balances a number of very good scenes with ones that just kind of sit there, that I don't really hate but just sort of feel indifferent about - but yeah, I had the same experience with this song, which is weird, because I'm not really impressed by bringing together star-studded casts just to have them BE there (and let's be honest, none of them really DO much of anything in this scene, even in the way of acting), and the song is sort of blandly Emo-Lite Contemporary, like Diana Krall doing Suzanne Vega ... and yet, taken all together, it makes me FEEL, and I don't even know WHAT or WHY I'm feeling.

And holy shit, BODY DOUBLE. :)

Back in my post devoted to Vamp, Starring Grace Jones, I asserted that people in future decades will look at Grace Jones and wonder what to make of her, because her essential thingness was so very '80s - she simply was, in perhaps the only decade in which she could simply be - and while I wouldn't rank Brian DePalma anywhere near as high, I think there's a certain degree to which the same could be said of him.

Actually, even better; Brian DePalma was to Alfred Hitchcock and the psychological suspense films of the '50s what Joe Dante was to Rod Serling and the sci-fi of the '50s, because in both cases, you're talking about a pair of Baby Boomers who were so slavishly devoted to the genre conventions they knew from their own childhoods that they built entire careers out of recreating them for the '80s, like less-successful versions of Steven Spielberg (one of Dante's frequent collaborators) and George Lucas. Gremlins recycled everything from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Invaders From Mars, and while Eerie, Indiana was pegged as a G-rated Twin Peaks, it was actually much more The Twilight Zone for the tween set. Likewise, while DePalma had his greatest successes with works like Scarface (itself a remake), he continued to try and do his own versions of Hitchcock through '90s works such as Raising Cain.

Apropos of nothing, Craig Wasson looks like a BrundleFly telepod fusion of Bill Maher and Timothy Busfield, with not even the minimal charisma of either, and Holy Jesus God, I'd forgotten that Melanie Griffith once had one of the most awesome asses in Hollywood (Christ, she could pass for Lois Ayres' twin sister here). And yeah, Rob Paulsen got around.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

and yet, taken all together, it makes me FEEL, and I don't even know WHAT or WHY I'm feeling.

YES, THIS. THIS exactly. What the hell? How does that film do that? Watching it again, I'm thinking about how some scenes and monologues serve no purpose, how they're repetitive and tedious and say absolutely nothing, and yet I'm still hanging on to every moment to see what comes next.

Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong decade, because I have such a love for all those things that are so quintessentially 80's in ways that few others quite notice. I'm reminded of this now from the way that my favorite band, Oingo Boingo, is almost entirely ignored by the modern hip music scene, if the AV Club is any indication. They're not even talked about to be dismissed. They're not talked about at all.

Okay, comparing De Palma to Dante makes me get it a little more. But I excuse Dante more, because what he draws from was already genre cinema, and much like Tarantino, his subsequent films feel more like celebrations of those sources (for those who get the references).

But with De Palma, it feels like he cheapens and exploits Hitchcock with 80's luridness. Now, I'm sure Hitchcock would have done much the same had censors been more forgiving (if FRENZY was any indication), but damn it, I would have only wanted to see Hitchcock himself do it, not a puffed-up schlock-meister like De Palma!

Also, fuck his SCARFACE remake. Just fuck it. Paul Muni forever.

The Wasson/BrundleFly/Maher/Busfield was brilliantly brutal. Coincidentally, have you seen HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY, starring 80's!Maher? I've only seen bits, but the existence of a CaterPuppy was enough to make me want to see the whole thing. Also, the original intrigues me.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

> implying Hitchcock wasn't already intentionally producing cheap and lurid genre cinema



As Joe Queenan pointed out, Alfred Hitchcock singlehandedly proved that what constitutes a satisfying moviegoing experience is often so precisely because it's the exact opposite of anything approaching a "good story."

In Queenan's (roughly remembered) words, "A good prose novel relies on its use of language and characterization. A badly written one just heaps plot upon plot upon plot, which is why bad books make for fun movies, and good books make for terrible movies, because how the fuck do you FILM use of language and characterization? It's why every screen adaptation of Moby Dick has been an absolute mess, and it's why every film Hitchcock made was based on 'Penny Dreadfuls' that were horrendous in their original book form."

Hitchcock was all about putting style over substance, but he was just so goddamn good at executing that style that even the critics who hate style-over-substance directors rarely notice that trait in Hitchcock. When Tippi Hedren asked him why her character would go up into the attic in The Birds, when she all but KNEW what was up there, Hitchcock told her, "Because I'm the director, and I'm telling you to." Alfred and Brian were both very much of the characters-exist-to-move-the-plot-forward school of storytelling, so in that sense, DePalma really does honor Hitchcock's vision a hell of a lot more than more tasteful filmmakers do.

