great use of music in movies part 1

Diegetic or non-diegetic music, original music or not, anything goes here. Most of these are feature-length movies that are not Musicals, but some are, and there's at least one short cartoon here. Music is included here not just because of what it adds to the plot - sometimes the music is just a song I'd never heard or forgot about that I heard in a movie.

Holy Motors (2012)

The walking band with accordions playing R. L. Burnside's "Let My Baby Ride."

Apocalypse Now (1979)

The opening scene to The Doors' "The End"

Helicopter's attack the beach - "Ride of the Valkyries," Richard Wagner.

Say Anything (1989)

Lloyd Dobler serenades a girl holding up a boombox playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes."

Very cheezy, but classic.

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Under the opening credits Rosie Perez dances to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" which was written for the movie.

Goodfellas (1990)

This is a regular jukebox of a movie, with songs playing almost constantly instead of a scored soundtrack. The IMDB Soundtrack list shows 43 different pieces of music in the 2 and a half hour movie. The montage of whacked bad guys to the song "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos is short but effective.

Also great is the May, 11, 1980 section, when Henry is coked up stressed and paranoid because a helicopter is following him and he's trying to bounce around between selling guns and buying drugs and making pasta for his family. The editing is as frantic as Henry. The music starts with Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire" then changes manically from one strident song to another and another and eventually back to Nilsson again.

The ending is also perfect; with Sid Vicious singing "My Way" as Henry Hill tells us how hard it was for him to leave The Life and live like an average nobody.

Casino (1995)

"Everybody went down" whacking sequence to The Animals - "House of the Rising Sun."

American Honey (2016)

There is a lot of great music use in this jukebox movie.

Final scene - bonfire party at a lake at night singing Rory's "God's Whisper."

The crew dances to Rihanna's "We Found Love" in a supermarket.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)

Rammstein "Fuhre mich" opening.

Ex Machina (2014)

Disco dance to Oliver Cheatham's "Get Down Saturday Night."

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Opening scene and credits - Joe Buck hits the road to Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin."

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Getaway scene to "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" by Flatt & Scruggs.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

End scene into credits to Beck's cover of "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime."

Training Day (2001)

"You're in the office, baby" car scene - Dr. Dre - "Still D.R.E."

Avanti! (1972)

Carlo Rustichelli's "Senza Fine"

Zoolander (2001)

Idiot male models drink orange mocha frappucinos and burn themselves alive at a gas station to Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go."

Strange Days (1995)

Juliette Lewis sings "I Can't Hardly Wait" on a warehouse stage.

Rushmore (1998)

End scene at dance - "Ooh La La" - The Faces

Rally in gym - Cat Stevens - "Here Comes My Baby"

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Margot gets off the bus - Nico - "These Days."

Elliot Smith's "Needle in the Hay." Music to shave off your beard and kill yourself to.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

End scene supermarket dance to "Let Her Dance" by the Bobby Fuller Four.

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

There is a lot of great borrowed music in this, including The Kink's "This Time Tomorrow," Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go to My Lovely," and Shankar Jaikishan's Title Music from Merchant Ivory's Film "The Householder."

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Throughout the movie Seu Jorge sings several David Bowie songs in Portuguese while playing acoustic guitar, including "Rebel Rebel," "Life on Mars," and "Starman."

The Meaning of Life (1983)

The Catholic religion is explained in a single musical interlude "Every Sperm is Sacred."

Life of Brian (1979)

The end scene - Eric Idle on a cross tells a hilltop full of other crucified men to cheer up, and sings "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

There are several great uses of music in this movie. In one, Alex picks up two girls in a record store to Wendy Carlos' synthesized version of the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's 9th Symphony, then he takes them back to his room where they have sex in extreme fast-motion to Rossini's William Tell Overture.

In a violent scene, after Alex and his thugs break into a house, Alex sings the incongruously cheerful "Singin' in the Rain" as he binds, gags, and beats up a man and a woman.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

Napoleon's dance on the school stage to Jamiroquia's "Canned Heat" is unexpected and great.

Risky Business (1983)

Tom Cruise dances in his briefs lip-synching to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll."

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Ferris lip-synchs to The Beatles' "Twist and Shout" in a parade.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Uma Thurman turns on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in her house and dances to Urge Overkill's "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon" then ODs on heroin.

Uma Thurman and John Travolta take off their shoes and dance on stage to Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" in the Jack Rabbit Slim twist contest.

The opening scene of two lovers robbing a diner is interrupted for the opening credits with "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Japanese girl band The 5,6,7,8's play a cover version of "Woo Hoo" on stage as the camera wanders around a Japanese nightclub, returning to the stage, then leaving again.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Shoshana prepares to burn down a movie theater full of Nazis as we hear David Bowie singing "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)."

Jackie Brown (1997)

Airline stewardess Jackie Brown stands on an airport moving sidewalk then runs to her flight as Bobby Womack sings "Across 110th Street."

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

A psychotic tortures a man with a straight razor to "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Steeler's Wheel, as it's played on a radio tuned to K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s program.

The Graduate (1967)

Ben Braddok and his runaway bride Elaine Robinson sit at the back of a bus wondering what's next as the bus drives away and we listen to Simon and Garfunkle's "Sound of Silence."

Chungking Express (1994)

"California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas plays again and again in this film for different reasons as we watch a late night deli girl fall in love with a policeman.

3-Iron (2004)

A young man who breaks into people's houses to do their laundry starts out by playing a CD of the beautiful Natasha Atlas song "Gafsa."

Boogie Nights (1997)

Todd's planned robbery turns into multiple murders accompanied by "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield.

Magnolia (1999)

Diegetic music mixes with nondiegetic music as various people in different locations sing along with Aimee Mann's "Wise Up."

Final scene - Aimee Mann - "Save Me."

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Elio plays part of J. S. Bach's "Cappricio on the Departure of His Beloved Brother" on the piano several different ways to tease and seduce Oliver before he finally plays it the way Oliver wants to hear it.

Dancing outdoors to The Psychedelic Furs - "Love My Way."

Talk to Her (2002)

All of the music in this masterpiece is sublime, but my favorite is Caetano Veloso singing "Cucurrucucu Paloma" on the back porch at night. The song about a sad dying bird is used ostensibly to induce Marco to cry and start a conversation with Lydia about his crying, but it's obvious that Almodovar also just wanted to share the song, the way we insist on introducing a great song to a friend.