Warning: Surround Sound Needed

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 | 10:29 AM

After talking about movies on Monday and music yesterday, I thought I would chat briefly about the next logical step : movies with music. No, not concert films (with the exception of a few - The Last Waltz and Stop Making Sense come to mind - most are pretty ordinary), but films that have excellent music inextricably woven throughout the story. Here are three lesser known films that fit the bill:

Rockers
Sure, The Harder They Come is a midnight staple all over the country, but the less heralded Rockers stands up better over time. Sporting one of the greatest reggae soundtracks in film (anchored by Peter Tosh's brilliant Stepping Razor), this 1978 cult classic started out as a documentary but morphed into a fictional film once the director Ted Bafaloukos realized he had struck gold casting the lead, drummer Leroy " Horsemouth" Wallace, whose strange yet undeniable ragamuffin charisma permeates the proceedings. The plot centers around a stolen motorcycle (with a nod to Vittorio De Sica's classic The Bicycle Thief), but the real stars are the Jamaican scenery, the extensive cast of real life reggae stars (Burning Spear and the late Jacob Miller make cameos), and the pulsating, phenomenal music.

Quadrophenia
Franc Roddam's film of the second best known of the Who's rock operas is a powerful portrait of a young man, Jimmy (the superb Phil Daniels) coming of age in turbulent early 60's England. The struggle between the Mods (the scooter riding new wave of young kids) and the Rockers (50s-era, motorcycle-and-leather-wearing old school greasers) is faithfully recreated, from the street scuffles in London to the rumbles down in Brighton Beach all the way to the shattering climax at the White Cliffs of Dover. Well acted ( with a cameo by a barely known, baby-faced Sting ), shot and edited, the film's high point is its unforgettable, tuneful soundtrack, especially 5:15, Dr. Jimmy and the melancholy Love Reign O'er Me. Caveat: you might want to turn on the subtitles, since the Cockney accents are almost completely impenetrable for all but the keenest ears.

Team America: World Police
Call me an iconoclast if you will, but this 2004 comedy from the creators of South Park makes me laugh louder and harder than anything in Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Disarmingly politically incorrect, the film skewers anything (and any one) in its path, from politicians to movie stars to the Supermarionation puppetry that makes up its "cast". If you've never seen it, prepare to howl at such original song classics as Freedom Isn't Free (which reveals the actual cost to be a dollar and five cents), America, F@#$ Yeah, the upbeat, hyper-jingoistic theme song, Montage (the funniest song about editing yet recorded) and The End of an Act, a spoof ballad with a chorus that repeats, "Pearl Harbor sucked, and I miss you." A disappointment when initially released, this film will one day receive the kudos it deserves.

By Zach Galligan in Zach Galligan | Link | 1 Comments | Recommended (2)

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