And I will always love the Pacino/DePalma/Stone Scarface for how much fun it was, and still is. Pacino himself has said that Michael Corleone was the best character he ever played, but Tony Montana was the most FUN character he ever played, which is saying a lot, when you recall that a) pretty much everyone involved in Scarface was arguably "method acting" by doing massive amounts of cocaine, and b) Pacino, DePalma and Stone apparently preferred to express their creative differences with one another on set via the simple expedient of yelling at the top of their lungs and throwing the heaviest objects that they could at each other's heads. Al's "Say goodnight to the bad guy" speech was apparently entirely ad-libbed, and when he found out that Brian was about to cut it, he pretty much recreated the final act of Scent of a Woman in his trailer.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

At his best, though, he knew how to make style into substance, so that the two become almost indistinguishable. This great beat by beat analysis of PSYCHO shows why the film works on a level of cinematic high art while still playing in the supposedly cheap and lurid manner of thrillers.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/foreignc/2010/06/a-boys-best-friend-is-his-mother.html

That's a level of skill and raw pure idiosyncratic talent that De Palma can only try to emulate.

And yet, on a personal level, I still prefer PSYCHO II. The original is the superior film, but it doesn't engender the level of love and interest for me that the second one does.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Psycho II gets a really bad rap, but it's actually one of the few sequels that justifies its own existence by being not just a continuation, but a full-on deconstruction of the original.

Until the very last scene, Norman is actually a genuinely good guy protagonist throughout the entire story, and it's just everyone else around him who's fucking crazy.

It's kind of like The Godfather III - as much as it sucks, it takes the "villain" of the previous film(s) and makes him a hero by default (with Norman, by showing that he's actually the relatively sane one, and with Michael, by showing that the "legitimate" world that he so longed to join was even more corrupt than the mob).

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

You know, I could swear that I've posted several times, at length, about how the Rocky series is the closest that modern popular culture has ever come to recreating the epic of Beowulf. Hell, you almost could have added at least two other scenes from Rocky IV alone in this post, although they might not fit your technical criteria:



Basically, the entire goddamn MOVIE was an extended MUSIC VIDEO, which is so fucking EIGHTIES that I can't even.

I was being completely serious about Rocky being Beowulf, by the way. It makes perfect sense when you realize that Apollo Creed is Grendel, Clubber Lang is Grendel's Mother and Ivan Drago is (of course) the Dragon. It makes even more sense when you realize that Rocky, LIKE BEOWULF, is a hero who is defined by the fact that he DOESN'T grow, DOESN'T evolve and DOESN'T learn anything, no matter HOW high he climbs, because at base, every success he has can he attributed to the same trait that's responsible for every failure he has - he was, is and always will be a STREET-LEVEL brawler, whose solution to any problem is to simply toughen up, hit harder and never quit. To a large extent, Rocky IV worked, even though it shouldn't have, simply because Sylvester Stallone played every scene as though Rocky was acutely aware of how far out of his depth he was, anywhere outside of the streets.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, you're right.

I watched the entire ROCKY saga for the first time (having never seen any of the films, not even the original) a couple years ago. Just watched them all over a few days, all six. The result is one the single most awesome, most fun, most moving, most thought-provoking film experiences I've ever had. It hits on so many levels: as characters, as films, as their eras, as meta-commentary on Stallone's actual life and career at any of those points.

And now you've just thrown two more levels on there. Well done.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

It's worth noting that Rocky V ends the way Rocky began - in the back alleys of Philly, with a hero who came from nothing and was left with nothing.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Which is why ROCKY BALBOA works so well, and could not have been made if there hadn't been ROCKY V. But putting him right back where he started, Stallone was able to build right back up as an old dog reaching for his glory days (twenty years after he'd already been told he was too old and past his prime!) and the result is the second best ROCKY film.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

And Jesus Christ, Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell on the same movie set in the early '80s must have been enough to fund the RETIREMENTS of dozens of area drug dealers. If they were cremated together, you could get a CONTACT HIGH off the ashes.

And oh, there's Isabella Rossellini, but fortunately, working with David Lynch seems to have had no long-term effect on HER mental well-being -



... Yes, well, anyway.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Was Stockwell into that too? I had no idea!

I never did actually watch any of the GREEN PORNO shorts, but bless her for doin' em. I wonder if they show those in schools?

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Was Stockwell into that too?

Around the time Quantum Leap premiered, Stockwell did one of those PARADE magazine interviews where he said, "It's not fair that Dennis gets so much shit for his drug use, when I was matching him toke for toke and line for line, without anyone criticizing me."

I wonder if they show those in schools?

Yes, because THAT'S the sort of thing you want to show in American public schools that are already struggling to retain their sex ed programs. NOTHING COULD GO WRONG WITH THAT IDEA.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

God damn, I wish I could astral project back in time to sit in on a party with Hopper and Stockwell. I'd actually prefer to go back in person, but I'd fear for my well-being in that situation.

