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December 11, 2006

Why?

This weekend, I happened to catch a screening of "Babel," that Brad Pitt weepy about foreign countries. While up to this point I have LOVED every movie by the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu-- he is one of the poster boys of the Mexican new wave cinema-- I thought this one was trite and meandering. There were some very wonderful moments, but overall it was disjointed and completely pointless. But the movie is not what this post is about.

What really got to me was how he constantly used an old and worn Gustavo Santaolalla track, "Iguazu," over and over again. There are gobs of popular songs that are used copiously in film soundtracks, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a *score* that is ever used more than once. It's common to use the same pieces of score over and over again for movie trailers (that's what's keeping E.S. Posthumus in business), but in the film itself? It's very strange. What's even more strange is that this particular piece of music is so distinct and recognizable that I can identify at least 3 other films/TV shows where it's been used, most notably, in "Deadwood."

So what gives? Why on Earth, as a filmmaker, would you use something like that? Did he leave it up to Gustavo, who he's worked with before? Did he feel that the emotional weight of the film was so weak that he had to rely on a track that is essentially canned musical tension?

It's a mystery. I really hate Gustavo Santaolalla. If you'll recall, he won the Oscar last year for the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, which was ridiculous as it consisted of a few twangs of a guitar and one very short track which is nice, but hardly Oscar-worthy in and of itself.

(Though, with its track record, I think the phrase "Oscar-worthy" is completely losing its meaning. Let's just say, then, that the Brokeback soundtrack was a significantly lesser effort than some of the other nominees.)

Anyway, I thought it was strange, and it completely yanked me out of the film. Am I wrong? Are there any other instances where a score has been used repeatedly within different movies?

Posted by andyc at December 11, 2006 06:59 PM

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