10 Greatest Uses Of Music In Quentin Tarantino Films

6. You Never Can Tell €“ Chuck Berry €“ Pulp Fiction

pulp fiction dance It hasn€™t gone unnoticed that this is the third Pulp Fiction entry in a row, but in terms of its use of music, Pulp Fiction along with Jackie Brown, are the Tarantino films in which he uses music most frequently. And such is the nature of Pulp Fiction, that its musical moments often feel the most iconic. The Pulp Fiction soundtrack is very much like a jukebox and while there are two or three surf guitar tracks, pre Pulp Fiction the remainder of the songs don€™t have a hell of a lot in common. As the emcee of the €˜50s-themed Jack Rabbit Slims diner introduces the €œworld famous twist contest€, Mia decides she wants to dance, and when the bosses daughter says she wants to dance AND she wants to win, you dance€and win. So not long after their Dusty Springfield-accompanied first meeting, a reluctantly obedient Vincent Vega steps onto the dance floor with Mia. The scene is basically a mini musical moment, inside a decidedly non-linear film from a young, exciting director of whom, no one really knows what to expect. So 16 years after Grease, John Travolta is dancing to €˜50s music again, though this time its very different. The scene takes place on a stage and Tarantino sets the scene as such. His camera initially takes its seat amongst the audience as Chuck Berry€™s jangly guitar introduction plays through the diner€™s speakers. As the couple dance, mimicking each other€™s moves the camera joins them on stage for a full two minutes. Tarantino very deliberately takes time for this scene in an otherwise frenetic film and in doing so, creates one of the most famous dance scene in modern times. The scene is a homage to a similarly spontaneous dance scene in Godard€™s A Bande Apart (after which Tarantino named is production company) and the dancing is deliberately amateur, yet the scene is one of the most iconic dance scenes in movie history even though it doesn€™t even need to be there, which is perhaps what makes it so good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km1C-Xcpqg8
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David is a film critic, writer and blogger for WhatCulture and a few other sites including his own, www.yakfilm.com Follow him on twitter @yakfilm