Man, I hope they haven't stopped showing this in my school's sex ed program:



That film was one of the very few great memories I have from the hell that was middle school.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

They should just buy every student a trial subscription to Abby Winters and say, "See what she's doing to herself there? Do that to her, and as long as you use protection, you're golden."

[chickenhat.livejournal.com]

If by non-musical you mean the characters aren't supposed to be singers or dancers.

That means Streets of Fire doesn't count... kinda.
That means Black Snake Moan doesn't count... more or less.
None of the Muppet movies... dangit.

Heath singing in 10 Things I Hate About You does, but you're looking for things NOT on the 2 lists you linked to, and you're looking for cheesy numbers that appear completely out of the blue.

Zoey Deschanel and Will Ferrel singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in ELF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwMAwZFie6I

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Man, it's so tempting to include "Stackolee" from BLACK SNAKE MOAN. But it, like the other two films, has enough music throughout (or that they're driven by music) that they're already semi-musicals. Of course, if that disqualifies them, then by Box's reasoning above, there goes including ROCKY IV.

and you're looking for cheesy numbers that appear completely out of the blue.

*Defensive* Hey hey, one man's cheese is another man's awesome! But the out of the blue aspect is more to the point. It pops up in the film without prescient, at the risk of being jarring as hell, but it works in the best of films. I would have totally included FERRIS BUELLER, if I didn't hate Ferris himself so much.

[interdisciple.livejournal.com]

IF HE DIES, HE DIES

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[interdisciple.livejournal.com]

I MUST BREAK YOU

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

you know that James brown took the robot on the road with him in the 80s to introduce that song, right?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes you did, and it's still awesome to consider.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

you ever get the feeling that the real reason Dolph kills Apollo Creed was that the song annoyed him?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Well, I do now!

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

I make movies better.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Ivan couldn't help but betray a bit of Dolph's inner eye-rolls at the whole proceedings.

Lundgren is hilarious to me because he's like the other side of the Atlantic's Kris Kristofferson - just like Kristofferson went from being a Rhodes Scholar(!!!) to making shitty cowboy movies with Kenny Rogers, Dolph went from MULTIPLE degrees in math and science at places like MIT to being The Big Scary Aryan Russian for an entire career.

The last I saw of him was on a Best Week Ever episode where he commented on Brigitte Nielsen - with devastatingly deadpan sarcasm - by saying, "So, she went from me, to Sly Stallone, to Flavor Flav ... so, yeah, she's obviously moving up in the world."

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I wish I could find the time when Sly did a very frank Q&A on aintitcool where someone asked him what sex with Nielsen was like, and he replied something along the lines that it was like trying to wrestle a six foot long python.

Stallone strikes me as an incredibly cool guy to hang out with.

[swimpenguin.livejournal.com]

Because my movies are not like other peoples movies:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 'Hush'-yeah, it's not a movie but from a show that did a whole musical episode, the little chant (in the first 35 seconds of the video) from this mostly silent episode always sticks in my head. and is very creepy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS5k-VlEWRI&feature=player_embedded#!

Shortbus- 'The End' song by Justin Bond and a marching band (NSFW) mournful, wistful and then BAM full blown orgy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4HEVtKvi0M&feature=related

Also from the movie but not going to find a clip of it online ever- one guy singing our National Anthem into another guys butt. during sex. Mindblowing, heavily symbolic.

And who can forget the Gremlins doing New York New York:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m-GdmYc7RA&feature=related

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Good calls, particularly SHORTBUS and GREMLINS 2. It just don't get enough love.

[dr-von-fangirl.livejournal.com]

THIS.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

I have to throw in this one, even though it's from a TV show. Star Trek: Voyager failed overall as a series, but it had some great individual episodes, and it's probably not a coincidence that some of the better ones involved the holographic Doctor, since he had the best character arc of anyone on the series. This particular episode, "Virtuoso (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Virtuoso)", ends up being a heartbreaker; the Doctor wants to stay on the planet where it seems that everyone likes his singing, which no one on the ship really cares about (or so he thinks), and he also seems to have a budding romance in the works, but it turns out that his "girlfriend" is really just interested in him because she's making a knock-off of his program to sing her abstract, wordless compositions. (This is kind of the Planet Where Everyone Has Asperger Syndrome.) But he goes ahead with his recital, anyway:



The song is "Rondine al nido (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Rondine_al_nido)", and it's a heartbreaker, appropriately enough. (It's worth finding the version by Robertino Loreti, if you can.)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Good call! If we're to include TV, then I'd offer these two as well:



(There are several musical numbers, but this one is the clear winner, omg)




And I didn't even know this existed until I finally saw the episode of BATMAN BEYOND last week, and holy hell, I must memorize this now:

[superfan1.livejournal.com]

I really like the BLUE VELVET video.