10 Mind Blowing Uses Of Music In Movies

4. "The Sounds Of Silence" - The Graduate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSDMwoOYzNw Pretty much any scene from The Graduate could have made this list, because of the fantastic decision to have Simon and Garfunkel contribute songs, most famously, "The Sounds of Silence". The song is used early on when Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) first returns from college and goes for a swim, but is used to truly mind-blowing effect at the film's curiously ambiguous finale. Benjamin interrupts Elaine's (Katharine Ross) wedding, and convinces her to run away with him on a school bus. What follows next is pure cinematic poetry. Mike Nichols simply fixes the camera on Benjamin and Elaine, sitting at the back of the bus, their expressions slowly changing from a smile to a look of neutrality, and then to one of slight discomfort. The scene has been interpreted a number of ways, but I believe it to simply be saying, "Well, what next?". Will they stay together? Will Benjamin's uncertain nature cause things to fizzle out in the end? Who knows, and that's the film's true genius, far away from the cloying endings we expect from romantic Hollywood films.