Reservoir Dogs: Stealers Wheel – ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’

The greatest thing about true creativity is that there are genuinely no rules for it to adhere to. If there were, Quentin Tarantino would have had to soundtrack Mr Blonde’s bloody murder of a policeman with something aggressive and vulgar, adding to the unease of the viewer’s experience.

But with no rules to play by, Tarantino could flip that and question our voyeuristic nature as we almost watched with entertainment, as Mr Blonde danced back and forth, tormenting his victim. It allowed for Michael Madsen to inhabit this almost comedic character through the scene, also, one who speaks into a decapitated ear and laughs while he does it. It was charming, gross and hilarious all at the same time, and it simply wouldn’t have been without the Stealers Wheel classic.

Lost In Translation: The Jesus And The Mary Chain – ‘Just Like Honey’

There’s a transient sense of emotion that’s evoked in the very best shoegaze music, but sometimes you don’t truly know what that emotion is – you feel it stirring with every chord change and rising with every vocal delivery, and sometimes, there’s no discernible memory to latch onto, but the very ending of Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation almost felt like the perfect place, as you slowly watch this brief but profound relationship come to a close.

There are so many questions as Bill Murray walks off into the distance and Scarlett Johansson wipes her tears away, but those questions linger along with the song’s lyrical content, which is endlessly left for your own interpretation. It’s a true cinematic and musical moment of sitting in your own feelings, and allowing them to manifest however you see best.

Malcolm X: Sam Cooke – ‘Change Gonna Come’

The brutal reality of the Black American experience can be heard so profoundly in Sam Cooke’s voice, and perhaps no better than on this track, his voice strains throughout the verse, before settling into an easy sense of knowing come the chorus, accepting the change that awaits him in the song.

It’s the perfect moment for a scene that leads up to Malcolm X’s assassination, and the way Washington portrays that moment feels perfectly in tune with Cooke’s performance, with Washington staring into the middle distance during an iconic Spike Lee dolly shot, almost accepting the fate that awaits him, and as that feeling swirls with the rising tide of Cooke’s voice, you can’t help but feel the mixture of defiance, pride and deep sadness.

The Graduate: Simon & Garfunkel – ‘The Sound of Silence’

A good needle drop acts as a perfect backdrop to a compelling scene, whereas a truly great needle drop provides a window into the inner thoughts of a character, and in The Graduate, that is exactly what Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ provides.

Behind the deadpan eyes of Dustin Hoffman’s disillusioned character is a hurricane of inner thoughts that truly sounds exactly like Simon’s vocal line. But rather than act as a singular pit of despair that awaits the character just once in The Graduate, it plays three times in the film. The uncertain opening, the hollow middle and again once more in the uneasy ending, and thus going to prove that the inner dialogue of darkness isn’t age specific – it is, in fact, a feeling that will linger during the most difficult stages of life.

Apocalypse Now: The Doors – ‘The End’

The introduction to Apocalypse Now needed to be appropriately chaotic, given just how steep the film’s descent into madness is, because this is a story that’s riddled with paranoid drama, and a film that’s real-life production was of a similar vein – simply put, once the opening credits of this film rolled, there was no going back, and so The Doors’ ‘The End’ served as the perfect track.

The original introduction was meant to be far different, with a mirror image of the ending as a black screen is flooded by insects while a soldier slowly emerges from the depths. But when Francis Ford Coppola found a bin of offcuts from the famed ‘Battle Of The Valkyries’ scene, he conjured up a more chilling montage introduction that, once paired with The Doors’ brooding classic, became a truly iconic introduction.