10 Unique Tricks Every Movie Started To Rip-Off

The Tricks

"Soundtrack dissonance" involves a filmmaker juxtaposing a movie's visuals with an intentionally incongruous piece of music, typically by scoring a scene of horrific violence to a tranquil, even upbeat song.

Though it's tough to assign the technique to any one director, one of the more prominent early examples takes place in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, when Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) tortures Tuco (Eli Wallach), all while Ennio Morricone's gorgeously soulful tune "The Story of a Soldier" is played by the soldiers outside on Angel Eyes' command.

Generally, the technique is intended to heighten the violence on offer while demonstrating the contrast between beauty and ugliness, serenity and savagery. Where else is that truer than in the Old West?

The Rip-Offs

Some of the most famous examples to follow Sergio Leone's lead include A Clockwork Orange scoring a violent home invasion to "Singin' in the Rain," American Psycho soundtracking Jared Leto's axe murder to Huey Lewis and the News' "Hip to be Square," and David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake setting torture to Enya's sublime "Orinoco Flow."

Though far from an original technique these days, it's also rarely employed terribly, so it's tough to get too bent out of shape when filmmakers lean on it.