The Sonics’ “Psycho” is an insanely wild kick to the head from the mid-1960s that needs to be played extremely loud. I don’t know what it is about the Pacific Northwest that produces such incredibly insane music. Maybe nine months of rain makes people a little edgy.
A great song by Nine Inch Nails that was in heavy rotation for about 6 months back in 1999 and then disappeared. I always loved the wall of noise on this song and this video (directed by Mark Pellington). A completely stunning track that was allegedly inspired by David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
In my earlier tribute to Tony Scott, I forgot to mention his stunning first film as a director, “The Hunger.” I remember seeing this on HBO late one Saturday night around 1984 or so and this opening sequence was so mind-blowing, I remember running into people at my junior high who saw the same thing (“My God, did you see that weird vampire movie on HBO?”) and were as flabbergasted as I was. So flabbergasting, that when I heard he was directing “Top Gun,” a needle went off the record in my mind. Well, he definitely found his commercial niche and while Scott made some wildly entertaining and commercial films (“Last Boy Scout,” “Crimson Tide,” “True Romance,” “Domino”), it would have been interesting to see if he had continued in this artier, less commercial mode. This isn’t the full sequence that features the seduction / sex / murder sequence afterwards, but you can find the longer version on YouTube if you so desire. You can see a lot of influence on Gaspar Noe in this clip. Highly recommended.
One of my favorite instrumentals of all time, from Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.” The combination of strange and near-obsolete instruments performing together in a Phil Spector-like wall of sound is a wonder to behold. It’s even more amazing when you’ve heard all the songs before it on the album. I’m surprised (and pleased) this hasn’t been used in a trailer for some indie film. I don’t think Jeff Magnum would ever release the rights, but if I ever get off my ass and make a film (yeah, THAT’LL happen), this is going on the trailer, regardless of the subject matter.
Warren Beatty allegedly HATED this trailer (at least according to Peter Biskind’s terrific and lengthy bio on Beatty called “Star”). But I very distinctly remember seeing it when I was 11 years old … before some Burt Reynolds comedy about “surrogate motherhood” (yes … my thoughts exactly) … and being incredibly pumped to see “Reds” when it got released months later. Again, I was 11-years old in 1981, living in Virginia (arguably THE most conservative state in the USA), weened on “Star Wars” and “Smokey and the Bandit,” and this lengthy trailer got me excited about seeing a 3-hour plus film about an American Communist during the Russian Revolution. Maybe it was the rousing strains of “The Internationale” playing during the last two minutes that did it for me. Anyway, the movie didn’t disappoint and it’s still astonishing that a big-budget Hollywood film with this subject matter ever got green-lit, financed, and produced. Seriously, NOTHING like this on this kind of scale would ever be made today in Hollywood. The last hurrah of the 1970s “New Hollywood.”
One of my favorite songs from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and one of the sequences from the movie that I continue to find the most powerful. First of all, I love the song’s 1950s doo-wop feel filtered through a 1970s Quaalude fog. However, the way this sequence was shot and edited by Parker is consistently amazing to watch. The transition from horrific war footage to the lead character’s trashed hotel room as the vocals change from David Gilmour to Roger Waters as the camera pans over to the pool is a sequence that always gives me goosebumps.
Another trailer I saw when I was 6 or 7 that seriously freaked me out. This played before a Disney (?!?) film of all things. The scene where the family wearing the white space suits vanishes gave me nightmares. I also thought it was odd that the actor they kept referring to as “David” (David Bowie) looked like a woman. I think that’s William Shatner narrating the trailer.
Seeing this trailer for “Carrie” at the age of 7 seriously warped my fragile little mind. Of course, my parents were not insane enough to take me to this movie (it was R-rated… and a hard-R at that for the time, considering the violence and frontal nudity). But seeing that bucket of blood hit Sissy Spacek and the screen turning red along with scenes from the following bloodbath and those crazed eyes of Spacek’s really unnerved me (and of course, made me really really want to see it). Over 35 years later, it’s still one of the best trailers I’ve ever seen.
Director Tony Scott died in an apparent suicide yesterday. While some have dismissed him as a commercial hack, he directed a lot of terrifically energetic and entertaining films including “The Last Boy Scout,” “Crimson Tide,” and one of my Top 5 all-time favorite films “True Romance,” which was written by Quentin Tarantino. Scott directed huge commercial films, but was so entranced by the “True Romance” script, he took a chance on it when no one else would and Scott’s interest piqued interest in Tarantino’s other work which was unproduced at the time. Here’s my all-time favorite scene from “True Romance.”
From Reed and Cale’s song cycle about Andy Warhol (“Songs for Drella”). A really funny and moving song about Warhol’s work ethic. Favorite lyrics: “Andy said a lot of things … I stored them all away in my head … Sometimes when I can’t decide what I should do,
I think what would Andy have said … He’d probably say ‘You think too much … That’s ’cause there’s work that you don’t want to do.'”
Dave's Strange World 