Abstract
The musicologist Kalinak (2010:xiii) chooses a telling case study to open her recent Film Music: A Very Short Introduction, a text aiming ‘to provide a lucid, accessible, and engaging overview of film music’. The sequence, from Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino 1992), depicts gangster Mr. Blonde torturing a policeman and severing his ear, while Stealers Wheel’s lively pop song ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ plays on the radio. Kalinak (2010:8, 7) suggests that this example ‘demonstrates so many of the key properties of film music’, including creating mood and unity across the sequence, and potentially ‘fashion[ing] a complicated emotional response for the audience’. Similarly, Coulthard (2009:1) suggests that the scene is ‘a defining moment for […] the role of the song in cinema’, as its juxtaposition with the graphic imagery ‘struck viewers and critics alike as provocative, innovative, and indicative of a new, potentially troubling approach to film violence in contemporary American cinema’. Both views demonstrate the level of discussion generated by this and stylistically similar filmic moments.
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Ireland, D. (2012). It’s a sin […] using Ludwig van like that. He did no harm to anyone, Beethoven just wrote music’: The Role of the Incongruent Soundtrack in the Representation of the Cinematic Criminal. In: Gregoriou, C. (eds) Constructing Crime. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392083_9
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