Tell me a story

I have a love/hate relationship with movie trailers. I love having my appetite for movies whetted by getting a peak at the upcoming ones. I hate how much of the story they seem to give away. I’ve seen the trailer for Michael Bay’s upcoming Pain and Gain about 5 or 6 times now, and as my girlfriend Stephanie has stated, it feels like we’ve already seen the entire movie.

Then there are times when I see a trailer that I love in and of itself, trailers I could watch over and over and never need to see the movie, though they most definitely make me want to see the movie. These trailers become more than just an ad for an upcoming film but a piece of art that stands beautifully on its own. And what I’ve come to notice about the these kinds of trailers is that they tend to use music really well.

There are two recent trailers that make outstanding use of music. The first is Dead Man Down (released March 8th and already out of the theaters as I write this.)

Dead Man Down doesn’t particularly look great to me, though I see some serious potential in it. Rather it’s Kendra Morris’s cover of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (which begins at that 00:57 mark) that elevates this trailer to a moving piece of art. Listen at  1:57 as the song begins to climax just as the trailer’s action climaxes.  Colin Farrell’s character shouts, “You know what it is to kill a man?” and “You have no idea what you’re getting into with me. No idea!” Noomi Rapace’s character pleads,  “You want to save yourself? Do it.” You expect those kinds of lines in this kind of movie, but being that they’re mostly context-free in the trailer, it’s the music that adds drama and emotion to them and makes them sound so powerful.

Then you have the visuals of the trailer also adding to the drama: the camera panning down the stairs at 1:41, Noomi Rapace’s intriguing pose at 1:57, the guy being tossed out the window at 2:11, the car crashing through a wall in slow motion at 2:14, and Terrence Howard’s calm visage at 2:18 as he threatens to “burn it down.” The trailer conveys the gist of the movie, maybe too much gist, and it does it in such a moving way that I already feel an emotional connection the film before I’ve even begun to watch it. I know Dead Man Down is not faring too well with the critics, but this is a movie I will definitely see when it comes to DVD. Because of the trailer.

The next trailer with a great soundtrack is Baz Luhrman’s  The Great Gatsby. It comes out on May 10th.

Even without Kanye West and Jay Z’s “No Church in the Wild,” Florence and the Machine’s “Bedroom Hymns”, and Filter’s cover of The Turtles’ “Happy Together,” this movie would have appealed to me, what with its heavily-stylized and arresting visuals and its top notch cast, but my goodness does the music make it so much greater! Modern rap in a movie about the roaring 20s? A haunting version of the beloved Turtles song about being happy together, that sounds anything but happy? When this song comes on at 1:23 it’s chilling. Listen to Filter’s Richard Patrick belting out, “You and me! Me and you!” That moment is so whoa! (Pardon my valley talk.)

The anachronistic characteristics of the songs and the subverting of emotions in the Filter cover work to show you that you’re in for something different. This is not your average period piece. Though if you recognize the name Baz Luhrman from 1996’s Romeo + Juliet or 2001’s Moulin Rouge!, you probably already know you’re going to get more than just a cookie cutter movie.

I’m sure there are a ton of other trailers that make great use of music, and at some point I’d like to sit down in front of youtube and watch as many as possible so that I could make a page listing all the best ones. For now I’ll include two more trailers, both of which feature the women’s choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers covering very popular songs.

The Social Network, featuring Scala & Kolacny Brothers covering Radiohead’s “Creep.” Talk about chills. I can still remember the first time I saw this trailer at the theaters. I didn’t know what it was for the first 50 seconds, and I didn’t care. I could have listened to the entire song looking at random facebook images. I think “Creep” is one of the most beautiful, most perfect songs ever made, and then Scala & Kolacny Brothers went and added another layer of emotion to a song. And then David Fincher and co. went and combined it with clips from their movie to make an already intriguing story even more compelling. I mean wow!

Zero Dark Thirty, featuring Scala & Kolacny Brothers covering Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” Another haunting cover. The choir makes the song a little softer, a little more understated. It’s sad and it’s mournful, but it has an edge. It has a bite to it. Like Jessica Chastain’s character, Maya. The trailer even works well when the song ends at 2:17 because it leads to the sound of the Seal team opening the door to Bin Laden’s bunker. No creaky door has been this ominous outside of a horror movie.

Do you have any trailers that use music well? Share them with me in the comment section. Maybe they’ll end up on my Music in Trailers page eventually to come.