A Wide Spin of Film and Ad Speculation

Mugshot of Raoul Villain, 1914. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons. It took me a while to figure out why “Stuck in the Middle with You” has been in my head for most of the morning, and why it’s got me thinking about effective soundtracks. The song was (probably) most famously featured as the accompaniment to a torture scene in Reservoir Dogs, the finger-snapping tune bopping along as Michael Madsen’s Mr. Blonde cuts off a policeman’s ear with a straight razor.1 The movie wasn’t my cup of tea, but even so, I recognized there just how well Quentin Tarantino made use of music, not just as background, but as an essential part of what was happening, almost a character in itself. That skill was just as true in that 1992 film as it was for any of his other productions I’ve seen. But you don’t have to have the reminder of a master’s handiwork to recognize when soundtrack design doesn’t succeed. I don’t recall anything good about Clint Eastwood’s Invictus—and in that sense, the only…