Name a song that perfectly conveys a movie’s theme

Songs have been a presence in movies since the advent of sound technology. Indeed the first ‘talkie’ is the 1927 film The Jazz Singer featuring Al Jolson. Here he is singing “Toot, Toot, Tootsie” from that movie:

There are non-musicals where a song plays a key part such as “Buffalo Gals” in It’s a Wonderful Life, “As Time Goes By” in Casablanca, and “I’m Easy” in Nashville, pretty much included for entertainment purposes. But as musicals have shown time and again — Music Man, A Star is Born, Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story — songs may be employed to convey and highlight narrative themes.

One non-musical which has come out in the last few years that uses a song to perfectly convey some of its narrative themes is Moneyball. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, here is a summary from a review by Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan:

It’s a surprise because “Moneyball” is that rare sports movie that doesn’t end with a rousing last-second victory or a come-from-behind celebration. Fittingly for a book its author calls “a biography of an idea,” it deals not only with wins and losses but also with the quixotic quest of a man [Billy Beane as played by Brad Pitt] who wanted to revolutionize a sport, someone who was willing, in Lewis’ words, “to rethink baseball: how it is managed, how it is played, who is best suited to play it, and why.”

While that is a fair description of what happens in the plot, the story’s themes provide an emotional resonance that elevates the narrative and makes it special: Beane had been a top baseball prospect who made it to the Major Leagues, but washed out as a player. It is that shadow of his past which hangs over his character throughout the film, influencing his moods and actions.

Beane has a teenage daughter Casey who lives full-time with her mother and step-father. When she visits Beane and he picks her up at the airport, they immediately go to a music store to look at guitars for her. He asks her to sing a little something for “dear old dad.”

Here is the verse of the song she sings:

I’m just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze and love is a riddle
I don’t know where to go, can’t do it alone I’ve tried
And I don’t know why

The song works on so many thematic levels — the riddle of baseball (the movie begins with a quote from New York Yankee great Mickey Mantle, “It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve been playing all your life”), the maze which is Beane’s life as he tries to find a place in a sport he both loves (childhood passion) and loathes (past failures), how he can’t do it alone (it is his connection with a young Yale economics graduate Peter Brand played by Jonah Hill that sends him on his “quixotic quest” to revolutionize baseball), and so on.

Toward the very end of the movie, when Beane has proved his point and been offered a position with the Boston Red Sox that would make him the highest paid general manager in all of professional sports, he is driving his car in Oakland, pondering his decision when he puts in a homemade CD recording by Casey:

It’s the same song only now with more lyrics including this refrain:

I am just a little girl lost in the moment
I’m so scared but I don’t show it
I can’t figure it out
It’s bringing me down I know
I’ve got to let it go
And just enjoy the show oh oh oh
Just enjoy the show oh oh oh

As a recurring motif, this song nails what lies at the very foundation of Beane’s character — “I’m so scared but I don’t show it” — and the prescription for his life — “Just enjoy the show,” a point which fits the story so well because ball players refer to the Major Leagues as “The Show.” In fact, I would say the song is a perfect summation of the story’s central and sub-themes, which is why it works so wonderfully as the heart of the movie’s final scene.

There are those script literalists roaming around the screenwriting universe who say there’s a rule that we can’t include a specific song in our spec scripts. This arises from the fact that studios and production companies have to pay licensing fees to use songs in the movies they make, so when a writer includes a specific song title in a script, we are — knowingly or not — adding to its budget. Over time what has happened is script readers, by and large, have come to perceive a spec script containing one or more recorded songs in it to be a sign the writer is an amateur who does not understand the inner workings of film production.

Here’s my take: We should be aware of this prejudice. And I do not recommend you include a song for no good reason. For example, if you write a scene where a character is cleaning the house and you include Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” as musical accompaniment, just because you see it in your head or you think it would look cool, that’s not terribly smart… unless your name is David O. Russell, you have a fully funded movie, and you want to give one of your lead actors Jennifer Lawrence a star moment.

However if you have a song that perfectly ties into your story’s themes like Moneyball, so when a reader hits that scene, they go, “Yes, that is an awesome choice for a song for this moment,” then you should feel free to include it. One song. But it’s got to totally rock your story’s themes.

There’s another way to look at this subject: You can pick a song you have zero intention of including in the script just because it helps you stay focused in your writing. An anthem, so to speak. I’ve done this. For one project I wrote at Paramount, I listened to this song over and over and over and over again, literally dozens of times per day:

The song became my emotional touchstone, speaking to the mess into which the Protagonist got himself. It also helped to kick my ass into gear to pound out those pages.

So I leave you with a piece of advice and a question. First the advice: When you are writing a story, think about songs that might be relevant. Maybe just for your creative process. Or perhaps something that is a fantastic expression of your story’s themes. If you find the latter, you should feel unencumbered by the advice of script literalists to include it in your spec.

Now the question: What song perfectly conveys a movie’s theme? I gave you Moneyball as an example. Name another movie which features a song that utterly nails its central or key themes. There are a bunch and I’ve got several in mind. Curious to see what you come up with. See you in comments!

UPDATE: Nice bit of synchronicity as Indiewire just published this article: A Filmmaker’s Guide to Music Licensing.

Comment Archive