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June 12, 2006
Stiff Orbison, Hip-Hop by the Yard: Jim Jarmusch Chimes in About Movie Music
Here is to The Guardian's Laura Barton, who used the occasion of London's National Film Theatre screening Year of the Horse to corner director Jim Jarmusch about his favorite and least favorite uses of music in film:
He was less enamoured by Fastest Guitar Alive, which starred Roy Orbison. "He's very stiff. It's a predictable movie. Not a good movie." And dismisses also the popular trend for biopics such as Walk the Line and Ray. "I have an aversion to biopics in general. The Johnny Cash movie was well done but I couldn't get inside of it because it wasn't Johnny Cash and I'm a Johnny Cash fan." He then swoops back to Scorsese, whom he lauds for his use of songs such as Cream's "The Sunshine of Your Love" in Goodfellas, and the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" in Mean Streets. "It works because the music doesn't seem tacked on," he explains. "So often, music in films seems like wallpaper bought by the yard. Yunno, 'Give me 10 yards of hip-hop.'"
Or, you know, "Give me 10 yards of lo-fi quirk," a la Broken Flowers. Or, "Give me 10 yards of Neil Young droning," a la Dead Man. At least the 500 cubic yards in Year of the Horse is the movie, but stiff performance or not, I will take The Fastest Guitar Alive's title track over anything in a Jim Jarmusch film. I mean, what contemporary rock slouch will ever outdo Orbison crooning, "I play a boss guitar" before whacking people with it?
Of course, Jarmusch knows this in his heart--or at least he did back in 1992, when he confessed to The Fastest Guitar Alive being one of many guilty pleasures about which he refused to actually be guilty:
The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967): This film I should feel guilty about, because it’s really a bad film. Roy Orbison’s only movie - he did the soundtrack songs; I even own the soundtrack! I found it in some secondhand store. In the movie Roy’s got his shotgun concealed inside his guitar and it’s really ridiculous, but it’s the only Roy Orbison vehicle and I like Roy Orbison a lot. There’s a memorable scene where he uses his gun in his guitar to rescue the dancing Chestnut Sisters.
Exactly! All of which is my way of saying... well, nothing, I guess. Give the dead blind guy a break. Or something.
Posted by stvanairsdale at June 12, 2006 01:47 PM
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